WHAT IS A BLOCK EXPLORER?
Blockchains are considered to be a publicly verifiable ledgers, this is made feasible by block explorers.
A block explorer is a tool that offers all relevant information about a blockchain, such as transactions, addresses, and balances, among other things. Block explorers are the portals into a blockchain network.
Every blockchain has its own block explorer. This means that an Ethereum block explorer cannot be used to explore the bitcoin blockchain.
WHY USE A BLOCK EXPLORER?
Block explorers provide numerous opportunities for their users, who may be traders, miners, or crypto enterprises.
Block explorers can be used to determine when a transaction is complete. Instead of heading to the bank to verify the transaction in the case of traditional finance, people may quickly confirm the state of the transaction on the block explorer as it is a public ledger and everyone can confirm the details of transactions at their convenience with the use of block explorer.
Block explorers also include information such as a token’s price, supply, market capitalization, gas fee, and block finality.
Traders and blockchain researchers can utilize this data to develop a sound investing thesis or decision. Traders can also utilize block explorers to track whales and large venture capital wallet addresses to see what they are buying and selling; as the adage goes, “follow the money.”
HOW TO USE A BLOCK EXPLORER.
There are different block explorers for various blockchains; however, we will consider the Ethereum block explorer, etherscan as an example.
On the first page of the Ethereum block explorer, etherscan.io you can view basic information about the ether token such as the price, the current market capitalization of the ether token, the current transactions flowing through per second (TPS), and the latest block finalized.
Right at the top of the page, there is a tab to enter any wallet address or contract address and the details about the wallet or token will be pulled, which may include all of the transactions that have ever occurred on the wallet, what tokens are in the wallet and their quantity, and analytics of the wallet address depicted in a graph format as to the highs and lows of the wallet since its inception.
A social network account can be used to log in to the “comment” section, where you can leave a comment on a wallet address that the wallet owner and other people can read.
Block explorers are essential tools for blockchains since they serve as search engines for the blockchain and aid with its most crucial objective, a decentralized publicly variable ledger.
