---
summary: 'a distributed ledger of all transactions both past and present, without revealing who the funds came from or went to'
terms: ["blockchain", "blockchains"]
---

{% include disclaimer.html translated="no" translationOutdated="no" %}

### The Basics

A @blockchain is a distributed database that continuously grows with a
record of all of the transactions that have occurred with a given
cryptocurrency.  This database is often referred to as a ledger because the
data contains a large list of transactions that have taken place.  In
Monero, these transactions are packaged together into 'blocks' every 2
minutes (on average), and all miners and nodes on the network have copies of
these blocks.

### Monero's @Blockchain

Unlike Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, transactions in the Monero
@blockchain do not reveal where funds came from or went to, providing
anonymity and making the currency completely @fungible. Additionally, the
amounts of all transactions are hidden by @RingCT, a feature of Monero. For
auditing or other transparency purposes a user can share a @view-key to
prove they control certain amounts of Moneroj.