What Is a Blockchain Explorer?

In the crypto industry, block explorers play a critical role in disclosing data, aimed at analyzing, confirming, and managing digitized assets stored on the blockchain.

Blockchain otherwise known as a distributed ledger is an incredible innovation that’s poised to revolutionize the financial industry with its impact largely felt in the trading, storing, and circulation of digital assets — cryptocurrency, NFTs, tokenized stocks, etc.

Bitcoin — the pioneer cryptocurrency — built using cryptographic techniques by skilled software developers, encapsulates the transformational effect of this technology and has brought great recognition for cryptocurrency with its immense success.

Bitcoin as well as other cryptocurrencies and digital assets are stored and traded on the blockchain, and leveraging the features of blockchain technology — transparency and decentralization — are visible to the public, and anyone can freely glance through or analyze their operations. But, how can they view transactions on the blockchain? What can be used to acquire technical information and market data about a particular blockchain or cryptocurrency?

To get answers to these questions, crypto traders, investors, enthusiasts, law enforcement agents, blockchain developers, as well as criminals rely on “Blockchain Explorers” — a tool for analyzing the blockchain to obtain technical information as well as market data about a blockchain.

In this article, we will explore what a blockchain explorer is, its uses, and how it works.

What Is a Blockchain Explorer? A Tool for Exploring Transactions

A blockchain explorer is a unique software used to explore blockchain, showing technical information that’s the status of transactions, block height, cryptographic hash, hash rate, mempool size, miners reward, the source and destination wallet addresses, etc; and also market data such as circulating/maximum supply, the market capitalization of a cryptocurrency and visualization chart.

Block explorers as it is popularly called leverage the pseudonymous nature of blockchain technology that conceals the identity of the user but reveals information such as the total value of assets held in a wallet address, the total amount of crypto received or sent from a wallet address, transaction history, transaction hash, volume of transactions, etc.

In essence, the software makes the blockchain public capitalizing on its core blockchain features of transparency (open to the public) and decentralization (not controlled by anyone or an entity); thereby, helping users to analyze data about recently mined blocks or transactions.

Further, a blockchain explorer is used in viewing data connected to transactions carried out on wallets of a given blockchain, thus, enabling users to check balances and transactions in wallet addresses, token transfer, and smart contract addresses, during Initial Coin Offering (ICO), Initial Exchange Offering (IEO), Initial Decentralized Exchange Offering (IDO), etc.

Generally, they serve as a directory that reveals records or details of transactions and activities carried out on the blockchain and also enables the management and security of digital assets.

In addition, they improve transparency on a blockchain, reducing instances of uncertainties between the sender and the receiver; and help developers ascertain the state of the blockchain, and test the efficiency of their wallets if it is able to send, receive or store digitized assets.

Uses of a Blockchain Explorer

• To check transaction status: A block explorer is used to verify the status of a transaction during the trading of digital assets. It helps to track the transfer of these assets from the source to the destination address.
• Miners Reward: A block explorer provides information on a miner’s reward for successfully creating a block. It provides details on which miner or block builder received the reward.
• They are famously used to obtain information about crypto wallets and the total value of assets held in the wallet.
• Miners and developers have used the search tool to monitor the success of their mining activities and the overall operation of the blockchain.
• They are used to confirm transaction status. Basically, the report unconfirmed transactions and revealed mining difficulty.
• They are used to search for transaction identities (IDs), wallet addresses, transaction hash, hash rate, block height, etc, and to check the current size of the memory pool (mempool).
• They are used as a veritable tool to acquire information about blockchain statistics, market capitalization, circulating supply of tokens, and visualization charts.

Examples of Blockchain Explorers

In the crypto industry, there are several blockchain explorers unique to each blockchain; such as:

• Bitcoin: Blockchair.com, and Blockcypher.com;
• Ethereum: EtherScan;
• Solana: Solscan;
• Tron: TronScan;
• BSC: BSCScan;
• Avalanche: AvaScan;
• Cardano: CardanoScan.

