<p>The blockchain is the complete transactional history of Bitcoin. It collects every transaction performed in blocks which each are linked to their predecessor block.</p>

<p>By parsing the complete blockchain, you can discover all unspent balances. These are usually tied to addresses, which represent users much like email addresses do.</p>

<p>Also see these two related questions: </p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/168/5406">What is the “blockchain”?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/12427/5406">Can someone explain how the Bitcoin Blockchain works?</a></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-25T12:37:13.607Z
2016-06-25T12:37:13.607Z
2017-04-13T12:47:34.187Z
Murch
<p>What does the blockchain represent? Is it the current balance of
    each account or is it the complete ledger?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-25T12:31:02.327Z
Hello Yash, Welcome to Bitcoin.SE. Those are some interesting questions, but posts with multiple topics don't work well on our site. Please only ask about one topic per post. You can read a discussion about this here: [Should we split up posts that ask many questions at once?](http://meta.bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/426/5406)
I'll edit your post down to one question, please post the others as separate posts. Thank you.
Murch
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-25T12:38:55.570Z
You can get back to your full post by reading the [edit history](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/revisions/46166/1), so you'll only need to copy your questions.
Murch
<blockchain><terminology>
What does the blockchain represent?
Yash
# What does the blockchain represent?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-06-25)

What does the blockchain represent? Is it the current balance of
each account or is it the complete ledger?

**Tags:** blockchain, terminology

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Hello username_0, Welcome to Bitcoin.SE. Those are some interesting questions, but posts with multiple topics don't work well on our site. Please only ask about one topic per post. You can read a discussion about this here: [Should we split up posts that ask many questions at once?](http://meta.bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/426/5406) I'll edit your post down to one question, please post the others as separate posts. Thank you.  
> **username_1**: You can get back to your full post by reading the [edit history](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/revisions/46166/1), so you'll only need to copy your questions.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2016-06-25. Score: 6

The blockchain is the complete transactional history of Bitcoin. It collects every transaction performed in blocks which each are linked to their predecessor block.

By parsing the complete blockchain, you can discover all unspent balances. These are usually tied to addresses, which represent users much like email addresses do.

Also see these two related questions:

* [What is the “blockchain”?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/168/5406)
* [Can someone explain how the Bitcoin Blockchain works?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/12427/5406)


---

