How do you look up a transaction on the Blockchain?

Ever found yourself wondering how you could review your purchase or someone else’s purchase on the blockchain? Surprising, it is easier than you might think. There are some great tools out there that provide a visually appealing and intuitive way to navigate a cryptocurrency’s blockchain. Let’s take a look at some of them. But first, let’s jump into the what and why of blockchain exploring.

What are blockchain explorers?

A blockchain explorer is a type of software that extracts data from a blockchain, creates a database for you to search for particular information from the available resources. They allow users to see all the details related to various cryptocurrency transactions, including the amount, the source and the destination, and the status of transactions.

Why use a blockchain explorer?

A blockchain wallet provides a bit of data but it is limited in details. An explorer provides data related to the transactions carried out on all wallets on a specific blockchain. This helps maintain transparency.

Explorers allow users to check balance and expenditure on smart contract addresses, for checking if a wallet address is valid to a blockchain before sending crypto coins to it. They also help in checking whether the transaction has reached the intended recipient and see what went wrong if the transaction has not gone through. Explorers also give information about the cost of a transaction. As research tools, explorers help users in making important decisions on transactions and investments.

One of the oldest blockchain explorers is blockexplorer.com. And since then, many such tools have been created and released. Here is a list of just some:

blockchain.com — now blockchain.org
blockchair
tokenview
etherscan.

Most of the available blockchain explorers cover a majority of blockchains like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Cardano.

Blockchain Explorer

One of my favorites and possibly the easiest one to use, Blockchain Explorer from Blockchain.com. But I would also push you to explore EtherScan too. Both come highly recommended.

Block Explorer launched in August 2011. It began as a way for anyone to study bitcoin transactions, along with a variety of helpful charts and statistics about activity on the network.

To look up a bitcoin transaction, users can visit https://www.blockchain.com/explorer and use the search bar on the upper right to learn more about a particular bitcoin address, transaction hash, or block number by entering it in the search field.

Once you click enter, information about your search query will display.

What’s really cool is that they even provide some test data so you can get a hang of the exercise before you start searching around the real deal! Take a look at this transaction we found on the blockchain as an example.

Etherscan

Etherscan is a blockchain explorer for the Ethereum network. The website allows you to search through transactions, blocks, wallet addresses, smart contracts, and other on-chain data. It’s one of the most popular Ethereum blockchain explorers and is free to use.

Using Etherscan can help you understand exactly how you interact with the blockchain, other wallets, and DApps. This knowledge can also help you stay safe and spot suspicious behavior.

To use Etherscan, you’ll need a wallet address, transaction ID (TXID), contract address, or another identifier to paste into the search field. The information you’ll see will depend on what you’re looking at, but most of it will include associated transactions, addresses, timestamps, and amounts.

You can also interact directly with smart contracts to make transactions, check gas fees, and search for airdrops through Etherscan.

How to look up a transaction and wallet on Etherscan

A basic feature of Etherscan is tracking transactions. Understanding how to follow your cryptocurrency is a key to unlocking all the rest of a blockchain’s information. For example, imagine you’ve sent 0.025 ether (ETH) from your wallet to the following public address: 0x480bbcb368197d44c6f54a738e59c33eff004b6a.

You also paid a 0.001559212674537 ETH transaction fee on top. After making the transaction, your wallet displays this TXID:

0x80a3cc0f344651b3de745b2f1efbe8d35d4f348e95b345c8a840ebf955414fa5

Let’s say you want to check the number of confirmations the transaction has and see if it has been sent successfully.

1. Head to the Etherscan homepage and look for the search field at the top of the page.

2. Next, copy and paste the transaction ID (TXID) into the search field and press the search icon.

3. Now you can see all the details regarding your specific transaction:

4. You can also press the [Click to see More] button for more detailed information, but for now, let’s go through just the default display:

Transaction Hash

The string of numbers and letters (TXID) associated with your particular transaction.

Status

Whether your transaction has failed, is in progress, or was successful.

Block

The block number your transaction was included in. You can also see how many times your transaction has been confirmed. This is the number of blocks added to the chain after your transaction’s block.

Timestamp

The timestamp of the block your transaction was added to.

From

The wallet address that made the transaction..

To

The receiving address or smart contract.

Value

The amount sent in the transaction.

Transaction Fee

The fee paid for making the transaction.

Gas Price

The cost per unit of gas for the transaction.

TXN Type

Information on whether a transaction was conducted under the old legacy gas system (1) or the new EIP-1559 block fee system (2).

From the data above, it’s simple to see the transaction was successful and received enough confirmations. You could also check the status of your transaction by taking a look at the receiving wallet.

For this, you’ll need to go back to the search bar and paste the receiving wallet address:

0x480bbcb368197d44c6f54a738e59c33eff004b6a

At the bottom of the page, we can see the list of all transactions associated with the address:

The transaction in red is the 0.025 ETH you originally sent. You can see it marked as In, showing that the address you searched was on the receiving end. At the top of the page, you can also see an overview of the wallet’s balance.