Key points to remember

• BscScan is a blockchain explorer that allows users to easily track transactions, check wallet balances, and interact with smart contracts on BNB Smart Chain (BSC).

• This tool also offers a range of features such as gas price monitoring, BEP-20 token tracking, and unique address count checking.

• These metrics can help users assess network activity, identify network saturation, and evaluate token performance, which can be very useful for investors, traders, and blockchain developers.

Introduction

We often hear that public blockchains are permissionless, meaning that anyone with an address can interact with them. But did you know that blockchain development is also permissionless? Anyone with the necessary expertise can deploy their DApp on a blockchain, without anyone stopping them.

This particularity has led to rapid development speeds in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. BNB Smart Chain (BSC) is still in its early stages, but it has already seen impressive growth, but don’t take our word for it, check it out for yourself: a lot of blockchain data is publicly available, making it easy for traders and investors to check the network’s activity.

If you're looking to access this data, a blockchain explorer like BscScan is the easiest way to find everything you need.

What is BscScan?

BscScan is a blockchain explorer developed by the same team as Etherscan. This tool offers an analysis platform for BNB Smart Chain, but it also has many other interesting features. It can be a good source of information if you want to keep an eye on deFi projects built on BSC.

You can also use BscScan to:

1. Search for transactions and check their progress.

2. Check the latest blocks added to the blockchain.

3. Check the balance of the wallets and the transactions they have made.

4. Search, read and interact with smart contracts deployed on the blockchain.

5. Research the supply of tokens and other cryptocurrencies.

All this information is available without you having to register and is completely free. A blockchain explorer simply displays all this data in a simple and easy to navigate way.

Why should I use BscScan?

BscScan is developed by the renowned development team behind EtherScan, a popular Ethereum block explorer. Beyond its reputation, BscScan can help you navigate the world of blockchain. With some basic knowledge on how to use it, you can quickly solve simple problems and queries.

For example, knowing how to search for a smart contract on BscScan is a handy skill for all DApp users. You can see if their smart contracts are verified and even interact with them directly via BscScan (which can be useful when the DApp API is not available). However, blockchain insights are not limited to verifying smart contracts and simple transactions.

For example, you can set up whale alerts to monitor large transactions. In some cases, a large volume of crypto moving to an exchange can suggest that a sell-off is imminent. You can even track the wallets of DeFi protocol founders to see if they’re moving their tokens. Let’s take a look at some of the most commonly used tools and metrics that you can check using BscScan.

How to find the average gas price on BNB Smart Chain?

First, hover over [Resources], click [Charts & Statistics], and then click [Average Gas Price Chart].

You will now see the graph of the average gas price used to calculate the gas fees users pay for transactions on BSC.

As mentioned, BSC has relatively low fees. On BSC, 1 gwei is equal to 0.000000001 BNB. With an average gas price of around 3.5 gwei, sending 100 BNB should cost less than ten cents. In fact, sending ten or even a hundred times that amount should still cost you no more than 30 cents.

From the transaction history, we can see that users have been paying higher transaction fees than usual. Some users may have stuck to their old habits of Ethereum or other blockchains. This is really not necessary. BNB Smart Chain is still far from being saturated, so if the network conditions remain stable, 3.5 gwei should be enough for a simple transaction.

How can I find the number of unique addresses of BNB Smart Chain?

BscScan's unique address count is a great metric to use if you want to roughly estimate the number of users on the network. You can find the number of unique addresses by hovering over [Resources] and clicking [Charts and Statistics]. Then click [Unique Address Chart].

If a blockchain has 100 unique addresses, does that mean it has 100 unique users? Absolutely not! One person can create multiple addresses, but thanks to the magic of cryptography, even if one person does that, we won’t run out of addresses for a long time. And even then, it would be quite tricky to know if these addresses belong to the same entity.

We know that anyone can create multiple addresses. This metric is an overestimate of the number of users. However, the number of unique addresses can give us a rough idea of ​​the network's growth.

How can I find the daily transaction amount of BNB Smart Chain?

This graph shows us the total number of transactions made on BNB Smart Chain for a given day. You can find it in the [Charts and Statistics] section.

Although some smart contracts require more transactions than others to execute, this graph can still give us an overview of the network activity and indicate whether it might reach saturation. It is also a good sign of a healthy network.

What are the main BEP-20 tokens?

The Token Tracking page allows you to track the top BEP-20 tokens by market cap or daily trading volume. This page will help you determine which tokens have the highest cumulative value on the BSC blockchain, as well as the highest trading volumes.

Token information is one of the things to consider. Token/contract owners can update their token information on BscScan to give you more details about the token. If the BscScan team has not verified the token contract address, it may not be trustworthy.

There are many wrapped tokens on this page. These types of tokens are a tokenized version of a cryptocurrency or a token belonging to another blockchain. ETH pegged to Binance is just one example among many.

This means that you can buy, sell, and trade a BSC version of ETH without having to move your BSC funds to the Ethereum blockchain. In other words, ETH wrapped on BSC is a tokenized version of the original ETH, which belongs to the Ethereum blockchain.

Is BscScan compatible with NFTs?

Like any other digital asset available on BSC, you can quickly search for specific NFTs and their smart contracts. BEP-721 and BEP-1155 tokens are the most common BSC standards for NFTs. Let’s look at an example. Here’s a PancakeSwap NFT from the Pancake Squad collection:

If we copy its contract address (0x0a8901b0E25DEb55A87524f0cC164E9644020EBA) into BscScan's search bar, we can find the contract creator and the token tracker.

If we click on the token’s tracking link, we can check its total supply, number of holders, and total transfers. We can also use the tabs below to take a closer look at each of these metrics as well as other details, such as the contract’s source code and inventory.

How do I search for BNB Smart Chain validators?

In simple terms, validators are the ones who keep BSC running smoothly. By staking BNB, they process transactions and confirm new blocks. In return for this service, they receive transaction fees that arise from network activity.

BNB Smart Chain uses a consensus mechanism called Proof of Authority and Stake (PoSA). This consensus model can support a short block time and low fees. You can check the top validators of BNB Smart Chain in the validator ranking under the [Validators] tab.

Who can become a validator? Anyone can become a validator, but the requirements are relatively high. After all, the security of the network is at stake. If you want to learn more about how to become a BNB Smart Chain validator, check out the official BNB Smart Chain documentation.

How to check smart contracts on BscScan?

BscScan users can enter any contract address to check it and see if the compiled code is the same as the one running on the blockchain. This information is easy to verify: you will see a green check mark next to the contract in the toolbar as well as a [Contract source code verified] notice.

Allowing users to independently audit and verify the code is a valuable feature, as it contributes to the overall transparency of the BNB Smart Chain ecosystem. You can also interact directly with smart contracts by connecting a crypto wallet like MetaMask.

Conclusion

No matter your experience with DeFi and BSC, learning how to use BscScan will help you become more familiar with a blockchain. However, keep in mind that markets are irrational, unpredictable, and prone to periods of extreme volatility. Doing your own research is crucial to trading successfully: checking that the BscScan team has certified the token, that the contract is open source and has been audited, and checking the project’s blog or social media accounts to get a better feel for the project are all steps you can take. Make sure you understand the risks of participating in DeFi before you jump in.

For more information

• Introduction to BNB Smart Chain (BSC)

• What is BNB Chain?

• What is Etherscan and how to use it?

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