Overview
Etherscan is a block explorer and analytics platform for Ethereum. The company's platform operates independently of the blockchain and the transactions on the blockchain. Etherscan is developed to give users an equitable way to access blockchain data, with transparent and accessible results. The platform allows users to search through transactions, blocks, wallet addresses, and smart contracts, amongst other on-chain data and is a free-to-use block explorer. In this way, Etherscan acts like a search engine for the Ethereum blockchain in which a user can use a transaction hash to check all related activity. Etherscan was built and launched in 2015 by CEO and founder Matthew Tan with the mission to provide equitable access to blockchain data.
Etherscan allows users to view assets held on any public Ethereum address, any transactions that have occurred, and the history of transactions of a given wallet address on Ethereum. Etherscan can also display gas fees or smart contracts involving the given address, which means users can perform the following with Etherscan:
- Calculate Ethereum gas fees
- Look up and verify smart contracts
- View the cryptocurrency assets held in or associated with a public wallet address
- Observe live transactions on the Ethereum blockchain
- Look up a single transaction made from an Ethereum wallet
- Discover smart contracts with a verified source code and security audit
Etherscan is also capable of tracking the progress of incoming transfers, by searching for the transaction on Etherscan by using its hash key. And Etherscan can be used to analyze on-chain metrics, such as changes to Ether (ETH) gas costs, and to allow users to keep track of their portfolio and monitor transaction histories to search for suspicious activity.
To view transactions on Etherscan, a user enters a wallet address in the search field on the Etherscan home page, which will display an overview of the total wallet balance and list transactions the wallet has engaged in. This includes a breakout of transactions for ETH, ERC-721, and ERC-20 tokens and internal transactions. While also offering a view of pending transactions, as well as the gas price and transaction fees paid for a pending or completed transaction. The same search function can be used to look up specific transactions attached to a wallet with a known transaction ID.
Users can register and create accounts in Etherscan, and normal users can add addresses to a "watch list" and be notified via email of incoming transactions. For developers, Etherscan offers a set of API services that can be used to build decentralized applications or to be used as data feeds for Ethereum blockchain information. An extra feature offers users a chance to see which airdrop campaigns on the Ethereum network are active and which have already paid out, offering users a chance to check their eligibility for certain airdrops.
Explorer as a service (EaaS)
With their explorer as a service (EaaS), Etherscan works to offer a complete, fully hosted, fully-managed block explorer solution. This includes the basic search functions of the original Etherscan explorer; API services, to power dApps and websites in a given ecosystem; analytics and dashboards for increased insights on a given blockchain; off-chain metadata, such as token information, labels, and name tags; an independent interface for smart contracts; and tools for verifying contracts are deployed properly and the deployed contract matches those published by a project.
