What is a blockchain explorer?
A blockchain explorer is a tool for inspecting and analyzing a blockchain. Most users consult a blockchain explorer to find information about a transaction or address. Two popular explorers within the Celo ecosystem are Celo Explorer and Celoscan. For Ethereum, Etherscan is widely used.
This article covers how to navigate the Address and Transaction pages and locate specific transactions.
Celo Explorer and Celoscan/Etherscan offer similar user interfaces with a few discrepancies. For the purposes of this article, we will use Celoscan as the primary example. Any discrepancies with Celo Explorer will be noted at the end of each section in italics.
How to navigate an Address page
The address page contains all the information about transactions, token transfers, and holdings associated with an address.
Token Holdings
You can view a detailed list of all your holdings if you click on the wallet icon in the Overview section at the top of the Address page. You can view information about each token, including the amount, price (if available), and links to the token’s contract address.
Celo Explorer: You can view the list of all your tokens under the Tokens tab.
Transactions vs. Token Transfers
The Transactions tab displays all the incoming and outgoing transactions of an address. This tab includes both token transfers and methods called. Whereas the ERC20 Token Txns tab only displays token transfers.
For example, claiming Supercharge rewards requires you to call the Claim method on the Supercharge smart contract, which will then transfer funds to your address. Since you called a method involving a transfer of tokens, you will see an entry under both Transactions and ERC20 Token Txns. On the other hand, if your friend sent you funds without using a smart contract, you would only see an entry added under ERC20 Token Txns.
Celo Explorer: The label for the token transfers tab is Token Transfers.
How to navigate a Transaction page
A transaction is identified by its transaction hash. Clicking on the linked transaction hash will take you to the Transaction Details page. Refer to the image below for the location of the transaction hash
Celo Explorer: the transaction hash is the first link in each listed transaction.
The Transaction Details page contains all the information about the specific transaction. The most pertinent information is usually:
- Transaction Hash
- Use this to reference or share a specific transaction.
- Tokens Transferred
- The token name and amount will be displayed. Also, if the transaction was a swap and multiple swaps were used, you will see all the swaps listed.
- Any addresses that tokens were sent to and received from.
- Timestamp
- The transaction’s date and time in UTC.
- Fees and Gas Price
- Status
- This includes error messages that help pinpoint the reason for a failed transaction.
Other useful tips
Filtering
While locating a recent transaction is simple, tracking down a transaction that happened several transactions ago can be more challenging. Explorers provide a filtering option so only transactions of a specific token are displayed.
Go to the Address page and click on the Token dropdown in the Overview section. Then, click on the token you want to display. You will be redirected to that Token’s page, and it will only display transactions for your address.
Celo Explorer: Click on the Tokens tab, then click on the name of the token you want to filter. The page will update to display all token transfers with that token.
NFTs
After you locate the transaction using the filtering tips above for your NFT, click on your NFT’s Token ID. If you are using Celo Explorer, you can see a visual of your NFT.