# Balance Updates

Balance updates represent the change in the balance of an account. If the change is greater-or-equal to 0, it is considered a credit. Otherwise, it is considered a debit. In certain circumstances, there can be 0-valued balance updates (used to represent 0 fee transactions, for example, which were frequent in Bitcoin's early history).

The **Balance Updates** endpoint returns a list of accounts, which have the following fields:

| Field                                                                                   | Description                                                                                                                                                                    |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| block\_hash                                                                             | Hash of block containing the transaction affecting the balance                                                                                                                 |
| height                                                                                  | Height of the block containing the transaction affecting the balance                                                                                                           |
| consensus\_time                                                                         | [Consensus timestamp](/network-data/atlas-overview.md#chain-sequencing); always increases monotonically                                                                        |
| chain\_sequence\_number                                                                 | Global [sequence number ](/network-data/atlas-overview.md#chain-sequencing)or ordering of this update relative to all other updates recorded on the ledger up until this point |
| account                                                                                 | [Account](https://gitlab.com/coinmetrics/front-end/knowledge-base/-/blob/master/docs/network-data/on-chain-data/atlas-overview.md#accounts) receiving a balance change         |
| account\_creation\_height                                                               | Block height at account creation                                                                                                                                               |
| change                                                                                  | Balance change after this update                                                                                                                                               |
| previous\_balance                                                                       | Balance of the account prior to the application of this update                                                                                                                 |
| new\_balance                                                                            | Balance of the account after this update                                                                                                                                       |
| [transaction\_sequence\_number](/network-data/atlas-overview.md#transaction-sequencing) | Order of this update inside the transaction that contains it                                                                                                                   |
| previous\_n\_debits                                                                     | Number of times this account has been debited prior to this update                                                                                                             |
| previous\_n\_credits                                                                    | Number of times this account has been credited prior to this update                                                                                                            |
| transaction\_hash                                                                       | Hash of the transaction containing the balance update                                                                                                                          |
| previous\_debit\_height                                                                 | Block height of the last debit from this account (null if no prior debit)                                                                                                      |
| previous\_credit\_height                                                                | Block height of the last credit from this account (null if no prior credit)                                                                                                    |
| previous\_chain\_sequence\_number                                                       | The positioning of the last transaction that took place for this account relative to all other transactions that have taken place on this chain                                |


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://gitbook-docs.coinmetrics.io/network-data/atlas-overview/balance-updates.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.