Blockchain explorers are useful parts when you use decentralized cryptocurrencies. This allows you to track your assets and find info about any other transaction.
So, Cardano is no exception and has its explorer. In this article, we answer 3 popular questions about the Cardano Explorer. Let’s dive in.
What Is the Cardano Explorer?
The Cardano Explorer finds data for you on the Cardano blockchain. All transactions and new blocks end up in this explorer. Most importantly, the information is easy to understand. The explorer displays this in a way, so you can follow it easily. You can also find all kinds of relevant information about epochs. To clarify, epochs are 5-day periods on the Cardano blockchain.
Today we’ve started deploying our new #Cardano Explorer 1.0.0, a completely re-engineered application based on the latest Byron reboot infrastructure. Our new Cardano Explorer offers a significant step up from the original (released back in 2017 at Cardano mainnet launch) 1/2 pic.twitter.com/cJosxOib6q
— Input Output (@InputOutputHK) May 19, 2020
There are various Cardano explorers out there. We know of at least another five different Cardano explorers. For instance, the picture below shows the Cardanoscan. It offers similar information and services. Also, you can use the Cardano Blockchain Explorer.
Source: Cardanoscan
For example, the information you can find includes:
- The number of blocks produced during an epoch.
- The exact time the epoch started.
- The time of the last produced block.
- The number of processed transactions.
- Total output in ADA.
See the picture below from the Cardano Explorer.
Source: Cardano docs
How to Use Cardano Explorer?
The Cardano Explorer is easy to use. However, it always works best if we show you a sample. That’s what we’re about to do right now.
As we mentioned above, you can find all kinds of information. From DeFi to NFTs, it stores and shows everything. So, if you click on a specific block, you can find more of this information:
- The block ID.
- Block size.
- Epoch and block details.
- The number of included transactions and confirmations.
The picture below shows all these details.
However, we can even go into further detail. We can also click on a specific transaction. Once you find a specific transaction, click on it. Now you should see a similar display as in the picture below.
Source: IOHK Zendesk
On the left side are three addresses. This is the input side. You can see the small arrow, it points to two output addresses. One is the receiver’s address. The other address is the ‘change address’. If there’s any remaining ADA from the input addresses, this is where it goes back to the sender’s wallet.
The reason you see more than one input address is that your wallet is a collection of various addresses. That’s either in unspent transaction outputs or UTxO. These wallets hold ADA, which you can spend or send. So, once you make a transaction, the wallet chooses an input address.
For example:
- Address 1: 1 ADA
- Address 2: 10 ADA
- Address 3: 100 ADA
As a result, if you send 105 ADA, your wallet decides on address 1 and 2. It will send back the 5 remaining ADA. This explains the three input addresses and the ‘change address’.
The Cardano Explorer API
The Cardano API is like the spider in the middle of the web. In general, an API connects two apps and lets them talk to each other. Hence, the name API. This stands for Application Programming Interface. So, for what the Cardano API does the following.
- See information about a specific epoch. This can also be a specific transaction.
- The API gets the request through the website, the front end. The API now starts to talk to the explorer’s back end, the actual explorer.
- The explorer delivers the requested info to the API. In turn, the API turns this into readable and understandable information.
As with all Cardano products, this API functions great. That’s because Cardano tests everything extensively. Once they complete testing, they release it. Some people think that Cardano is slow. We rather see this as being thorough. As a result, this API works reliably.
There’s also a list of other Cardano explorers you can check out:
Conclusion
The Cardano Explorer is a popular and important part of the Cardano blockchain. It allows you to see everything that happened in the Cardano blockchain. From complete epochs to single transactions.
Finally, the ADA token price today is at $0.455665 with a market cap of $15.4 billion. The max supply of ADA is 45 billion tokens, and 33.8 billion tokens circulate already.
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Thanks for sharing.
I research on all explorer which you mentioned in article.
But i personally go with Cardano scan.