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Your balance is a collection
Read a payment as consumed inputs and newly created outputs.
A wallet shows one balance, but Cardano records the pieces that make up that balance.
- Unspent input
- Transaction and fee
- Recipient output + change output
Spend a whole input
An unspent transaction output, or UTXO, holds value for a future transaction. Spending consumes it and creates new outputs, including change after fees. Cardano's eUTXO model adds data and script validation to this pattern. The earlier output stays spent; a script must validate its attempted use.
Read the assets inside it
A single output can carry ADA and native tokens. A token's policy ID and asset name distinguish its identity; a familiar ticker alone does not. ADA still has a separate role in paying transaction fees.
Draw the change
Use a fictional payment. No wallet is needed.
- Draw one input containing 10 imaginary ADA.
- Allocate 3 to a recipient and 0.2 to a fictional fee.
- Label the 6.8 remainder as a new change output, not the old input.
A wallet balance can be reconstructed from the outputs it can spend.
Look for payment, change and fee before interpreting a transfer total.
Progress stays on this device.
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