What’s a Blockchain Explorer?

A blockchain explorer is a website that is used to visualize and trace data on a blockchain public ledger, a blockchain explorer enables everyone to trace public addresses, address balances, transactions (which are gotten from transaction hashes), smart contracts, contract addresses, the content of each block of the transaction on the blockchain. Different blockchains have different blockchain explorers, there are a lot of blockchain explorers.

Transparency is a key feature of Blockchain technology, and blockchain explorers play an important role in this value proposition. A blockchain explorer can be simply defined as a web-based tool that allows you to search for real-time and recorded information on the blockchain public ledger, information like data about blocks, transactions, addresses, tokens information, etc. Examples of famous blockchain explorers are Blockchain.com for bitcoin blockchain, Etherscan for Ethereum blockchain, Bscan for BNB Blockchain, Solscan for Solana blockchain, and a lot more. In this article, we will be focusing on Solscan, the blockchain explorer for the Solana ecosystem.

Solana Blockchain

Solana is a blockchain platform that is partially decentralized and scalable. It is an open-source project that implements a new, permissionless, and fast layer-1 blockchain. Solana aims to outperform popular blockchains in terms of transaction processing speed while keeping its transaction fees low. Solana is much faster in terms of transaction processing capacity and has much lower transaction fees than competing blockchains like Ethereum. Solana blockchain has a tps (transactions per second) of 65,000 at best, but about 3,000 tps on average.

Solana was founded in 2017 by Anatoly Yakovenko. Solana faces some relapses due to its foundation (Solana Foundation) which validates transactions on the Solana blockchain, these validators(nodes) in the Solana foundation control about 50% percent of the network, making its blockchain less trusted (centralized) compared to other top tier blockchains like Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain (BSC).

What Is Solscan?

Solscan is a blockchain explorer for the Solana ecosystem, Solscan mirrors all that is going-on on the Solana blockchain. Information like public addresses, public address balances, transactions that can be traced from transaction hashes, smart contract information, and NFTs. Solscan can also trace tokens on the Solana blockchain and the tokens standards, tokens contract addresses, information on tokens like a token audition, and a whole lot of information about tokens in the Solana ecosystem. Solscan is a popular substitute for the official Solana explorer. SolScan converts complex transactional data into easily readable text for users to visualize without much knowledge of the blockchain.

Solscan was created with the goal of establishing the framework as a self-governing, automated decentralized platform with the goal of increasing transparency in the Solana blockchain. Solana has a public ledger that is synced with Solscan, which mirrors the transactions on the Solana blockchain and is then available to the public and can be accessed on Solscan.io in what it believes to be the most transparent way. All the blockchain data is transparent and can be tracked on Solscan.

Solscan is not a decentralized wallet like metamask, nor is it a crypto exchange like Binance and Coinex. Solscan doesn't need your private keys to perform any task or to trace any transaction on the Solana blockchain. Solscan is just simply a website that mirrors all the transactions happening on the Solana blockchain. Solscan is not liable for any unresolved blockchain transactions. Solscan is primarily intended for transaction transparency and tracing on the Solana ledger.

Functions of Solscan (Solana Block Explorer)

SolScan functions similarly to other blockchain explorers such as EtherScan and Bscan. Solscan services are free to use and include a variety of useful tools, lists, and analytical graphs. The Solscan explorer also includes a collection of public APIs for incorporating real-time data from the Solana blockchain into custom, third-party applications, and tools. Solscan assists users in comprehending how the blockchain works. Users can also use Solscan to understand the mechanics of DApps users interact with and the transactions users perform. Solscan can be used to replicate useful information about tokens on the Solana ecosystem, such as token market cap, token total supply, and circulating supply.

Solscan can also be used to obtain other useful information about a token to check its transparency, such as the number of holders, the percentage of top holders, and much more. Solscan also identifies fraudulent tokens by identifying tokens that have been audited by audit companies like Certik, Hacken, Quantstamp, etc. Another function of Solscan is to verify legit token contract addresses to differentiate them from fraudulent ones.

How to Use Solscan to Track Transactions?

Solscan's website includes a search textbox for searching transactions. A transaction hash serves as a digital signature for each transaction. There is a transaction hash for actions like sending tokens, minting NFT, selling tokens, exchanging tokens, and so on. It is a long string of numbers and letters that can be found on your smart contract.

Solscan search textbox for searching transactions

To track your transaction on Solscan, copy your transaction hash into the search textbox and search. SolScan will then present all transaction details, including an overview, SOL balance, and tokens balance, after searching the hash of the transaction. If a user searches a public address on Solscan search textbox, Solscan will provide all the transactions that have happened on that address and the addresses it transacted with, and their respective timestamps.

Tracking NFTs on Solscan

Solscan also supports tracking NFT trades and collections and also allows users to see new NFT minted on the Solana blockchain. Solscan has a dashboard just for NFTs and new NFTs minted on Solana reflect there in real-time after minted.

Solscan can be used to view NFT collections on Solana as well as the NFTs in these collections. The most recent NFT exchanges and flips with timestamps of these trades and prices can be found on the trades tab. Wallet addresses involved in these transactions and the platform these transactions were made are also traced on Solscan.

Summary

In summary, Solscan is very important in cryptocurrency, Solscan explorer mirrors all the events on the Solana blockchain. Transparency is one of the most important features of cryptocurrency and blockchain explorer like Solscan makes it possible. Solscan is peculiar to Solana as blockchain.com and Etherscan are peculiar to Bitcoin and Ethereum. Solscan has a lot of features its top-tier blockchain competitors don't possess like the feature of tracking NFTs, NFT trading timestamp, NFT price, trades, and collections.