What a block explorer shows
A blockchain is a public ledger. A block explorer indexes it and lets you search by transaction ID (hash), address, or block number. For a transaction you'll typically see the sender and recipient addresses, amounts, the fee, the block it's in, and the number of confirmations. For an address you'll see its balance and history.
What it's useful for
- Verifying you were paid — check the transaction ID a payer or pool gives you
- Checking confirmations on a pending transfer
- Investigating a transfer that hasn't arrived — is it unconfirmed, sent to a different address, or on another network?
- Confirming a mining payout landed at the address you provided
What it can't do
An explorer is read-only. It can't cancel, speed up or reverse anything, and it can't recover funds. Anyone claiming to be a "block explorer service" that asks for your keys or a "fee" to release funds is scamming you.
Explorer tips
- Bookmark the official explorers for the coins you use; don't follow explorer links from unsolicited messages
- Search by transaction ID rather than by amount to avoid confusion with similar payments
- Remember that addresses are public: anyone can look up any address's balance and history
Reading an explorer page
A transaction page usually lists inputs (where the coins came from), outputs (where they went, including any change back to the sender), the fee, and the confirmation count. On UTXO coins an "input" is a previous output being spent, which is why one payment can show several inputs and outputs. If the recipient address you expected is missing from the outputs, the payment did not go where you think it did.