Etherscan is an Ethereum block explorer, launched in 2015 and it is an independent project build around Ethereum.
If you are a beginner, you might want to learn about Ethereum and Blockchain. However, I am going to brief you about them as we discuss Etherscan.
Blockchain is a distributed ledger that stores the transactions of a network. Blockchain is secure but transparent. What does that mean? No one can hack your funds on a blockchain and all the transactions that happen on a blockchain are accessible to everyone in the world but you are still anonymous because you just need an address and nothing else. You don't need to enter your name or proof-of-identity, anywhere to make a transaction on any blockchain.
Coming to Ethereum, Ethereum is a decentralized smart contracts platform. You can make transactions, create and deploy smart contracts, create new tokens and transfer them on the ethereum blockchain.
Every node in the blockchain has a copy of all the transactions that happened on the blockchain from the creation and everyone with a computer having specified storage and internet can be a node.
Etherscan is an ethereum block explorer and it represents all the data that is available on the ethereum blockchain, on their website.
On Etherscan, you can check:
- Balance in any Ethereum address
- Tokens present in any Ethereum address
- Transactions that had taken place using that address
- Transactions in a block using a Block Hash
- Details of a transaction using a Transaction Hash
How to Read an Ethereum Transaction on Etherscan?
Let's say your friend has sent you some Ethereum and you want to check the transaction, the amount of Ethereum he has sent you, and amount of fee he spent on the transaction, etc. Here's how you can check it.
For a start, you can ask your friend for the transaction hash or you can just enter your address in the search bar and click on the 'Transaction Hash' of the recent transaction.
Here is an ethereum transaction, with the transaction hash "0x83a27e7188531b9c89233d5ba74be890ba8bf64b4f0e9edf330fe5a72eb26fce" and the screenshot of the transaction details on Etherscan. Let's go through each section one by one.
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| Source: Etherscan |
Transaction Hash
Every transaction has a unique id, it is called as Transaction Hash. It is like the fingerprint of a transaction. Here the transaction hash is "0x83a27e7188531b9c89233d5ba74be890ba8bf64b4f0e9edf330fe5a72eb26fce".
Status
It shows the status of a transaction, "Success" or "Failed" or "Pending". This transaction is a Success.
Block
Block is the position of the block in the blockchain in which the transaction is present. This transaction is present in the 12524515th block in the Ethereum blockchain.
Timestamp
The date and time at which the transaction has taken place.
From
The address which initiated the transaction and sent Ether.
To
The address which received Ether.
Value
Amount of Ether transferred in the transaction. In this transaction, 0.0675 Eth was transferred which is worth $170 at the moment.
Transaction Fee
Amount of fee required to make the transaction. It depends on the load on the ethereum network. We can see the transaction fee as 0.0007392 Eth. Transaction fees vary for transactions and smart contract execution.
Gas price & Gas Limit
A transaction fee is the product of Gas price and Gas limit. You just need to remember one thing that if your transaction is pending, you need to increase the gas price or gas limit to speed up the transaction. Here the Gas price is 35 Gwei and the Gas limit is 21000.
You can find the current gas price here.
Ether price
The closing price of Ether on the day which the transaction took place is $2412.36.
Nonce
Nonce is the count of transactions using the given address starting with 0. Here the nonce is 5, so it is the 6th transaction using that address.
Position
Position is nothing but the position of the transaction in the block. Here, it is the 218th transaction in that block.
Input Data
It is something related to smart contracts.
That's all the information about an Ethereum transaction and how to read it. Though we know the sender's and receiver's addresses, we don't know their identities. That is the specialty of blockchain.
Now to find the balance in that addresses, just click on them or copy and paste them in the search bar and you will be able to find their holdings.
You can give it a try now. Go to Etherscan, paste my Ethereum address 0xF4593434FC961a0ba10D47192294a78756a61757, and comment my Ether balance and other tokens in my Ethereum address.
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