What is a blockchain
A blockchain is a shared record. Many computers keep the same list of what happened, and they agree before a new line is added.
This page uses Fletcher (FLTC) as the example. Fletcher is a small community token on a blockchain called NEAR. Take your time. Nothing here asks you to buy.
A notebook with many copies
Picture a notebook that lots of computers keep at once. When someone sends tokens, a new line is proposed. The computers check that line. If they agree, the line stays in the notebook. One person cannot quietly rub it out later.
That shared notebook is a blockchain. It is a record. It is not a bank account, and it is not a promise that a token will be worth something.
NEAR is the notebook Fletcher uses
Fletcher is not its own blockchain. NEAR is the network that keeps the record. Accounts on NEAR have names that end in .near.
FLTC is one token written in that record. A token is a count: this account holds this many units. The count can change when a transfer is recorded. The count does not set a price.
The contract is the token's name on the chain
The rules for FLTC live in a program called a contract. The contract's address is how you tell this token from a copy that reused the name or the logo.
fltc-af549c.
It begins with the letters f, l, t, c. The L is a lowercase L. You can paste an address to check it. Match the whole line, not just the word Fletcher.
A wallet signs the line
A wallet holds the keys for an account. When that account sends tokens, the wallet signs the message. The signature is how the other computers see that the message came from that account.
The recovery phrase is a list of words that can rebuild those keys. People also call it a seed phrase. Anyone who has the words can move what the wallet holds. Never type the phrase into a website, and never send it to a person. That includes anyone using the name John Fletcher. This page will not ask you for it.
A transfer is a recorded message
A transfer says that one account sent some FLTC to another account. NEAR writes that down. A wallet-to-wallet transfer of FLTC is free of the 0.1% fee. That fee applies when FLTC is traded on Rhea. Part of the trade fee is burned, part goes to a shared pool for holders, and part goes to the creator. Recording a transfer still uses a small NEAR network fee, which is separate. The case study explains the split. The fee page reads the live numbers from the contract.
What the record does not do
A shared record does not make a token valuable. Fletcher can go to zero. Nothing on this page is financial advice. If you would rather stop here, that is fine.
Next, you can read how the 0.1% fee is split, or the glossary if a word was new.