Key facts:
Etherscan has tools to track the EIP-1559 ETH burn.
There are “twin brothers” of Etherscan in other networks, including BSCscan and Polygonscan.
Ethereum is a blockchain with an open ledger. This means that you can see all transactions on the network, including movements of the native cryptocurrency, ether (ETH); token creation and transfer; and execution of smart contracts. To see what is happening on Ethereum you need special tools known as block explorers. In this tutorial we will show you how to use one of them: Etherscan.
You may be wondering what a tool like this is for in daily use. There are several functionalities. One of them is that you can see the balance of your address in a safe way without having to connect your wallet. You could, for example, save your public address to a text file and consult Etherscan when you want to see your holdings, both ETH and Ethereum tokens.
Likewise, Etherscan is a very complete block explorer that allows deep analysis of different metrics within Ethereum. If you want to know in more detail what a block explorer is and everything it offers you, read the corresponding article in the Criptopedia, which is the educational section of CriptoNoticias.
For practical reasons, in this tutorial we will only focus on exploring and reading what information Etherscan offers about Ethereum addresses, Without going into statistics and other data that the browser allows access to.
How is the main interface of Etherscan
What you see in the previous image corresponds to the Etherscan interface. It is accessed from the web address etherscan.io.
there it is organizes various information regarding Ethereum, both on markets (current ETH price, market capitalization, etc.) such as number of transactions, transaction fees, and mining difficulty. At the bottom you can see the latest transactions along with the latest mined blocks.
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Each link that is marked in blue, as are the source and destination addresses (from, to), miner name or block number, allows access to more detailed information.
At the top is the search enginewhich is that white bar under the legend “The Ethereum Blockchain Explorer” (The Ethereum Blockchain Explorer). The search engine will be one of the main elements that we will use in this tutorial.
Last but not least is the portal menu. Here you can see all the tools that Etherscan offers. Using them does not require any type of registration or login, although, if you wish, you can create an account within the platform.
How to view Ethereum address information on Etherscan
To carry out this process, the first thing you must have copied to the clipboard is the address to consult. Paste it into the search bar and click the search icon (the magnifying glass).
Etherscan allows you to observe various details of each transaction in Ethereum. Source: Etherscan.
What you see in the previous image is all the information that Etherscan gives you when you consult about an Ethereum address. We have divided it into 5 sections which are explained below:
- Here you will find the address along with two buttons. One of them, the Blockscan (the lowercase “b”) allows to identify in which other networks this address is being used (regardless of the network, the same address will belong to the same owner). A Blockscan chat comments icon is displayed next to this, allowing users to create a discussion forum around this address. For example, someone can report if an address was used to carry out a scam.
- In this section the address labels assigned by Etherscan are placed. The image above shows the address that the Government of Ukraine is currently using to receive donations. That is why it has been assigned the label «donate” (Donate). In case of identifying any scam, Etherscan will place a warning label.
- Here you can see data regarding the total value of the portfolio. It is expressed in ETH, token units, or in fiat money.
- Details about the address are displayed here. These are added directly by Etherscan. They can be, for example, data that complements the address such as the fact that it is being used to carry out a scam.
- In this section you will find the different transaction listings, divided according to the types of assets (ETH, ERC-20 tokens, NFT ERC-721 and ERC-1155) along with analysis graphs and comments from other users.
Although it is a fairly general list, you, as a private user, may be interested in reviewing the list of transactions. As stated above, Etherscan allows you to identify and track your wallet movements without the need to open the app. Imagine that someone claims to have made a payment to you, how do you know if this was really the case? With Etherscan you can know. The transfer must appear in the list with the label pending («pending«), above the column Method.
Another important point, in terms of security, is knowing which address you are sending money to. If you have doubts about a certain address and, for some reason, it seems suspicious, it does not hurt to place it on Etherscan and consult the comments of other users to find out what is being said about it.
Consult information of a transaction in Etherscan
As we explained in the previous point, with Etherscan you can consult a large amount of information about an Ethereum address.
In addition, you can view transaction details for this or any address. To do this, you can either paste the “tx ID” (transaction identifier), or click on it within the transaction table of an address.
What you have here are the details of a transaction, which are divided into:
- transaction hash (transaction hash): this is the identifier or “tx ID” of the transaction.
- Status (condition): is the status of the transaction. It can vary between pending (pending), success (confirmed) and rejected (rejected).
- block (block): details which block the transaction was mined on, which you can click on and view the details and information for the particular block. It also shows you the number of confirmations that the transaction has.
- Timestamp (timestamp): refers to the time the block was mined (time and date) along with a counter that shows how long ago the transaction was confirmed.
- desde (origin): origin address of the transaction. That is, who is the sender.
- To (destination): destination address of the funds.
- Value (value): total amount sent, whether in ETH or any other token, along with its equivalent in fiat money.
- Transaction Fee (fee per transaction): shows the total value paid by commission.
- Gas Price (gas price): gas price at the time of executing the transaction. Gas is the unit with which the computational expense in Ethereum is measured for miners to confirm a transaction. On the Etherscan home page you can see the current price of gas (gwei) before submitting a transaction.
- private note (private note): They are details that you can enter as labels, or personal information. To use this option you must have created an Etherscan account. This data will only be visible to you.
For practical purposes, by viewing this data you can tell, for example, when a transaction is irreversibly confirmed. This happens when it is marked with the status «Success» and if you have at least 18 confirmations. Until then you cannot consider that you have received a payment.
How to check token addresses on Etherscan
In Etherscan you can also see detailed information about a particular token. Thus, you could find signs of a possible fraud or see elements to evaluate before making an investment.
For that you must place in the search bar the ticker (code) or token name. In this tutorial, we will look at the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin.
Here, as you may have already noticed, the organization of the data is basically the same as on the page to consult information about Ethereum addresses. Just change the address to the name of the token and the same legends and labels are preserved.
The details box (1) shows the price of the token, the total tokens in circulation (Max Total Supply), the holders of that token (Holders), and the number of transactions made with this token, which, in the case of USDC, accumulate more than 36 million.
The data on the holders and the number of transactions made are important to identify a possible scam. The greater the number of holders, the less chance it is a scam. In the case of USDC there are more than 1.3 million addresses with USDC deposited.
Section #2 shows details and information related to the token, such as its official website and the different social networks.
In the lower section (3), there are the transactions related to this token. Here you can also find information such as which are each of the holders that owns this token and the number of tokens that each of those addresses owns. In addition to this, the list of DEX (decentralized exchanges) in which you can exchange this token is shown.
In the table below you can also find information about the smart contract in which the token was generated, the cryptoactive’s own statistics and comments from the community.
Conclution
Etherscan is one of those tools that exist, maybe you think you don’t need them, but you really do. They provide super important functions when trading on Ethereum.
While Etherscan may seem overloaded with information, in the tutorial we highlight what you should give importance to in order to take advantage of the tool.
Also, although the tutorial breaks down much of the functionality that Etherscan offers, there is still much to see, especially in the analytical and exploration part. In these sections Etherscan has very complete tools.
For all this, Etherscan should be one of those tools that you have at hand whenever you use the Ethereum network.