Community Content - Posted by John Ma
Carefully! Lots of text.
Publicity and transparency are key concepts in cryptocurrencies. One of the main advantages of blockchain is that it provides equal opportunities to users without creating a separate control group that would be in a privileged position.
What exactly does this mean? Is it possible to find out how many bitcoins a specific user owns? Where can I view and check public information? We will talk about all this in this article. We'll use Bitcoin as an example, but you can also find browsers for Litecoin, Ethereum, Binance, and almost any native blockchain.
Introduction
Has it ever happened that a payment did not reach you or the person who promised to make the payment never did? In the current financial system, such situations turn into endless disputes, and in other cases, the intervention of a third party may be required.
Blockchains solve this problem by introducing the concept of transparency, whereby any information is publicly available at any time. In blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, information has always been open at the system architecture level, which has proven extremely useful in identifying and validating transactions (or Txs).
In this guide, we'll look at the workings of the Bitcoin blockchain explorer, followed by the famous transaction that kicked off the Bitcoin Pizza Day celebration on May 22nd.
What is a blockchain explorer?
A blockchain explorer is a kind of search engine that provides information about the past and current state of the blockchain. This is extremely useful for tracking the progress of a specific transaction or checking the balance and history of an address. Any user with an internet connection can use a browser to view all transactions on the public blockchain.
How does the block explorer work?
Each blockchain has a command line interface (CLI) for interacting with the database and viewing the history of the network. However, the CLI browser is not very user-friendly for most users, so many blockchains add browsers with a user interface that displays information in a more user-friendly manner.
Let's take a look at one of the most commonly used Bitcoin browsers, blockchain.com. Its alternatives include: blockchair.com and blockcypher.com.
Source: https://www.blockchain.com/explorer.
The first page will display the most important data about the Bitcoin blockchain: price, estimated hashrate, daily number of transactions and transaction volume. You can also find price and mempool size charts here. Below are the latest blocks and transactions.
Now we will look at this information in more detail:
Price: Aggregated feed of USD quotes from multiple markets. In most cases, the price depends on the stream provider and does not reflect the spot price on a particular exchange.
Estimated Hashrate: An estimate of the computing power currently used by miners to power the blockchain. It can be considered as a proxy server to ensure the security of the Proof of Work (PoW) blockchain.
Transactions: The number of unique transactions confirmed in the last 24 hours. To be confirmed, the transaction must be included in a confirmed block (that has been successfully mined).
Transaction Volume: The total value of outputs (in BTC) confirmed on the blockchain in the last 24 hours. Due to the way Bitcoin works, this amount also includes unspent outputs returned to the wallet as change.
Transaction Volume (Approximate): An estimate (in BTC) of the actual transaction volume between wallets. This is the volume of transactions (above) minus the valuation of outputs returned to wallets as change.
Mempool size: Mempool size tracks the aggregate size (in bytes) of transactions waiting to be included in a block. This is an indicator of the volume of activity on the blockchain, which can be used to calculate the amount of fees required for quick confirmation.
Latest Blocks: A list of confirmed blocks from newest to oldest. It includes details such as block height, timestamp, miner name (if known), and block size. Click on "block height" to view information about the transactions included in the block. In the “miner” section you can find out the address of the block miner – it is also called the mining pool address. If you don't know what a mining pool is, check out this article.
Latest Transactions: A list of valid transactions sent to the mempool. Transactions are not confirmed until they are included in a confirmed block.
On this page, you can track additional blockchain parameters, including network difficulty, transaction fees, and average confirmation time. Some blockchain explorers also allow you to connect to their API.
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How to view the “10,000 Bitcoin for Pizza” transaction
Pizza Day is a significant day in the history of Bitcoin, on which two large pizzas were purchased for 10,000 Bitcoins. You can view and explore the details of this famous transaction in our block explorer.
Pizza Day transaction hash:
a1075db55d416d3ca199f55b6084e2115b9345e16c5cf302fc80e9d5fbf5d48dCopy the transaction hash into the search field of the Bitcoin Blockchain Explorer to navigate to the Pizza Day transaction, or simply follow this link.
At the top of the page there is data on transaction entries and exits. On the right is payment for pizza in bitcoins (total amount 10,000 BTC). They were sent to the address shown on the left (courier address).
Pizza Day Transaction Review. Source: blockchain.com
If you click on the receiving address (on the right), you will see the entire transaction history of that address. You can also scan the QR code to get the corresponding address bar. QR codes are very convenient when making payments through TrustWallet or other mobile crypto wallets.
Recipient's address "Pizza Day". Source: blockchain.com
By scrolling down the Pizza Day transaction page, you will be able to check the transaction details, including the unique hash, confirmation status, timestamp, number of confirmations, total deposits and withdrawals, miner fees, and more. Here we see that on top of the 10,000 BTC per pizza, the miner was also paid a fee of 0.99 BTC.
Pizza Day transaction data. Source: blockchain.com
Clicking on the block height (57,043) will reveal details about the block in which this transaction was included.
Block “Pizza Day”. Source: blockchain.com
Confirmation of the block with the “Pizza Day” transaction passed without incident. There were two transactions in total: the “Pizza Day” transaction and the miner’s block reward.
The green and red circles to the right of the transaction amounts indicate whether Bitcoins have been spent since that transaction. We see that the pizza seller has already sent those 10,000 BTC to another address, but the miner's address still contains the block reward (50.99 BTC).
Summary
Blockchain explorers are very useful tools that work in accordance with the principles of openness and transparency of blockchains. They display network status information, including transaction and address history, making them easy to track and verify.
However, such an emphasis on publicity and transparency implies a free display of transaction history and addresses - chain analysis. This may not comply with the principle of address anonymity, especially if users use the same addresses multiple times (not recommended). Other public blockchains (such as Monero) maintain this balance between transparency and privacy in a different way.
Now that you have an understanding of how blockchain explorers work, you can confidently start using them - and learn new secrets!
Do you still have questions about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Explorers? Visit our Q&A Ask Academy platform where the Binance community will answer your questions.
