On a blockchain, a transaction is a single operation that changes the state of the ledger. Sending cryptocurrency, transferring a token, or calling a function of a Smart Contract is signed with the sender's private key, broadcast to the network, and becomes final once it is included in a block. Each transaction requires a fee (Gas).
A confirmed transaction cannot be edited or cancelled. To return an asset sent by mistake or to undo the effect of an operation, one can only execute a new transaction in the opposite direction; the original record remains in the ledger. This irreversibility is the basis of the ledger's resistance to tampering.
Examples
For works that run as code, a transaction is the event that changes the state of the work itself. "An Exhibition of Auto-Destructive Art," held at NEORT++ in October 2026, treated two conditions as the ground for reconsidering Gustav Metzger's Auto-Destructive Art in a computational environment: that works on a blockchain are "recorded as transactions and persist while changing their state," and that an operation once executed cannot be undone. The exhibition included 0xfff's Diminishing Returns, from the "transaction sculpture" series.