Blockchain, Decentralization, Block explorer Homework by @hdnakum- Steemit Crypto academy Season 4 - Homework post for Task 4

Hey Steemians,

Good afternoon to everyone,

Greeting to #steemitcrytoacademy -The most engaged community on the steemit platform.

I'm @hdnakum. At very first, I would like to thank @yousafharoonkhan for producing a very informative lecture for the newbies in the field of blockchain technology. Today, after publishing my first three homework posts, I have come up with one more homework lectured by @yousafharoonkhan about Blockchain, Decentralization and Block explorer. Hope you guys will enjoy reading it. In this homework, same as the first three lectures by @sapwood and @awesononso, there are three questions asked by the professor @yousafharoonkhan and he asks us to write down the answer of any one. I will try to give my best to write the answer to the third question by breaking it into three smaller questions.

MAIN QUESTION:

What is a block explorer? And what are its purpose and use? Search for different cryptocurrency block explorers and list them below. At least five different cryptocurrencies. Also, explore the transaction of a crypto coin on block explorer and explain with the help of a screenshot.

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Question 1

What is a Block Explorer? And what are its purpose and use?

a) Block Explorer

When you face any transaction error in the centralized world, you simply go to that centralized body or call their helpline for the errors that occurred and then you plead with them to resolve the issue. But wait what if you got some error or want detailed information about your transaction in the world of decentralization. You can't call Vitalik Buterin or Changpeng Zhao or Justin Sun or Charles Hoskin and thier teams for your Ether, or BNB, or TRX, or ADA transaction errors or information.

Note that every blockchain has its own block explorer app or website which will give you detail information about every block from the genesis block. To have your all transaction statements, in the centralized world, you need to go to the centralized bank and demand your monthly statement printed on your passbook. Same way, block explorers do the job of banks in a decentralized manner where you only need to search on the respective block explorer tool online without going anywhere.

b) Purpose of using Block Explorer

In short, Block explorer is a tool that provides every detail related to a particular blockchain network from its inception. This tool, block explorer, is a kind of search engine where anyone can find details about the particular blocks including the number of transactions processed and confirmed through it.

From the respective blockchain explorer, you can get data such as the latest price of the native token/coin, block heights (latest block), Transaction per second (TPS), details of validators/witnesses/Super representatives, Latest transaction, Block minting rewards and lot more.

Question 2

Search for different cryptocurrency block explorers and list them below. At least five different cryptocurrencies?

You can find as many block explorers as many blockchains are into existent. Initially, there was only one blockchain named Bitcoin with its native Currency Bitcoin (BTC) and so had only one block explorer, But after that, the blockchain technology took a parabolic route of development of new blockchain each day. However, few notable Blockchain technologies are very much dear to investors and developers. Below, I have mentioned some of the best blockchains, their native token and their block explorer. you can visit the following 13 depicted block explorer to know more about it.

Sr. No.	Blockchain Name	Native Coin	Block Explorer
1.	Ethereum	ETHER (Eth)	Etherscan.io
2.	Binance Smart Chain	BNB	BSCscan.com
3.	Solana	SOL	Explorer.solana.com
4.	Tron	TRX	Tronscan.org
5.	Steem	STEEM	Steemscan.com
6.	Hive	HIVE	Hiveexplorer.com
7.	Cardano	ADA	Explorer.cardano.org
8.	Polkadot	DOT	Polkascan.io
9.	Vechain	VET	Explorer.vechain.org
10.	Zilliqa	Zil	viewblock.io
11.	Bitcoin	BITCOIN (BTC)	Blockexplorer.com
12.	Theta	THETA	Explorer.thetatoken.org
13.	Terra	LUNA	Teraexplorer.org/

There are a lot more blockchain and their respective block explorer can be added but I think I will be enough for you guys to understand how the block explorer works.

Question 3

Explore the transaction of a crypto coin on block explorer and explain with the help of a screenshot.

a) Exploring Etherscan.io

If someone wants to know where the Ether goes from where then you need to visit Etherscan.io. Etherscan is a block explorer of the Etherum blockchain chain which monitor everything that is happening on the ethereum platform.

If you want to know more information about the block, e.g if you want to know more about block number 13262045, you have to click on that block number. By clicking I got the following information about the block.

Now if you want to know about the latest transaction, you have to click on Latest transition which will redirect to that transaction page.

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b) Exploring BSCscan.com

To explore Binance Smart chain explorer, you need to visit their official website named BSCscan.com. Most of the time you won't get difficulty using BSCscan.com if you have used Etherscan.io because they look like in similar manners.

If you want to know more information about the latest block 11078217, you have to click on that block number. By clicking you will get the following information about the block.

By hitting on the Latest transaction, you can get tonnes of essential information about that transaction such as Transaction hash, value (BNB), Address of Reciever and Sender, Transaction free etc.

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c) Exploring Explorer.solana.com

Solana is one of my favourite projects. Solana blockchain works on a proof of History (POH) consensus mechanism which makes it the fastest and more secure blockchain. If you want to see how and where the Solana transaction is happening, you need to visit solana Block Explorer. As shown below, Solana Explorer doesn't show much information but still provides essential information.

To get the information about a particular block, you need to search the number of Block at a top of the Home-page, e.g
Search latest block 87,221,966, you will get the following information.

By scrolling down, you will get the latest transaction data. Once you hit on any transaction, it will show all the essential data related to that transaction.

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d) Exploring Hiveexplorer.com

Those who are using the Steemit and steem blockchain must be familiar with the hive blockchain. You need to visit Hiveexplorer.com to see information about any latest or already minted blocks.

Now as we know the latest block is 57,590,670 on Hiveexplorer.com. if you click on it, it will open a new window with all the detail of block 57,590,670, as shown below.

By clicking on the latest transaction as directed in the above image, you will find essential details about this transaction.

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e) Exploring Theta Explorer

I have found Theta Explorer very cool and most informative than any other explorer discussed above. It has easy to use interface and it looks pretty amazing as well. when you visit Theta Explorer, you will get a home page as shown below.

When you scroll a little down, you have both the option to check which are the latest block and the latest transaction. As we can see latest block is on theta network 12086275. If you click on it, I will show the following interface with tonnes of data about block 12086275.

Now once we click on the latest transaction, it will show the following data about the recent transaction. It shows all details such as Transaction fees, Wallet address of sender and receiver, Time, Transaction Hash etc.

I hope you guys got an idea about how Blockexplorer works and what detail it can provide to us. I have explained block explorer of five blockchains/cryptocurrencies (Ethereum (ETH), Binance smart Chain (BNB), Solana (SOL), Hive (HIVE) and Theta network) which might help you understand well about Block explorers modus operandi.

Conclusion

In short, I have found Block explorer is very much essential for tracking any kind of transaction, even in the case of misuse of cryptocurrency. I had once thought that lest's include Steem Explorer but most of the people on steemit knows how to use Steem Explorer. Finally, I decided to take some well know cryptocurrency block explorers which might be helpful to the readers. I would like to thanks @yousafharoonkhan for creating the homework that has inspired me to explore Block explorer other than Steemscan.com. I would like to Thank @sapwood for inspiring me to start writing homework posts in @SteemitCryptoAcademy. Wrapping up guys, hope you liked my post.

^{All images used above are originally made by @hdnakum using Canva and Adobe illustrator. ©2021 @hdnakum All Rights Reserved}