What Is BscScan? A Comprehensive Guide on How to Use Blockchain Explorer
Blockchain technology has brought transparency and immutability to the world of finance. With the rise of decentralised networks, it has become essential to have tools that allow us to track and verify on-chain activities.
This is where BscScan steps in. This is a powerful block explorer explicitly designed for the BNB Smart Chain (BSC), offering users the ability to monitor transactions, wallets, smart contracts, and tokens within the BSC ecosystem.
Key Takeaways:
- The primary purpose of BscScan is to provide users with a comprehensive overview of the BNB Smart Chain.
- BscScan offers a range of features, including confirming transactions, working with smart contracts, monitoring tokens and statistics, and more.
- Additionally, BscScan offers several advanced features and tools that may be of interest to crypto enthusiasts and developers.
What is a BNB Smart Chain?
BNB Smart Chain (formerly Binance Smart Chain) is a blockchain network developed by Binance and designed to provide an easy-to-use, low-cost platform for developers and users. It is a Layer-1 blockchain that is cross-compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing developers to port their existing Ethereum applications to the BSC network.
BNB Smart Chain supports a range of popular DeFi tools such as DEXs, stablecoins, and NFTs. There are currently more than 3 million transactions on the Binance Smart Chain network per day as of September 2023, which is three times bigger than the transaction volume on the ETH blockchain during the same period.
Notably, BNB Smart Chain is powered by Binance’s proprietary Binance Coin (BNB), which is used to pay for transaction fees and other services on the network. The token currently ranks 4th among all the crypto tokens by market capitalisation.
How Does BSCScan Work?
BscScan is a blockchain explorer dedicated to the BNB Smart Chain. It serves as a search engine for the BSC network, enabling users to track and audit on-chain operations. BscScan is developed and maintained by the same team of developers behind EtherScan, a famous Ethereum blockchain explorer.
Purpose and Importance of BscScan
The purpose of BscScan is to ensure that all activities on the BSC network are transparent, trackable, and verifiable. It enables users to monitor individual crypto wallets, verify token sanctity, and gain insights into all BSC transactions. BscScan is not controlled by any single entity and operates independently, providing a decentralised tool for exploring the BNB Smart Chain.
Key Features of BscScan
BscScan offers several key features that make it a valuable resource for users within the BSC ecosystem:
- Keeping Track of Transactions: Users can verify the validity, finality, and authenticity of operations on the BSC network. BscScan allows users to search for transactions by many parameters, providing detailed and accurate information.
- Engaging with Smart Contracts: BscScan allows users to verify the source code of smart contracts deployed on the BSC network, as well as interact with them, even if the associated DApp is unresponsive.
- Wallet Audits: BscScan enables users to track and analyse individual crypto wallets within the BSC network. Users can gain insights into token holdings, DeFi activities, and transaction history associated with a specific wallet address.
- Exploring NFTs: BscScan supports the tracking and analysis of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) hosted on the BSC network. Users can explore NFT projects, track ownership and transaction history, and analyse specific attributes of NFTs.
- Token Tracking: BscScan provides comprehensive information about BEP-20 tokens within the BSC ecosystem. Users can confirm token legitimacy and authenticity, track token statistics, and analyse token transfers and trading activities.
- BSC Statistics: BscScan serves as an analytics platform for the BSC network, offering insights into the overall market and blockchain data, and more.
These features, among others, make BscScan an essential tool for everyone involved in the BSC ecosystem.
Navigating BscScan
Understanding BscScan’s functionality is essential to using it effectively.
User Interface
The interface of BscScan provides a simple interface for navigating and exploring the BSC ecosystem. The homepage features a search bar where users can enter wallet addresses, block numbers, or transaction hashes to search for specific information. The interface also provides quick access to various sections, such as transactions, tokens, smart contracts, and more.
Network Selection
BscScan allows users to select between different networks, including the BSC mainnet and testnets. This feature enables users to explore and analyse activities within different network environments.
Tracking Transactions on BscScan
One of the main features of BscScan is that it enables users to verify the state, finality, and authenticity of transactions on the BSC network. The tool provides users with a comprehensive view of the blockchain activities, including transaction histories, the amounts transferred, the fees, and other details.
Searching and Filtering Transactions
Users can search for transactions on BscScan by entering wallet addresses, domain names, or transaction hashes in the search bar. This feature allows users to track transactions associated with their wallets or explore activities within a specific block. Additionally, BscScan provides advanced filtering options to narrow down search results based on specific criteria.
Using BSCScan to Monitor Addresses
Besides surfing for individual transactions, BscScan allows users to monitor individual crypto wallets within the blockchain. By looking up specific addresses, users can gain insights into their token holdings, transaction history, and DeFi activities associated with a particular wallet.
Verifying and Interacting with Smart Contracts
Smart contracts are algorithms that are written in computer code and stored on a blockchain. They are designed to be automatically executed when certain conditions are met, and they can be used to facilitate, verify, and enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract.
This BSC Scan tool provides a means for users to check the source code of smart contracts on the network. Moreover, BscScan offers a code reading and reviewing feature that leverages AI to analyse and interpret smart contract code.
Contract Interactions
BscScan lets users interact directly with smart contracts on the BSC network. However, the process is not that straightforward. To perform such operations, you need a smart contract’s address, and only then you can read and interact with a contract.
