An overview of Ethereum Blockchain Explorers

Contrary to being anonymous, All transactions on Blockchain are transparent, and all transaction data is kept on computers for anyone to see with a Blockchain Explorer. Blockchain Explorers are an essential part of the whole Blockchain ecosystem. In this guide, you will get a complete understanding of the major Ethereum Blockchain explorers.

Overview

A Block Explorer helps you read the whole blockchain network.

• It is an online blockchain application developed and designed to display all details related to blocks, addresses, and past and present transactions on a blockchain. These resources typically provide valuable statistics, such as network hash rates and transaction growth indices. However, very few users understand the full potential of these explorers.
• They have much more useful knowledge than just transaction monitoring. Users of any blockchain heavily rely on respective blockchain explorers to follow their transactions. It is important to notice that a user must use their blockchain’s block explorer. Meaning a user can refer to a block explorer that supports the chain used for his/her transaction..

Why do we need a block explorer?

Reading mined block details -

• Block Explorer lets you explore recently mined blocks on the blockchain. They also have a live feed for all the blocks that are being added to the blockchain in real-time.

• Block Explorers helps you to discover any transaction in any block that has already been mined and is currently connected to the blockchain.
• Using Block Explorer increases transparency., It is easier to follow a public address and audit transactions.
• We will see the Bitcoin receiving address and the updated address using Block Explorer.
• You will see the state of the mempool through a block window, where you can find a total amount of unconfirmed transactions along with transaction information.
• We can search the number of blocks that have been orphaned and not added to the blockchain.
• A block explorer will show you the genesis block of the blockchain. We can see the Ethereum genesis block that was On July 30, Ethereum's genesis block was mined into existence
• Crypto enthusiasts may monitor market events such as the number of tokens in the circulation supply, the market cap, or the amount of resources needed to mine.
• Traders who frequently buy and sell crypto can use a block explorer to verify the status of their transactions. Once users have initiated a transaction, they can obtain an automated transaction hash and will use it to verify the payment and whether it has been successful.
• Miners use a block explorer to validate substantial block activity, in particular, to verify whether they have been successful in building a block, which ensures that they earn a block reward.
  Follow transaction status: Cryptocurrency traders who frequently buy and sell tokens can use a block explorer to verify the status of their transactions. Once users have initiated a transaction, they can obtain an auto generated transaction hash and that could be looked into by an explorer to verify the payment and whether it has been successful.

Popular Eth1 Explorers

Etherscan

Etherscan is the leading BlockChain Explorer, Search, API, and Analytics tool for the Ethereum chain.

• Released in 2015, it is one of the first few explorers available to access Ethereum chain data .
• It hosts a series of web-based applications to explore the public Ethereum network based on transactions that have been verified on the Ethereum blockchain.
• It can only include and view information on transactions that exist on the Ethereum blockchain. It can not show transaction data unless it is picked up by a miner, it is unable to address transaction errors.
• Users can register and build an Etherscan account to get more information about their transactions.
• Developers may use a collection of API resources that can be used either to create decentralized apps or to act as blockchain information data feeds.
• It can be used to fetch data for Ethereum mainnet, Ropsten Testnet, Kovan Testnet, Rinkeby Testnet, and Goerli Testnet.
• It has a gas price tracker which is helpful because the Ethereum network may have issues with instability in gas price which pushes up gas rates, raises transaction costs and results in certain transactions that crash. The lower the gas price, the cheaper it is to run and use decentralized software, so by testing the gas price tracker it is easy to change the gas charge before verifying the purchase.
• It has a whole set of Ethereum statistics and charts that are handy for all types of users. These include the transaction history table, total Ether availability, currency and network information charts, and mining information figures.
• Also for each transaction, it lists details such as the TxHash (transaction hash or transaction ID), the number of the block in which the transaction was registered, the length of the period before the transaction was confirmed, the size of the transaction and the overall transaction cost.

ETHplorer

ETHplorer is a blockchain explorer that allows to track transactions and check the balance of a specific address on the Ethereum blockchain.

