Crypto Homework Assignment by @sapwood

This assignment about the various aspects of a crypto transaction takes me back to the end of 2016 when I was first introduced to Bitcoin. Looking back at that moment, I feel very happy that I did stumble upon Bitcoin. Now, 4 years later I know a whole lot more about Bitcoin and Blockchain technology. So, here is my take on the homework task by @sapwood

How do I find (or what is the easiest way to find) the block explorer of any Blockchain? Examples

Back in 2016 when I was new to the world of crypto I had no idea about its working. In fact, I had no idea about blockchain either. I believe that most of the new crypto entrants would also be in the same position that I was in 4 years ago.

As a newcomer, I felt alienated in the crypto sphere. My very first encounter with a block explorer was when I transferred Bitcoin from my Zebpay wallet to my Unocoin wallet. The wallets provide you a clickable like to the block explorer of the crypto that you just transferred.

^{Clickable links provided by Binance for every transaction}
In my opinion, this is the easiest way to find a block explorer of any blockchain. Just make a transfer from your wallet and you will be able to see a clickable transaction ID that will take you to the block explorer.

^{Various official blockchain explorers that are listed for every project on Coinmarketcap}
It took me a few months after my first Bitcoin transfer when I stumbled upon CoinMarketCap. This is like the go-to place if you want to check out the price of every cryptocurrency out there. What more? Want to visit the official website of the project or perhaps want to view the block explorer of the blockchain, the trusted links to these sites are all provided in the details of the crypto project.

So, websites like Coinmarketcap and CoinGecko are a central place to find all official links related to any crypto project.

What are confirmations and How do I see the number of verified confirmations?

Cryptocurrencies are decentralized and are not controlled by a single entity. Any transaction that you do on a blockchain network enters a pool containing transactions made by people around the world.

These transactions need to be verified before the receiver receives the funds. The process of verifying these transactions is done by the miners or in the case of Steem, the witness nodes.

^{One of my recent transaction has over 17000 block confirmations now}
Only after a certain number of confirmations will a transaction be marked as complete and the receiver would be able to see the funds in his/her wallet.

The whole process of confirming transactions takes some time as the miner would have to solve complex cryptographic problems to validate a transaction. This validation is done by many miners. After a certain number of confirmations, a transaction is marked as complete.

Until a minimum number of confirmations are not received, the transaction would still be in the processing phase. You can easily track the number of verification that your transaction has received by heading over to the block explorer of the crypto that you transferred.

How do I find the transaction hash, sender address, receiver's address, network fees of a particular transaction?

Every transaction that you make on any blockchain is mapped to a unique transaction ID called the transaction hash. From a computer science point of view, a hash is a unique key that maps to a value.

^{Details such as the Sender and receiver address, the transaction hash, network fee, etc}
In the case of the transaction on a blockchain, the transaction ID is our transaction hash and the value is a complex object containing details such as the timestamp of the transaction, the sender’s wallet address, the receiving wallet address, the transaction fee, etc.

To find the transaction hash all you need to do is go to the wallet that you sent or received crypto. You should be able to see a unique cipher that is long and makes no sense. If this is a clickable link you can simply click on it or you can copy this complex hash and past it in the block explorer of that blockchain.

This will load the entire transaction details such as the senders. receiver’s address, the timestamp of the transaction, the number of confirmations, and also the fee associated with the transaction.

^{In this example I have used my Tron address and can now see some of the most recent transaction that were made to this address.}
If you are having a hard time finding the transaction hash, simply copy your wallet address from which the transaction was made and past it in the block explorer. This would load the details of all the transactions made from the wallet along with details such as the existing wallet balance, etc.

By clicking on the latest transaction you will be able to see the transaction hash, the addresses, the fees, etc.

How do I verify if a wallet address is valid for a network or not (using Block Explorer)? Examples

The best way to verify if an address is valid or not is to make use of the official block explorer of the blockchain. Just copy the wallet address that you want to transfer the funds to and past it in the block explorer.

If the address is valid, you should be able to see the details of the particular address such as the balance, the transactions made, the date of creation, etc.

The below screenshot shows the details of my Tron wallet that’s associated with my steemit account.

^{My valid Tron address search on the Tron Explorer}
In case the address that you entered is wrong, it should return a search not found output. In my case, I added a couple of extra characters to the end of the address and it returned a not found result.

^{Not found error for invalid Tron addresses}
I truly enjoyed refreshing my knowledge about the crypto basic. Thanks to @sapwood for coming up with clear information about the basics. The fact that he left out a bit for us to do our research definitely helps any newcomer to learn a whole lot more about the crypto world.
Regards

Thanks, @steemcurator01 and @steemcurator02 for the support they constantly give to the whole community.

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