Tracking Tokens on BscScan
BscScan allows users to track and verify the validity and authenticity of BEP-20 tokens. By searching for specific tokens or token contract addresses, users can access detailed information about the token, including its name, symbol, total supply, contract address, and the associated project or issuer.
Moreover, users can analyse token-related data, such as market capitalisation, trading volume, price charts, and historical performance. Additionally, BscScan offers insights into token transfers, including the top token holders.
BSC Statistics and Analytics
BscScan also serves as an analytics platform for the BSC network, providing users with market data and insights into blockchain activity. Users can access information about the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols, daily transaction volumes, gas fees, and block rewards. BscScan also offers charts and graphs to visualise blockchain data and trends.
Gas fees play a crucial role in the BSC ecosystem, determining the cost and speed of transactions. BscScan provides a gas tracker that allows users to monitor gas fees and analyse gas fee patterns associated with specific addresses. This feature helps users make informed decisions about transaction costs and network efficiency.
Exploring NFTs with BscScan
BscScan supports the tracking and analysis of NFTs hosted on the BSC network. By searching for specific NFT projects or contract addresses, users can explore ownership details, transaction history, and metadata associated with NFTs. You can gain insight into the top NFT projects, top mints, as well as the most recent trade activity.
NFT Tracking and Analysis
Users can track the transfer holding percentages of NFTs using BscScan. This feature allows users to analyse the distribution of NFTs across different addresses, identify trends, and get a deeper understanding of the liquidity and demand of specific NFT projects. BscScan also provides information about the issuing contracts, inventory, and other relevant attributes of particular collections.
Advanced Features and Tools of BscScan
BscScan also offers a variety of advanced features and tools that developers and crypto enthusiasts may find useful. Let’s explore them in detail.
Code Review and AI Integration
BscScan offers advanced features such as code reading and reviewing using AI. Developers can connect their smart contracts to BscScan and receive insights and recommendations about the code before and after deployment. This feature helps developers ensure the security and efficiency of their smart contracts and facilitates the identification of potential vulnerabilities. Beta testing is still ongoing for this feature.
API Services and Data Fetching
Developers can utilise BscScan’s API services to fetch data and integrate BscScan’s analytics into their own applications or platforms. By accessing BscScan’s API, developers can retrieve transaction data, wallet information, token details, and other relevant data straight from the explorer. This feature enables developers to create customised analytics tools and enhance their applications with real-time blockchain data.
Label Word Cloud
The Label Word Cloud feature on BscScan allows users to identify trends in BSC space quickly. By analysing the labels associated with different topics, projects, smart contracts, and so on, users are able to identify what is trending right now. The cloud will display the most popular labels and their relative frequency of occurrence.
Unit Converter
The Unit Converter section on the BscScan website allows users to quickly convert between various units of measure, such as Wei, Gwei, and more, for BNB tokens, which helps developers interact with smart contracts and Gwei for calculating gas prices more easily.
How to Connect Your Wallet to BscScan?
To connect a wallet to BscScan, open the dropdown menu by clicking “More” in the top-right of the main page. After that, select the “Token Approvals” page. From there, click on “Connect to Web3” and then choose the wallet you are using.
Currently, there are only three wallet options available – MetaMask, WalletConnect, and CoinbaseWallet.
Once you have selected the wallet, follow the steps shown for the wallet you selected. After the address is verified, you will be able to access your wallet and use BscScan to explore the BNB Smart Chain.
Connecting the wallet address may be useful if you want to handle token permissions and approvals from one place instead of finetuning them in all of the DApps you currently use.
Conclusion
BscScan offers traders and developers alike useful tools and features for all kinds of purposes. The website lets you track, verify, and analyse on-chain activities via one user-friendly environment.
By leveraging the capabilities of BscScan, users can make informed decisions, gain a deeper understanding of the BSC ecosystem, and keep informed about trends and developments. Whether you are a seasoned trader or a curious blockchain enthusiast, BscScan is an invaluable resource that empowers you to explore, analyse, and participate in the BNB Smart Chain with confidence.
FAQs
How can I use BscScan?
To use BscScan effectively, you can look up transactions, explore the latest blocks, check wallet balances and transaction history, verify smart contracts, and research tokens and cryptocurrencies. You can also use BscScan to monitor the activity of other users, check transaction fees, and view block statistics. If you are a developer of smart contracts on BNB Smart Chain, you will find BscScan to be an invaluable tool in your arsenal of smart contract creation tools.
Is BscScan safe to use?
BscScan is a reputable blockchain explorer developed by the same team behind EtherScan. In addition to preserving decentralisation’s ethos, the platform continually scans the addresses and features of the platform for vulnerabilities and does not store any personal user information. However, it’s always important to follow safety standards, such as verifying smart contracts and using secure wallets, to ensure the security of your transactions.
Can I use BscScan for market research?
Yes, BscScan provides valuable market research tools, including token details, transaction history, and token holders. Additionally, BscScan can also provide insights into token liquidity, market cap, and trading volume. This makes it a great tool for researching potential investments.
Are there any fees associated with using BscScan?
BscScan is an entirely free platform and has no fees associated with using it. It is an invaluable resource for anyone looking to make informed investment decisions.
How do BSC and BNB differ?
BSC is a blockchain platform, while BNB is a cryptocurrency that powers the BSC network. BNB is used for transactions on the network, and it can also be used to pay transaction fees. The confusion arises from the fact that BNB Smart Chain previously went by the name Binance Smart Chain. Despite the change, the abbreviation remained the same – BSC.
