Blockchair: Features and Advantages

Despite the volatility of Bitcoin and many other popular cryptocurrencies, they continue to be an attractive instrument. Some crypto-enthusiasts are looking for opportunities to invest their funds in new projects, while some prefer to hold assets in proven coins in anticipation of their growth. There are also those who engage in the classic stock market game on the fall and growth of altcoins.

However, to choose the optimal investment strategy, it’s important to have access to reliable and up-to-date information. For example, Blockchair is a search engine for blockchain projects with deep analytics tools. Let’s dive into this platform, review all its useful features, and tell you how to use the most popular ones.

What is blockchain?

But first things first — let’s cover the basics. Blockchain technology is the basis for most current cryptocurrencies. This technology is realized by creating a continuous chain of blocks of information linked together according to certain rules. Usually, the blocks included in the chain contain not only the information to be transferred and their number in the chain but also the hash sum for both the block itself and the block that is in the chain right before it. Even a slight change in the information contained in the blocks causes the hash sum to change. This way, the blockchain allows the information transmitted in blocks to be securely protected from unauthorized changes.

When blockchain is used for cryptocurrency, the blocks contain mostly information about the transactions being conducted. For example, in Bitcoin (BTC) algorithms, blocks include a header and a list of transactions. The header records:

• The hash of the block.
• The hash of the previous block.
• Hash of transactions associated with the block.
• Additional service information.

Blocks can be created by all network members, and the system pays miners a reward in the form of 'new' coins for creating 'new' blocks of information. However, bitcoin mining is complicated — when new blocks of a given structure are created, their hash must not exceed a certain target number. This way, the generated blocks require frequent recalculations.

Implementing blockchain technology gives cryptocurrencies important advantages:

• Decentralization
  High efficiency and transaction speed. It can be controlled by fee size.
• Transparency
  Information in all blocks is open to all network participants and third-party researchers familiar with the tools to investigate the blocks’ contents.
• Anonymity
  Blocks contain only the wallet addresses of the transaction participants without any other personal data.
• Stability and security
  Hashing prevents unauthorized changes to blocks.
• Reduced transaction costs
  Even payments with zero fees have a theoretical probability of being processed, albeit over a very long period. The average fee required to make a payment in a reasonable amount of time is usually noticeably lower than with other payment methods, especially international ones.
• No need to trust other participants in the network
  Algorithms allow you to guarantee the security of transactions and funds.

Blockchair: What is it?

In the 'About Blockchair' section, it says that the service aims to become a full-fledged 'Google for blockchains'. This means that the platform provides users with a single convenient tool for finding all the necessary information in the field of cryptocurrencies. The core values of this project include:

• Simplifying the representation of data contained in the blockchain.
  The tools developed by the Blockchair team allow searching addresses, blocks, and transactions for different currencies, generating graphs and getting detailed statistical information for different coins.
• Full-featured API.
  Developers of crypto projects and research services can get full data on dozens of coins from Blockchair. The API supports data search and filtering by SQL queries and gives access to aggregated news from 60 popular crypto resources.
• Privacy.
  Unlike most other popular crypto-explorers, Blockchair does not collect user data, nor does it share it with advertising and analytics companies.

The creators of Blockchair have implemented a simple and intuitive interface, which can be easily used even by novice crypto-enthusiasts. This makes this service equally attractive to both novice investors and experienced experts.

The platform is available as a web version, browser extension, and API, making it a versatile, convenient, and secure guide to the world of cryptocurrencies. However, the service is not yet available as a standalone PC program or mobile app. The developers do not plan its development in such a format.

Blockchair Interface

As of Fall 2024, the web version of the service features a transparent and concise interface. The key place in the center of the screen is occupied by the search bar. It allows you to search for information on individual addresses, blocks, and transactions. Below the search box, there is an analytical section - there you can explore the key indicators of popular cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, and many others) and go to the coins’ personal pages with advanced statistics.

