Steemit Crypto Academy Season 4 - Homework Post for Task 4
Introduction.
Image designed by me on Snappa.
I am much excited to be a part of this class taught by professor @yousafharoonkhan on blockchain, decentralization and block explorers.
I would now like to present my work to "Question 3" the task given on block explorers.
What is a block explorer? And what is its purpose and use? Search for different cryptocurrency block explorers and list them below. At least five different crypto currencies. Also explore the transaction of a crypto coin on block explorer and explain with the help of screenshot.
What Is A Block Explorer?
A block explorer is a search engine for blockchains that people or users in the crypto world use to obtain information on particular cryptocurrencies or coins. Usually in the "normal world" information is obtained from google or other browsers and search engines like Safari, yahoo, etc. so you can think of a block explorer as google but in this instance, it is used to gain information about blockchain activities.
Blockchains like some of us are aware and has been explained by our prof are what cryptocurrencies are built on which are decentralized, transparent and have digital ledgers on which all transactions are stored.
So a block explorer is a search engine that is used to view all transactions of a particular wallet address, the available cryptocurrencies in that wallet address, the hashes of transactions, among others.
When using a block explorer the user can input any valid address of a particular blockchain where that user can view all information about that address. Instead of valid addresses, valid hashes of transactions can be used instead.
Cryptocurrencies have been introduced with the idea of decentralization and transparency where everybody can see whatever action a certain user on blockchain is carrying out and so to materialize this vision there was a need to develop a software or application where all this would be available and easy to read.
So when cryptocurrency btc was introduced, it's block explorer the btc block explorer was released afterwards in 2010 grouping every data very well and making it easy for all to understand.
How Block Explorers Work.
The way block explorers work is quite easy to understand.
First of all block explorers works with nodes to pull the latest information as data from blockchains.
Block explorers are built on software and so the software arranges this latest obtained data into table formats.
The explorer then creates a user interface or web page where users can search for inputs.
Next, the user interface together with an API ( Application Programming Interface ) converts the searched input into machine language for the system to understand and process.
The converted data to machine language is sent to a backend server which together with the API converts the processed data into readable human format.
The user interface or web page and the API then sends the processed input to the user as readable output data.
Uses Of Blockchain Explorers.
I have stated in the beginning that blockchain explores allow us to obtain information about blockchains and their transactions but aside that there are other very useful useful things the block explorer does.
Block explorer allows users to explore the transaction history of a valid wallet address. There is a section in a block explorer that lists all transactions of any valid blockchain address which you can access at an time. This allows for transparency and simple auditing should the need arise.
The block explorer allows users to explorer the largest transaction performed in a day as well as explorer the double-spending transactions. Some blockchains are exposed to cryptocurrency double spending and so a block explorer can help you to determine which addresses are involved in double spending.
Allows you to explorer genesis blocks. A genesis block is the first ever block mined by a blockchain and so the block explorer helps users to explore the genesis blocks of different blockchains and obtain data like the miner of that block.
Allows users to explore the hash of a transaction. A transaction hash is what is responsible for transaction validation which is unique to every block and every transaction and so the blockchain explorer allows you to have access to this information.
Allows you to explorer transaction fees.
A block explorer allows users to explorer the miner of a block or the mining pool. Some capable individuals mine blocks on their own while others pool their resources together and form a mining pool and so a block explorer gives us information on them.
The block explorer allows users to explorer confirmed and unconfirmed transactions. The unconfirmed transactions are known as mempool status of a blockchain. The time of these confirmed and unconfirmed transactions are made available.
The Purpose Of A Block Explorer.
First and foremost, a blockchain explorer is intended to promote transparency.
It's intended to help verify if a wallet address given is valid or not.
It is intended to help users stay aware from address that usually engage in double spending.
It is intended to be used to verify if transactions have gone through.
