Your Choice, Your Block Explorer: Empowering Blockchain Users and Improving UX

by
Igor Barinov

Posted: Oct 1, 2024 12:01 PM Updated: Oct 1, 2024 12:01 PM

by well

Correction and fact check date: October 1, 2024 12:01 PM

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In a decentralized economy, where no single entity has absolute control, blockchain applications such as wallets, DEXs, and marketplaces are unwittingly participating in promoting a form of centralization. Each time a transaction is completed, these apps overwhelmingly direct users to a centralized, closed-source block explorer. This goes against the principles of user democracy and decentralization and inhibits competition, innovation and choice.

No matter how we look at it, the world has historically been multipolar. We are given options and we can choose. This ability to make choices drives the development of new features and promotes competition, ultimately resulting in better products.

In Block Explorer, selection is everything. Just as we are all free to set our own default web browser, it is also important for us to be able to choose the block explorer that best suits our specific needs. It is also important to have a variety of choices so that you can compare data across multiple explorers to ensure accuracy and provide infrastructure redundancy if a explorer goes down for a period of time.

Having the freedom to choose your preferred crypto block explorer accelerates the development and adoption of layer 2 solutions, allows for flexible marketing strategies, and improves the overall blockchain user experience.

What is Block Explorer?

Raw blockchain data is optimized for machines, but not for humans. It is transmitted in a compressed binary format that is not human-readable. Block Explorer acts as an interpreter of this data, taking the data, indexing it, and presenting it for easy reading and use. Depending on the chain and block production cycle, this process should also happen very quickly.

Block explorers provide data transparency and serve as the primary means of searching the chain and verifying that transactions have taken place. The transaction page functions similar to a bank receipt and provides information about the transaction, including when it occurred, who it occurred among, and what the transaction was worth at the time. You may also want to export your data for tax or other reasons.

In addition to these features, modern block explorers are becoming more and more similar to search engines and web portals for the entire Web3 ecosystem. They take off-chain data to augment on-chain data, provide tools for contract confirmation and interaction, and display statistics, decentralized applications (dApps), and other related information.

Most layer 1 blockchains have dedicated crypto block explorers. Depending on their preferred network, users can choose between Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, or Bitcoin Block Explorer.

Simply put, a block explorer is an essential and necessary tool for any chain. As more chains emerge and new features are added, continuous development and innovation of block exploration capabilities are required to support the ever-evolving blockchain environment.

User Experience – The Cornerstone of Blockchain Exploration

Web3 (blockchain) user design and experience is seriously lagging compared to the modern Web2 design. Developed by seriously technically minded people, there was initially no need for a friendly front-end for blockchain applications. Of course, this may have turned off many of its enthusiast base, and Web3 is now in catch-up mode to win over consumers. In recent years, the Web3 user experience has been improved, resulting in applications becoming easier to use and more customizable to the user’s specific preferences.

This is especially true in the block explorer area. Everyone uses Explorer to check transactions, but beyond that, the use cases vary.

• Some users are more development-focused and need easy access to logs and contract data, but they also need lots of API endpoints and documentation on how to integrate them.
• Some users are more sociable and want to see which addresses or contracts are most popular, find connections, and search for apps they might want to try.
• Some users are early adopters, choosing to use and explore chains with the latest features or unique infrastructure.
• Some users want to be able to customize Explorer, such as adding watchlists with private and public tags to create a customized interface.

For each case, there is a block explorer that best suits your needs: Ethereum, BTC block explorer, etc. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to find these options because the wallet and app don’t offer them. It provides a single link to a single explorer and the user is never exposed to the possibility of a better explorer experience.

Choice brings competition, adaptability and innovation.

In any industry, consumer choices drive product development. Products either evolve (in terms of functionality, usability, or marketing) or die. But without competition, products and users become complacent. You can’t move to a new solution, and you don’t need to improve it because you already have a user base. Lack of choice stifles innovation, and the status quo becomes the norm until a new product comes along and shakes things up.

Fortunately, new block explorers are moving the dial and a lot of innovation is happening. Each of these new explorers has a dedicated fan base, but it will be difficult to grow that fan base if all the tools that direct users to block explorers continue to accommodate outdated, centralized infrastructure. The blockchain industry as a whole is dynamic and constantly evolving, and the tools that support it should also embrace this spirit, helping users find the block explorer that best suits their needs. It could be an Ethereum or Bitcoin block explorer or something else.

Exploring the multichain paradigm

Another consequence of centralized, monolithic infrastructure is the inability to transition and evolve to support new developments. With the recent explosive growth of L2 and rollup, a multi-chain paradigm is emerging before our eyes. Where once there were only a few chains, there are now many chains with many different users and uses. All of these chains need a functional explorer from day one.

Centralized Explorer struggled to keep up as it was unable to support some of the latest rollup features. This creates data gaps and users who navigate to these explorers don’t find the information they need.

The new class of explorers is much more agile, delivering advanced views and features more quickly. Open source explorers are especially important in this scenario because they can be customized by anyone and anyone can spin up and use them as soon as the chain goes live.

Multichain support and cross-chain data access is another area where decentralized explorers outperform traditional centralized explorers. Because these modern explorers support a greater breadth and scope of chains, they have more searchable data to help unify the user experience across chains.

defend choice

Blockchain empowers us all. This allows us to become our own bank, moving away from centralized services controlling our data and replacing them with decentralized applications that choose which data to share. The ability to make these choices is important, and choices should extend to all aspects of blockchain use.

Technically, you can choose to use any explorer you like. However, most users will click a link rather than looking for another explorer, changing a hidden setting in their wallet, or copying and pasting a long hexadecimal address. In fact, most users don’t even know there are other options, unless they are power users or have stumbled upon the new Explorer.

If wallets and apps want to provide the best user experience, they need to be part of the effort to educate users about the ecosystem tools and present their options for those tools. When someone finds an explorer that suits their needs, they will have a better blockchain experience. It’s that simple.

Let’s create a better blockchain for everyone by providing choice and allowing people to decide which tools they want to use!

About the author

Igor Barinov is an award-winning blockchain expert with over 12 years of experience, known for his pioneering work in the areas of interoperability, proof-of-stake consensus, and federated blockchains. He leads Blockscout, an open source block explorer supporting over 600 EVM-based networks. Barinov has played pivotal roles in POA Network, Gnosis Chain, and xDAI, and has a track record of hackathon success at events such as Consensus and Texas Bitcoin Conference.

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Igor Barinov is an award-winning blockchain expert with over 12 years of experience, known for his pioneering work in interoperability, proof-of-stake consensus, and federated blockchains. He leads Blockscout, an open source block explorer supporting over 600 EVM-based networks. Barinov has played pivotal roles in POA Network, Gnosis Chain, and xDAI, and has a track record of hackathon success at events such as Consensus and Texas Bitcoin Conference.