• It focuses on tokens for the Ethereum mainnet and the Kovan testnet.
• It is used to monitor Ethereum and ERC20 tokens related movements without logging in to the wallet.
• It gives token details and analytics for cryptocurrency investors, brokers, DeFi and crypto-market traders.
• It gives quick access to Ethereum-issued tokens, along with maps and an in-depth history of token-based transactions, allowing users to transform information into efficient decision-making.
• It tracks the portfolio for every Ethereum address with historic balance charts and transactions.
• It gives full analytics from past accounts to trade rates, purchases and transfers per token per day.
• It explores the marketing opportunities with the API token and shows the widgets.

Etherchain

Etherchain is the Ethereum BlockChain Explorer and it explores the Ethereum chain, check balance, look up transactions and charts.

• It is used for the Ethereum mainnet.
• It offers crucial details such as price, block length, transactions per second and mining difficulties on the Etherchain Blockchain.
• It also helps individuals to check for details on particular accounts or smart contracts built on the Ethereum Blockchain.
• Developers use the platform API to develop products that require routine alerts on the state of the Ethereum network.

Blockchair

Blockchair is a Blockchain Search and Analytics engine for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Cardano, Stellar, Bitcoin SV, EOS, Monero, Tezos, Dash, Zcash, Dogecoin, Bitcoin ABC, Mixin, Groestlcoin

• It is the most private Ethereum explorer.
• It is also used for sorting and filtering (mempool) data.

Blockchair Chrome extension offers the quickest way to search between the 17 blockchains stored data and lets anonymously track the crypto portfolio and respond rapidly to price changes.

• It helps to scan for transactions, addresses, blocks, and even embedded text data.
• It highlights transactions and addresses on every visit to the page.
• It tracks pricing and a 24-hour price update for the most common cryptocurrencies.
• When coins are spread around various wallets and exchanges, the Portfolio Tracker functionality is there which enables the overall performance to be tracked and responds rapidly to 24-hour price adjustments.

Popular Eth2 Explorers

Beaconcha.in

Beaconcha is Eth2 Beacon Chain Explorer and provides a comprehensive and easy to use interface for Eth2 beacon chain.

• It makes it easy to see the proposed blocks, obey the attestations, and track the operation.
• The explorer is created using golang and uses data storage and indexing from a PostgreSQL database.
• To prevent the current situation with the Eth1 chain, where closed source block explorers rule the market, this explorer is open-source and accessible to all.

Beaconchain Dashboard is a app that helps to keep track of validators.

• This app is available on both Android and IOS platforms.
• It keeps track of the online status of validators, balances, returns and more.
• Notification updates to validators
• It gives combined view of the dashboard
• It gives assistance for up to 100 validators;
• It also provied client status alerts
• There are Network updates
• There is sponsorship of various currencies
• There is support for Mainnet & Testnet
• Option to add public key, index or eth 1.0 deposit address validators is also possible.

Beaconscan

Beaconscan is the Official Etherscan Beacon Chain Ethereum 2.0 Explorer

• It was developed by the Etherscan team.
• When validator faces specific circumstances(like stake loss), the watchlist feature in it gives email updates. Penalties can and do happen even to the most trustworthy validators on the Beacon Chain. It can be due to no internet or no electricity connection. Major losses can occur without real-time warnings in an always-on device. To minimize these losses, email reminders are there.
• There is a dashboard feature that displays data unique to each validator. In real-time, data is modified, so that easy verification can be done to identify which validators are doing well.
• Multi-device login , Sharing , and Multi-testnet support are some more features.

BlockAction.io

BlockAction is an Eth2 Pyrmont testnet supporting blockchain explorer.

• It can be used on a regular basis to monitor ETH transactions and estimating staking interest.
• It is an open-source Eth2 explorer for testnet and the mainnet.

Eth2 Stats

Eth2stats is an Eth2 testnet supported block explorer.

• It is a network management suite for beacon node + validator client.
• It is a debugging/developer platform that is ideal for testnets.
• It consists of a command-line interface (to help request the API for node) and an accompanying website (which allows to monitor node from anywhere).

Reference Link=>

Coin Market Cap, Coinsutra, Ethereum.org