Block Explorer
A block explorer is a website that shows the public contents of a blockchain: transactions, addresses, balances and blocks.
What Is a Block Explorer?
A block explorer is a search engine for a blockchain. Entering a transaction ID or an address shows its status, amount, fee, number of confirmations and history. Examples are mempool.space for Bitcoin and Etherscan for Ethereum.
Explorers answer practical questions: did the payment arrive, is the transaction still waiting in the mempool, which token approvals does this address have. They only read public data and never need a seed phrase or a connection to a wallet.
Looking up your own addresses on a third-party explorer tells that site which addresses belong together. Users who care about privacy run their own node and explorer.
A blockchain is a shared, append-only record of transactions kept by many independent computers, so no single party can rewrite it.
Read full definitionA transaction ID (TXID) is the unique hash that identifies a transaction on a blockchain, used to look it up in a block explorer.
Read full definitionMempool, short for memory pool, is a node's temporary storage for unconfirmed cryptocurrency transactions awaiting validation and inclusion in a blockchain block.
Read full definitionBitcoin (BTC) is the first decentralized cryptocurrency, launched in 2009. It uses blockchain technology for secure, peer-to-peer digital transactions without intermediaries.
Read full definitionEthereum is a decentralized blockchain platform that enables smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps). Its native cryptocurrency is Ether (ETH).
Read full definitionA token approval lets a smart contract spend a set amount of your tokens. It stays active until it is used up or revoked.
Read full definitionA mnemonic phrase is a set of words that stores a cryptocurrency wallet's private keys, allowing users to recover access if lost.
Read full definitionA node is a computer running blockchain software that connects to the network, validates transactions, and maintains a copy of the ledger.
Read full definitionReal-World Examples
Example 1: A withdrawal hasn't arrived; the transaction ID on an explorer shows it waiting for confirmation with a low fee.
Example 2: A user checks an Ethereum address on an explorer's approval page and revokes an old unlimited approval.
A transaction ID (TXID) is the unique hash that identifies a transaction on a blockchain, used to look it up in a block explorer.
Read full definitionEthereum is a decentralized blockchain platform that enables smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps). Its native cryptocurrency is Ether (ETH).
Read full definitionA token approval lets a smart contract spend a set amount of your tokens. It stays active until it is used up or revoked.
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