What is Etherscan and How to Use it?

Nowadays blockchain technology smoothens transparency and, in turn, people need an interface so as to query data. Blockchain explorers are really helpful in these situations. The ‘search engine’ offers users access to the whole information they would like to find. Of course, the world always moves forward. That is why the functionality of the ‘search engine’ has enlarged over the years and now it contains a great number of services and information.
Thus, the understanding of this sphere will help you stay safe and notice any suspicious behavior. If you have a wish to use Etherscan, it is necessary to have a wallet address, transaction ID and a contract address. As on almost any platform, the data that people are going to see will depend on what they are looking at. Mainly, such information consists of addresses, associated transactions, amounts and timestamps. The great news is that we can also cooperate with smart contracts in a direct manner in order to make transactions and check gas fees via Etherscan.

Introduction

If our aim is not only sending a small number of transactions, it is advisable to analyze the navigation of the blockchain. In order to achieve the aim, we can turn to Etherscan – a popular option as far as learning the basics concerned. It is possible to use most of the features without even having to connect a wallet or opening an account. It is very useful and convenient, isn’t it?

What is Etherscan?

Do you trust your friends? If your answer is positive, imagine that Etherscan is one of your best friends. It is a most trusted tool that aimed at navigating through all the public information on the Ethereum blockchain. Thank to this feature it is often called ‘Ethplorer’. The mentioned information can contain wallet addresses, smart contracts, transaction data and much more data.
It should be noticed that the development of the Etherscan app is an absolutely serious process. The team makes efforts to make the Ethereum blockchain even more accessible to people than it is now. The Etherscan app helps people search through the Ethereum blockchain without any problems.
The main fact is that Etherscan cannot be called a wallet service provider because it does not keep people’s private keys and it has no chance of troubleshoot transaction failures.

The reasons for using Etherscan

• To begin with, there is no necessity in creating an account on the platform so as to use the main of its features. The necessity of connection a wallet is also absent. However, if you create an account on the platform, it will unlock some additional functionalities.
• Secondly, Etherscan gives information on the balance of ETH at the certain address including its current value in United States dollars. It is also possible to see the whole number of transactions that was made to and from the given address.
• Furthermore, there is a whole host of Ethereum charts and statistics, which are useful for all users’ needs. For instance, it can be a transaction history chart, the total Ether supply, address growth chart, currency and network information charts, etc.

What about a transaction and wallet on Etherscan?

Let’s consider the most significant function of Etherscan: tracking transactions. If you catch the idea about how to follow your cryptocurrency, it will be easy to unlock all the rest of a blockchain's data. For instance, at first you send some ETHs from your wallet to the public address. After that, you will pay transaction fee and as soon as the transaction has passed, your wallet will display the TXID.
In order to check the number of confirmations the transaction possesses and see if it has been sent without any problems you should go to the Etherscan homepage and look for the search field at the top. Your next step will be filling in the transaction ID into the search field. Then you should press the search icon. In this case, you will be able to observe all the details about your certain transaction. As a result, it is very easy to see that the transaction has passed in a proper way and has been confirmed. We can find the status of necessary transactions at the receiving wallet.

It is time for smart contracts on Etherscan

It is time to find out how smart contracts can be read and edited on Etherscan. The key point is that it can be done without the need for the permissions by using the Etherscan app’s ‘Read Contract’ and ‘Write Contract’ features. Real-time data concerning different tokens and smart contracts can be obtained there. It is easy for people to start token transfers and approve smart contract transactions thanks to these functionalities.
Additionally, the address of a smart contract has the token's logic, for instance, how token transfers are fulfilled and their behavior. Of course, it may occur that no necessity will arise concerning the using of the features. Nevertheless, if one day one needs to access funds stored in a smart contract, the described information will be at hand.

Need to check out gas prices on Etherscan?

A very interesting fact is that the Ethereum uses gas (it is paid in Ether) so as to make transactions. It is called Etheruem's transaction fee. Fortunately, no upper limit on transaction gas requirements exist. Consequently, we can see that a higher gas price equals a higher transaction price. It means that transactions with low gas prices can fail, for the reason that miners might not choose them.
Thanks to Etherscan's gas tracker, we can decide if time to send transactions has come. If you want to avoid paying enormous sums to pay a transaction fee, please, check the real-time gas prices and calculate the gas fees depending on them. Luckily, the gas tracker tool lets us track real-time gas prices.
The most marvelous option is that the site shows the estimated cost of transactions, the contracts that consume the highest gas as well as the transaction confirmation time. There is a lot of information on gas prices throughout history. Taking into account all these data, it becomes very easy to pay the least gas fees ever.

Conclusion

To sum up, there are much more other features on Etherscan. For example, the usual features can include tracking transactions, gas price, obtaining an overview of the whole data at Ethereum platform. We can find the information about transactions, unique addresses, average block size and average gas price there.
The best method to find out necessary information about the blocks and transactions of Ethereum is Etherscan, undoubtedly.