{"id":9286,"date":"2026-06-22T16:18:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T14:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/glossary\/technical-terms\/on-chain\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T05:30:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T03:30:45","slug":"on-chain","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/glossary\/technical-terms\/on-chain\/","title":{"rendered":"On-chain"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.pterm{max-width:880px;margin:0 auto;font-family:inherit;padding-top:30px;}.pterm-hero{background:linear-gradient(135deg,#1a1a2e,#2d2d4a);border-radius:18px;padding:30px 34px;margin-bottom:28px;display:flex;align-items:center;gap:18px;flex-wrap:wrap;}.pterm-hero .ph-ico{width:56px;height:56px;border-radius:13px;background:rgba(245,135,31,.16);display:flex;align-items:center;justify-content:center;flex-shrink:0;}.pterm-hero h1{color:#fff;font-size:1.9em;margin:0;line-height:1.2;}.pterm-block{margin-bottom:24px;}.pterm-block h2{color:#1a1a2e;font-size:1.25em;margin:0 0 10px;}.pterm-def{background:#fff;border-left:4px solid #f5871f;border-radius:0 12px 12px 0;padding:18px 22px;color:#444;line-height:1.7;box-shadow:0 2px 10px rgba(0,0,0,.04);}.pterm-p{color:#444;line-height:1.7;margin:0 0 14px;}.pterm-ex{background:#fff7ef;border-radius:12px;padding:18px 22px;color:#5a4630;line-height:1.7;}.pterm-ex .lbl{display:inline-block;font-size:.72em;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:.08em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#f5871f;margin-bottom:6px;}.pterm-see{background:#f7f7fb;border-radius:12px;padding:16px 22px;color:#444;line-height:1.7;}.pterm-see .lbl{display:inline-block;font-size:.72em;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:.08em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#9a9aae;margin-bottom:6px;}.pterm-see a{color:#f5871f;font-weight:600;text-decoration:none;}.pterm a{color:#f5871f;font-weight:600;text-decoration:none;}<\/style>\n<p><a class=\"pterm-back\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; gap: 8px; margin: 0 0 18px; padding: 9px 16px; background: #fff7ee; border: 1px solid #f3d9b8; border-radius: 999px; color: #e08a1e; font-weight: 600; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"\/en\/glossary\/technical-terms\/\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; line-height: 1;\">\u2190<\/span>Back to Technology and terms<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pterm\">\n<div class=\"pterm-hero\">\n<div class=\"ph-ico\"><\/div>\n<h1>On-chain<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<div class=\"pterm-def\">When a payment takes place on-chain, it is permanently recorded on the blockchain. This makes it possible to follow a transaction objectively and to substantiate it in an investigation report. Where fraud is suspected, on-chain evidence is often the strongest lead, because it cannot be altered after the fact.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<h2>What is on-chain?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"pterm-p\">On-chain means that a transaction or piece of data is processed directly on the blockchain and remains permanently visible there. Anyone can look up the transaction through a blockchain explorer using the address or the transaction hash. This contrasts with off-chain arrangements, which run outside the blockchain and are therefore harder to verify.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<h2>Why does on-chain matter in a crypto investigation?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"pterm-p\">Because on-chain data cannot be manipulated, it provides a reliable basis for reconstructing a money flow. An investigator can cluster addresses, reconstruct a chain and demonstrate where the assets came from or went to. Off-chain materials such as emails or screenshots are supporting evidence but carry less weight than the on-chain trail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pcb-related\" style=\"background: #FBF4EC; border-left: 4px solid #F59024; border-radius: 10px; padding: 16px 20px; margin: 28px 0;\"><strong style=\"color: #243029;\">Related topic<\/strong><br \/>\nRead how Paucitas applies this in practice on the page <a style=\"color: #f59024; font-weight: 600;\" href=\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/topics\/blockchain-investigation-explained\/\">Blockchain investigation explained<\/a>.<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<h2>Is on-chain the same as public?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"pterm-p\">The transactions are public, the identities are not. You see addresses, amounts and moments, but no names. Linking an address to a person requires information from outside the chain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<h2>What does off-chain mean?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"pterm-p\">A step that is not recorded in the ledger, for example an internal transfer within a platform. Such steps are known only to that platform and cannot be verified publicly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<h2>Can an on-chain transaction be deleted?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"pterm-p\">No. A confirmed transaction remains in place. One consequence is that old payments can still be examined years later, which regularly makes the difference in an investigation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<h2>Where the boundary of the public record sits<\/h2>\n<p class=\"pterm-p\">The distinction that matters is not technical but evidential. Whatever is recorded on the network can be verified by anyone, at any time, without permission: the amounts, the order, the addresses involved and the moment of confirmation. Everything else that happened around it sits outside that record. The conversation that led to a transfer, the agreement about what it was for, the deposit at a platform and the payout to a bank account are all real events with no trace on the network at all.<\/p>\n<p class=\"pterm-p\">That boundary decides how a file has to be built. What is on the network can be stated flatly, with a reference, and left to be checked. What is off it has to come from somewhere else: a provider through a formal route, a bank statement, a message thread, or a statement from the person involved. A report that blurs the two reads as if everything is equally solid, and the first reader who tests a line will find out otherwise. We therefore mark each finding with where it comes from, and we treat the absence of a network trace as an ordinary fact rather than as something suspicious.<\/p>\n<p class=\"pterm-p\">It also sets a limit on what anyone can promise you. A route can be described in full and still stop at an address that belongs to nobody in particular, because the step from address to person happens off the network, in records held by a provider. Anyone who claims otherwise is selling certainty that the public record does not contain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<div class=\"pterm-src\" style=\"background: #f4f6fb; border-radius: 12px; padding: 18px 22px; color: #3a4152; line-height: 1.7; margin: 22px 0 8px;\"><span class=\"lbl\" style=\"display: inline-block; font-size: .72em; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: .08em; text-transform: uppercase; color: #5a6b8c;\">External source<\/span><span style=\"display: block; margin-top: 8px;\">The UK government publishes a collection of official cryptoasset material setting out the definitions and token categories the authorities use, together with the guidance built on them. It is a useful reference for this distinction, because official definitions tend to be explicit about what is recorded on a ledger and what is not. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/collections\/cryptoassets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GOV.UK: cryptoassets<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-see\">\n<p><span class=\"lbl\">See also<\/span><\/p>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/glossary\/technical-terms\/blockchain-transaction\/\">Blockchain transaction<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/glossary\/technical-terms\/transaction-hash\/\">Transaction hash<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/glossary\/technical-terms\/blockchain-analysis\/\">Blockchain analysis<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/glossary\/technical-terms\/chain-reconstruction\/\">Chain reconstruction<\/a>.<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top:8px;\"><span class=\"lbl\">Frequently asked question<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/questions\/what-to-do-after-crypto-fraud\/\">What should I do after crypto fraud and who can help?<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"DefinedTerm\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/glossary\/technical-terms\/on-chain\/#term\",\"name\":\"On-chain\",\"description\":\"When a payment takes place on-chain, it is permanently recorded on the blockchain. 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This makes it possible to follow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":8865,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9286","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9286"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14416,"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9286\/revisions\/14416"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}