An Intro to Blockchain Explorers
Content:
General Information-
What Is a Blockchain Explorer
Why Do We Need Block Explorers?
How to Use Block Explorers
Examples
Closing Thoughts
General Information-
What Is a Blockchain Explorer?
A blockchain explorer is a live blockchain browser that displays details of all transactions that have/are occurring on that network. Blockchain explorers also display active blocks being confirmed, blockchain network metrics, and types of transactions. Each blockchain has its specific block explorer for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and individual altcoins. Blockchain Explorers eventually led to on-chain analysis which can be read here.
2. Why Do We Need Blockchain Explorers?
Blockchain Explorers may be useful in today’s system. One of the most effective reasons why one may need a blockchain explorer is to analyze. This is where On-chain metrics come to life and people track certain metrics on the explorer to paint a picture. By using Blockchain Explorers one may track the biggest addresses of that token, track the history of a certain wallet, and monitor developer activity on the chain, and yet there is so much more. So much data can be extracted and utilized that the opportunities may be endless.
3. How to Use Blockchain Explorers
To make this as simple as possible, I will use a photo from blockchain.com/explorer which hosts multiple coins for their blockchain explorers. As you can see below, on the right-hand side there are multiple coins listed like BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, SOL, ADA, and more. By clicking any one of those coins, it will forward you to a page that will share metrics as I’ve mentioned above. On this homepage, you can see things like the latest blocks and latest transactions. One may use the latest transaction tool to gauge if market participants are mostly selling or buying to form a bigger picture.
4. Examples
There are many other blockchain explorers that one should take a look at to learn and even discover. Etherscan.io is a popular blockchain explorer for the Ethereum blockchain. Also, every ERC-20 token is discoverable on Etherscan as well which gives Etherscan unique elements. One may also use blockchain.com/explorer as I’ve mentioned above. Blockchain.com displays multiple blockchains on one website making it simple to review and scan accordingly. Lastly, if one was looking for a specific Altcoin explorer then they should search it on google by searching “(name of altcoin) explorer.”
Closing Thoughts
Think of blockchain explorers like you might think of google in some ways. At any time you can go to an explorer and learn all about it as all the data was stored and is traceable like google may be. With blockchain explorers, one may discover a lot and learn a lot. There is so much information on these explorers that on-chain analysis has become a profession for some traders who utilize these explorers. This tells me that we are at the beginning of these explorers and we will only keep evolving as time progresses with new types of on-chain metrics. The future is exciting.