Block explorer

A block explorer is a website that lets you search and read a blockchain in a human-friendly way. You can paste in a transaction ID, a wallet address or a block number and see the details: amounts, fees, confirmations, timestamps and which addresses were involved.

Popular explorers include mempool.space and Blockstream's explorer for Bitcoin, Etherscan for Ethereum, BscScan for BNB Chain, Tronscan for Tron and Solscan for Solana. Most also show network statistics such as current fees, block times and hash rate.

Explorers are the easiest way to check whether a payment has really been sent, which matters when an exchange or a seller says "it's on the way". They also show that public blockchains are transparent: anyone can see the balance and history of any address. Be aware that searching your own address on a third-party site can link your IP address to that address, so privacy-minded users run their own node and explorer.