blockchain//transaction

A blockchain transaction is signed by a wallet and travels through the network until a validator includes it in a block. Its lifecycle has six steps:

A blockchain transaction is signed by a wallet and travels through the network until a validator includes it in a block. Its lifecycle has six steps:

1The wallet signs it2An RPC node receives it3It waits in the mempool4It is gossiped to peers5A validator includes it in a block6It is confirmed

eth_sendRawTransaction accepts a pre-signed transaction, which the RPC node just relays: in the modern flow the wallet does the signing locally and sends the raw signed transaction.

eth_sendTransaction requires the node to hold the signing key; it is legacy and rarely used now.

A valid signature alone is not enough: the sender must have ETH to cover gas×gasPrice\mathrm{gas}\times\mathrm{gasPrice}gas×gasPrice upfront.

The nonce, a sequential counter per account, prevents replay and enforces transaction ordering.