In the upper right corner of the window above the search bar is a menu button with a 'burger' icon that lets you access:

• Explorers for individual coins
• Blockchair team products
• Platform settings

Blockchair's main functions

The homepage allows you to search individual crypto projects and study detailed statistical information, which corresponds to the basic functionality of any crypto explorer. Additional features of the platform are available through the 'Products' tab in the menu and contain these options:

• Customized access to information via API
  Access to data sets in the form of TSV files that can be used on your web projects.
• Visualization of information in the form of graphs, which allows you to perform comparative analysis for different coins
• Ethereum Name Service information retrieval
• Generating transaction receipts as PDFs
• Reporting transactions associated with a specific cryptocurrency wallet
• Anonymous crypto portfolio tracker
• Private broadcasting of raw transactions
• An overview of individual nodes in the network, which allows you to know their status, availability, location, rules, and many other information
• Tracking updates of key cryptocurrencies
• Halving counter for coins whose algorithms provide for halving.
• Cryptocurrency comparison
• Browser extension
• Crypto news aggregator, which collects information from more than 60 leading publications.
• Donations for crypto projects
• Comparison of promising cryptocurrency projects

How to translate the platform into another language

The platform currently supports more than 20 languages. If your operating system has the required language set by default, or if you come to the Blockchair service from an IP address in your country, then in most cases the interface will be in your language. But if for some reason the platform doesn’t open in a language you know, you can:

• Click on the 'hamburger' menu button in the right corner of the site's start screen
• Go to the Settings section in the center of the screen (rightmost option)
• Select the appropriate interface language in the Language column in the center of the screen

Available Coins

As of Fall 2024, statistics and blockchain searches for these coins are available on the Blockchair platform:

• Aptos
• Arbitrum One
• Avalanche
• Base
• Beacon Chain
• Bitcoin
• Bitcoin Cash
• Blast
• BNB
• BOB
• Cardano
• Dash
• DigiByte
• Dogecoin
• eCash
• Ethereum
• Ethereum Classic
• Fantom
• Galactica EVM
• Gnosis Chain
• Groestlcoin
• Handshake
• Kusama
• Linea
• Liquid Network
• Litecoin
• Monero
• Moonbeam
• opBNB
• Optimism
• Peercoin
• Polkadot
• Polygon
• Polygon zkEVM
• Rootstock
• Sei EVM
• Solana
• Stellar
• TON
• TRON
• XRP Ledger
• Zcash
• zkSync Era

You can always see the full list of supported coins by opening the platform menu and going to the 'Explorers' section.

How to track a transaction

To track transactions using Blockchair, you need to know its unique ID, which consists of 64 characters. In the ID you can find both numbers and letters of the Latin alphabet from a to f. To track a transaction, you just need to insert its ID (i.e., 6ab9f41f9e0d70ba53308894b8b131a4ab3d34a495b77dc6256beee9a9c7b121) into the search window on the start page of the project. In the window that opens, you will be able to see detailed information about the transaction, including:

• ID
• Status
• Moment of execution (year, month, day, exact time of execution if it has already been executed and confirmed)
• Amount of the funds associated with the transaction
• Commission fee
• Senders' wallet addresses
• Recipient wallet addresses
• Transaction privacy assessment. The service makes this assessment based on public information about the wallets associated with the transfer in question.

From the same page, you can generate a PDF receipt for the transfer in question and share it as a QR code, link, or JPEG file. If you want, you can even send the receipt via the X network (ex-Twitter).

Useful features and tools of the platform

Out of all the Blockchair features, most visitors use these the most:

• Monitoring of crypto portfolios
• Comparing different coins, including in the form of graphs
• Tracking transactions and generating receipts
• Tracking updates of different crypto projects
• Monitoring the status of individual nodes in the network
• Tracking the latest news in the world of cryptocurrencies with the help of an aggregator
• Searching for promising projects in the field of crypto investments
• Charitable donations for the development of promising projects
• Tracking text information transmitted in the blocks of supported cryptocurrencies

However, some users may also need special features of the platform like downloading TSV files for their web projects.

Blockchair F.A.Q.

What are the main benefits of the Blockchair API?

Blockchair API gives users the same features as the main platform. But additionally, through the API you can search and filter data using SQL queries. This way, Blockchair API can be used as an information provider for commercial, analytical, and educational projects with complex and diverse functionality.

Is Blockchair users' data secure?

The service does not allow users to register an account, does not collect any information about visitors, and doesn’t transmit any tracking information to their devices. This way, the personal data of all Blockchair users is absolutely protected. Privacy and security are the key values of the project.

What is Privacy-o-meter?

With the Privacy-o-meter privacy assessment tool, for each transaction, you can get an overall estimate of how difficult it would be for an attacker to trace information about its participants using open sources. The tool uses a numerical scale from 0 to 100 for the assessment, where 0 is complete compromise and 100 is complete privacy. The Privacy-o-meter also provides information about which wallet addresses associated with a transaction may be the source of problems.