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
A detailed list of all token holdings can be viewed by clicking on the wallet icon in the Overview section at the top of the Address page. Information such as the amount, price (if available), and links to the token’s contract address will be displayed for each token.
On Celo Explorer, all tokens can be viewed under the Tokens tab.
Transactions vs. Token Transfers
The Transactions tab displays all an address's incoming and outgoing transactions. This tab includes both token transfers and methods called, whereas the ERC20 Token Txns tab only displays token transfers.
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 redirect 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, all the swaps will be listed if the transaction was a swap and multiple routes were used.
- 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 information
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. This will redirect to the token’s page, displaying only the transactions for the selected address.
Celo Explorer: go to the Tokens tab and click on the token name to filter. The page will update to display all token transfers for that specific token.
NFTs
To locate an NFT transaction, use the filtering tips above, then click on the NFT’s Token ID. On Celo Explorer, a visual representation of the NFT will also be displayed.