Blockchain Browser, is a search tool, is also a website, specifically for users to browse and query information on the crypto wallet address lookup. Because of the open and transparent nature of the blockchain, it needs a medium for users to see the situation on the chain, and the blockchain browser is this medium. In the blockchain browser, you only need to enter the ID of a certain transaction, etc., to query their details. Today, the author of this article shares how to design a complete blockchain browser.
Recently, I am following up a blockchain project, which involves the part of blockchain browser, and I have researched and sorted out how to design a blockchain browser.
What is a Blockchain browser
When talking about the need to make a "blockchain browser" for this project, a young brother said to me very seriously: to make a browser?
In fact, the blockchain browser and the traditional IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari or a little different, I prefer to define it as a data visualization tool on the blockchain network.
Blockchain as a way of data storage and processing, itself does not exist in a visual form, through the visual way to facilitate users to obtain data information on the blockchain a tool, most of the present in the form of web.
Users do not need to understand the underlying technology of the blockchain, through the web page, directly on the blockchain browser to view the node, block and transaction information on the blockchain, do not need to view the log through the interface to query data.
At present, it seems that the blockchain browser is an essential infrastructure for a blockchain project, and a product manager must not bypass the blockchain browser when designing a complete blockchain product.
What should Blockchain browsers include
Here, we must first make it clear that the blockchain browsers of different blockchain projects are not completely consistent, and generally adjust according to the underlying technology options and project needs of the blockchain, but abandon the complicated surface, we can still summarize some core elements.
Chain Overview information
It is generally a general overview of the block chain to describe the overall operating structure of the block chain, which generally includes the current block height, the total number of transactions, the node profile, the latest (several) block information, the latest (several) transaction information, etc.
Block (Block) information
The blockchain is composed of a block, a block is similar to the record in MySQL, and each time data is written to the chain, a block is created.
The display of block information is determined according to the data structure of the blockchain, and the data structure of different blockchains is different, but it can generally be divided into block heads (Head) and block bodies (Body).
Transaction information
In the blockchain, Transaction represents a transaction, which simply refers to a transfer transaction. It mainly includes transaction time, owning block, transaction status, transaction cost, initiating account, target account and other information, as well as endorsement information, chain code and so on.
Smart Contract information
On a Turing-complete blockchain, there is another kind of Transaction - a transaction based on a smart Contract, which is essentially a special kind of transaction, but its content is much more complex than a transaction.
The display of contract information mainly includes the name of the contract, the version of the language used in the contract and the content of the code. However, as far as I can see from the results of my research, none of these blockchain browsers except Etherscan have disclosed this information.
With the stable coin USDT on Etherscan (the small partners who have speculated on the currency must know this stablecoin project known as "pegged to the dollar", which is one of the ERC20 tokens running on Ethereum based on smart contracts, as well as the EOS of the year, let alone tears...)
When we go to the USDT project page, we see a Contract under the Profile Summary.
Address information
The existence of Address is mainly to give users an "account" experience similar to ordinary Internet products, by collecting all transactions under the address/account to display, generally including basic information and transaction information.
