Block explorer
A block explorer is a website for looking up any transaction, address or block on a network. It needs no account and shows the same data any node sees: the blockchain is public in full.
What you can check with it
Most often, the fate of a transfer. A transaction hash shows whether it left the mempool, which block it landed in and how many confirmations it has. That answers "where did my money go" faster than any support desk.
Then addresses. The balance, the full transaction history and which addresses were involved. This is why crypto is not anonymous: link an address to a person once and an analyst sees all the rest.
And contracts. An explorer shows a token's code, its holder count and the distribution across the largest wallets. A project's tokenomics can be checked here in a couple of minutes without trusting its own website.
How to use it
- Each network has its ownAn Ethereum hash will not be found in a bitcoin explorer. Establish which network the transfer used first.
- Verify contract addressesBefore buying an unfamiliar token, match the address against the project's official source; clones with the same name are common.
- Read the top holdersA handful of wallets holding half the supply is visible immediately, and says more about risk than the whole whitepaper.
- Fees are visible in advanceExplorers show current network load, which tells you whether now is a good moment to send.