A Bitcoin blockchain explorer such as blockstream.info can’t be used to search for information about Ethereum, Solana, or Litecoin. So each of these block explorers provides specific insight into the operation of their blockchain.

Genesis Block

Block explorers reveal the genesis or first block of a blockchain. It also provides information about how many blocks are orphaned and not added to the chain.

The genesis block of Bitcoin, which was the transaction involving the purchase of two Pizzas worth 10,000 BTC can be viewed using Bitcoin blockchain explorer by logging into the search bar, the wallet address used in the transaction.

Information about the above transaction is available for all to see and analyze. Anyone interested can learn about the block, block difficulty, transaction history, gas fee, and the miner’s identity.

Main Concepts of a Blockchain Explorer

• Blocks: In a blockchain, a block refers to a computer file that stores all information about blockchain transactions.

  These blocks contain the blockchain’s transaction data and the hash of the previous block linked to each other through the use of cryptographic techniques, thus distinguishing each block from the other. This forms a cryptographic link as the previous block is connected to the next, thus, ensuring the immutability and security of the blockchain.

Alteration of the cryptographic hash of the previous block invalidates subsequent blocks and the entire chain.

Furthermore, a block contains several features such as:

• Block Height: Also known as a block number, indicates the position of a particular block in the blockchain. It reveals all validated blocks right from the first or genesis block to the most recent block.
• Block Status: Discloses the building progress of a block.
• Block Difficulty: Every aspect of building a block or adding blocks to the blockchain is very important including the obstacles involved. Block difficulty reveals the amount of work done in mining new blocks.
• Block Size: Block formation varies. This is due to the different gas limits, that’s the total gas used in the block formation. Block size is measured in bytes.
• Block Time: This is the period taken for miners to validate and add new blocks to the previous blocks. Blockchains have different block times, for example, Bitcoin takes an average of 10 minutes to mine a block while Ethereum takes 15 seconds to mine.

Other features of a Block Explorer

• Time Stamp: Discloses the age of a block that’s the date and time a block was created.
• Cryptographic Hash: Each block contains a unique cryptographic hash that records all transactions in the block. The cryptographic hash of a new block contains the hash of the previous one, produced through mining, and held together by cryptographic techniques.
• Transaction Hash: Also known as transaction ID, is a unique code assigned to each transaction. It acts as a reference number used to search for details of transactions on a blockchain. Transaction ID reveals the transaction status, transaction history, amount sent or received, and the value of assets involved in the transaction. Also, they are digital proof of payment, and altering the transaction hash for a particular block affects the overall network.
• Transaction Status: Indicates the state of the transaction, whether it is pending, successful, or declined.
• Hash Rate: This is a visual representation of the predictions for computing resources implemented by miners for blockchain.
• Price: Block explorers show the current price (in dollars) of a blockchain’s coin or token. The token price varies with the volatile crypto market. For example, Etherscan shows the recent price of Ether — the utility token of the Ethereum ecosystem.
• Search Bar: The search bar obtains specific information about a transaction hash, wallet address, token transfer, minting of new NFT, etc. The search bar is found at the top of a block explorer.
• Mempool Size: Also known as memory pool, shows the total number of unconfirmed transactions in 24 hours. It is the pool of all the transactions waiting to be added to a block by a miner and serves as a good proxy for how busy and in demand a network is. Further, they reveal the number of transactions waiting to be mined and added to the blockchain.
• Transaction Volume: Keeps track of activities in a blockchain and summarizes the size of blockchain transactions in a day.

How Does a Blockchain Explorer Work?

A blockchain explorer uses blockchain nodes and API for sourcing data in a blockchain and presents these data in an understandable format. Several features such as hash rate, block height, cryptographic/transaction hash, mempool size, the volume of transactions, and miner’s details help users to understand transactions and block formation on the publicly distributed ledger.

Before the emergence of blockchain explorer, the command-line interface was widely used by blockchain users, particularly skilled programmers, to explore the blockchain. However, a high level of expertise is needed to comprehend the complex cryptographic information on display, hence the need for an easy-to-use and understandable tool in Graphical User Interface (GUI).

