This article was published as a part of the Data Science Blogathon.
A blockchain is a digital ledger where every transaction executed is recorded and stored in a decentralized manner. One of the key features of blockchain technology is that it is transparent.
You may wonder how this is beneficial to you. Ever heard of Whale Tracking? It is a crypto investment strategy used by many people. In this strategy, an investor follows what the particular whale does (whale here refers to an individual or entity with many assets). As stated above, a blockchain is a transparent digital ledger, right? Hence we can view all the transactions being executed by the whale, such as which token is bought, sold, etc. Stay tuned to find out how to track these “whales.” This is similar to tracking the stocks that big bulls such as Warren Buffett, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, etc., buy and sell in the stock market.
This guide will go through how to use a blockchain explorer of the Polygon ecosystem, PolygonScan. This will be quite a technical guide as it covers several concepts but don’t worry, as I have explained every concept most simply so, read, learn, and enjoy!
A blockchain explorer is a software developed to track a particular blockchain activity. The activity here refers to all the essential metrics of a blockchain, such as the number of transactions, number of blocks, gas fees, token information, and various other metrics. A blockchain explorer is also called a block explorer.
With the help of a block explorer, you can view the blockchain’s activity. The more number of transactions, the number of blocks getting created, and the speed of the blocks being created (Block Speed) indicate the blockchain is being used by people hence the increase in demand for that blockchain.
Each blockchain has its blockchain explorer. There are several block explorers present for a blockchain. For example, the Ethereum blockchain’s block explorer is called EtherScan. For the Binance Smart Chain, it is BscScan, etc.
PolygonScan is a blockchain explorer for the Polygon ecosystem. PolygonScan enables you to search for metrics of the Polygon blockchain. Furthermore, the Polygon block explorer shows you details of all the tokens, ERC-20, ERC-721 as well as ERC-1155 tokens, built on the network.
The application and metrics of every blockchain explorer are the same. Hence, you can use this guide to go through a block explorer for any blockchain.
To visit PolygonScan, click here.
The homepage of every blockchain explorer consists of the most essential metrics, such as token details, block details of the blockchain, and the transaction details of the respective blockchain.
The first metric you may see on the homepage is the blockchain’s native token and block data.
Blockchains metrics are as follows:
For example, on the Binance Smart Chain block explorer, you will find information on the BNB token.
This section shows all the blocks which have been created recently.
Details of the Latest blocks are as follows:
This section shows all the recent transactions which have been executed on the blockchain across all the decentralized applications (dapps).
Details of the Latest Transaction are as follows:
The navbar of every blockchain explorer consists of some details of the tokens and accounts present on the respective blockchain.
Top Accounts (Whale Tracking)
Here you can see all the accounts having the maximum number of tokens on the blockchain. These accounts may be exchange wallets and whale wallets, which are users having a huge number of assets. This metric can help to track certain wallets.
You can view the following metrics on the Top Account page:
ERC-20 Tokens by Market Cap
In this section, you can view the tokens on the blockchain having the highest market capitalization. This metric indicates the most number of tokens held by accounts.
You can view the following metrics on the ERC-20 Tokens by Market Cap page:
ERC-721 Tokens by Market Cap
ERC-721 tokens stand for Non-Fungible tokens (NFTs). In this section, you can view the NFTs on the blockchain which have been traded the most on the blockchain. This metric can help determine the NFT collections which are currently in demand.
You can view the following metrics on the ERC-721 Tokens by Market Cap page:
Gas Tracker
In this section, you can track the gas fees of the respective blockchain. This metric indicates the usage of the blockchain (the number of users performing transactions on the blockchain). The gas fees will be more when there are a more number of users using the blockchain.
Gas Fees – the price to be paid to execute a transaction on the blockchain.
You can view the following metrics on the ERC-20 Tokens by Market Cap page:
This section of the guide is the most important as it may help you keep track of all your wallet transactions as well as other wallets. In the search bar, you can search for any public address, transaction, block, and token available on the blockchain. In this guide, I will be going through the public address.
This is the wallet address page, which shows all the respective account details. The details on this page are as follows:
The Transaction section details are:
This section will view all the tokens available in the wallet. To do so, follow the steps below:
On the next page, you can view all the details of the tokens in the wallet.
The details of the tokens in the wallet are described as follows:
All EVM-compatible blockchains can have the same public address. This means the public address on all the blockchains which are EVM compatible have the same address.
EVM-Compatible – EVM stands for Ethereum Virtual Machine. EVM-compatible blockchains are blockchains that can use the same code (smart contracts) as done on the Ethereum blockchain.
For example, a dapp on Ethereum uses a smart contract called A. A dapp on the Avalanche blockchain can use the same smart contract (A) as Avalanche is an EVM-compatible blockchain.
Since the public address of all EVM-compatible blockchains is the same, we can view the details of all the accounts across multiple blockchains associated with the public address. To do so, follow the steps below:
You can now view the wallet’s details on the respective blockchain in the same way as done in the Search Bar section.
Conclusion
There you go; you now know how to use a blockchain explorer. The block explorers of all the blockchains offer the same applications and metrics. Feel free to try out and find other blockchain explorers’ top wallets and blockchain metrics. Here are some useful links for some of the top blockchains BscScan (Binance Smart Chain), EtherScan (Ethereum), SnowTrace, (Avalanche), and SolScan (Solana).
All the content in this article is purely for educational purposes and does NOT provide any financial advice. If you have enjoyed this guide, please let me know in the comments and consider following. Thank you for your time.
Key Takeaways
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