It is intended to be used by users to explain why their transactions haven't gone through. An example of this is my own experience that happened yesterday. I tried to swap my trx tokens for wBTC but it wasn't going through. With the help of tronscan I realized it was because I did not have enough energy and so I froze my trx assets for energy and it went through after that.
It is intended to avoid future doubts about the confirmed miners of a block and so can be used as conflict resolute.
List Of Different Cryptocurrency Block Explorers.
The table below shows the different cryptocurrencies and their block explorers.
| Cryptocurrency | Block Explorer |
|---|---|
| Bitcoin | Blockchain.info |
| ---- | Blockexplorer.com |
| ---- | Insight.is |
| ---- | Bitcoinchain.com |
| ---- | BTC.com |
| ---- | Blockchair |
| Litecoin | blockchair |
| ---- | btc/ltc |
| ---- | blockcypher |
| ---- | cryptoid |
| ---- | litecoinexplorer |
| Ethereum | blockchain.com |
| ---- | btc/eth |
| ---- | blockchair |
| ---- | etherscan |
| ---- | etherchain |
| Cardano | explorer.cardano |
| ---- | cardanoscan |
| ---- | blockchair |
| ---- | ada.tokenview |
| ---- | adastat.net |
| Fantom | ftmscan |
| ---- | fantomexplorer |
| ---- | etherscan |
| ---- | blockchair |
| ---- | minergate |
The Transaction Of A Crypto Coin On A Block Explorer.
For the purpose of this task, I would be exploring the transaction of the Cardano (ADA) using the blockchair explorer.
- Visit blockchair or type blockchair and click on the first result.
- Scroll down and from the list of cryptocurrencies click on Cardano.
- From the result, scroll down and from the list of latest blocks click on any of them. I click on the first 6,381,662.
- Click on one of the transactions included in block 6381662. I selected the hash of the first transaction.
The hash is 59681aeffb27309cfec2fbdaf0a5bd8876ac22d0409b536c8b0edadd1ae307fb
- From the results, the transaction hash, amount transacted, transaction fee, time and date, transaction status, senders and recipients were displayed.
- I observed that the transaction is confirmed an amount transacted = 13.094114 ADA = $30.35, transaction fee = 0.169857ADA = 0.37USD, has 1 sender with address addr1q8eqn0rtyxcjcvnq8gx2008uay707x5jgheaylrxvyzzysqyx6c8v524c9a5r2krczvslgyw05k2fmhds8vk4ee6qy8sgwutr4 and 2 senders with addresses DdzFFzCqrhsoccTZKSEQBxqnfuNjk8t2xrE4dsmFob1yET6TSzqnweRiF8CknMZF9E7NvJGx4C4xuA2BgRTaLKkZmafcKgvsRjW6yYUp and addr1qxz239zrfurl4d0ml9muv2nhn8znwyd7u4nqychl3etv39qyx6c8v524c9a5r2krczvslgyw05k2fmhds8vk4ee6qy8sed6gaz with an amount of 9.185387 ADA and 4.56887 ADA respectively.
The transaction was confirmed on October 17th 20121 at 7:42 am UTC time.
Block id 6,381,662 has a total of 19 confirmations.
Conclusion.
I must say a big thank you to professor @yousafharoonkhan for this very informative lecture.
Block explorers are search engines for cryptocurrency users where information on all transactions of a blockchain be be obtained. Date and time of transactions, mined blocks, miners of those blocks, transaction hashes, sender's and receiver's wallet addresses as well as changed addresses are some of the data you can obtain from block explorers.
Block explorers help us to confirm if our transactions have gone through and to check reasons why our transactions are failing.
There are a lot of blockchain explores for different blockchains. The block explorers for BTC, ETH, DOGE, ADA, STEEM, LTC, XRP, TRX, SHIB, FTM, etc cryptocurrency blockchain include, blockchair, ethercan.io, Insight.is, blockchain.info, adatstat.net, tronscan, litecoinexplorer, etherchain, steemscan, cryptoground, among others. The links to some of these explorers have been given in my work above.
Thank you.