The Graphical User Interface (GUI) helps users navigate the blockchain and understand the contents therein. GUI is simple, easy to use, and does not require programming knowledge to view or study the blockchain.

It is widely believed (among blockchain programmers/developers) that the command line interface offered the best instrument for exploring information on the blockchain.

A Study of a Block Explorer: Using Etherscan as a Case Study

Source: Etherscan.io

Under this section, we will study Etherscan — a block explorer and analytics platform for the Ethereum network — and explain how to use an Etherscan to obtain information from the Ethereum blockchain. For a better understanding of Etherscan, let’s study the features found on the front page of an Etherscan.

The front page of an Etherscan includes a search bar, token price, market cap, transaction history, latest blocks, and latest transactions. Users can conveniently click on these features to obtain details and explore the chain.

Search Bar: This is found on the top of the explorer and is used to search for information or transactions using wallet address, transaction (Txn) hash, block number, etc; this is used to obtain specific information about a block, transaction, or wallet address.

An example, upon searching a wallet transaction (Txn) hash: 0xc7d711bd79003aee14a860890c17c0f40da0a447a1dac04b9a16c3eff42ec02a. The Etherscan reveals the following; the total value of assets held in the address, such as the balance of all digital assets (cryptocurrencies, tokens, NFTs, etc.), transaction (Txn) hash, transaction status, block, timestamp, transaction fee, gas price, source, and destination address.

While the wallet address: 0x71C7656EC7ab88b098defB751B7401B5f6d8976F; Etherscan reveals the balance of all digital assets (cryptocurrencies, tokens, NFTs, etc.), and the value of the assets in Ether.

Token (Ether) Price: Ether is the utility token of Ethereum’s ecosystem. Etherscan shows the current price of Ether in the market. The token price varies with the volatile crypto market. Etherscan provides the daily price chart and market performance of the token revealing its USD and BTC value.

Transaction History: This feature reviews all transactions recorded on the Ethereum network noting the Txn hash, block age, source, and destination address, Value of assets, Txn fee, etc.

Source: Etherscan.io

Market Capitalization: Also, referred to as a market cap, is the total value of all the coins (Ether) that have been mined. This feature indicates the distribution of Ether since inception, and it’s calculated by multiplying the number of coins in circulation by the current market price of a single coin.

Latest Blocks: This feature indicates the blocks added to the blockchain and reveals specific details about each block, such as block height, Txn status, timestamp, total difficulty, block reward, etc.

Latest Transactions: Details about transactions are recorded on the Txn hash and reveal the transaction status, value of an asset, block number, timestamp, transaction fee, gas price, etc.

Why Use a Block Explorer?

Block explorers play an important role in providing traders, miners, validators, enthusiasts, and blockchain analytic firms with current and historical information about a blockchain, making the tracking of transactions and their operations on the blockchain easy.

Further, blockchain explorers help users navigate distributed ledger technology and obtain vital information about the blockchain.

There are several advantages involved in using a blockchain explorer, so in this section, we will be discussing some key benefits involved in using a blockchain explorer.

• You can use a blockchain explorer to view balances, track transfers, check confirmations and get varied statistics on the blockchain. Also, it reveals the live feed of blocks mined in a blockchain network and provides information on the contents of individual blocks and activities performed by the block.
• The block explorer guarantees easier accessibility of data stored on a blockchain including hidden messages.
• It enables users to navigate the transaction history and status of a specific wallet address.
• Also, they provide information about crypto wallet addresses, such as transaction history, the total value of assets held at the address, and the total amount of crypto received or sent from the wallet address.
• The search engine is designed to be open, transparent, decentralized, and user-friendly. Hence, it helps users access hidden messages on the blockchain network.
• It helps verify the status of a particular transaction — whether failed, successful, or pending.

Conclusion

Blockchain explorers serve as a priceless tool needed to investigate blockchain transactions and enable easier readability and comprehension of the information contained therein and assure user trust.

It is difficult to track the activities of a blockchain without a relevant block explorer. Thus, the primary goal of a blockchain explorer is to improve the transparency of a blockchain network and to enable the viewing and management of digital assets.