Block explorer

What is a block explorer?

A block explorer is a window into the public Bitcoin ledger. Every transaction, every block, every UTXO ever created lives in the chain — and a block explorer renders that data in a form humans can read.

Type an address and you'll see how much Bitcoin it has ever received and how much it currently holds. Type a transaction hash (txid) and you'll see exactly which inputs were spent, which new outputs were created, and what fee was paid to the miner. Type a block height (or block hash) and you'll see who mined it, when, and what's inside.

The data is the same on every honest explorer. The presentation is the editorial choice. mempool.space leans interactive and dense. Blockstream.info leans plain. We sit in between — paper warmth, mono numerics, and prose that explains why a number matters, not just what it is.

Are you running a node?

No. We're an aggregator. Running a public-facing block explorer requires Bitcoin Core plus a high-performance index of the chain (Esplora, Electrs, BTCPayServer, etc.) — that's a real ops commitment. We're not there yet, and pretending we were would be the opposite of don't trust, verify.

Instead, we read from a public node that already does that work: Blockstream's Esplora API at blockstream.info/api. It's open, well-documented, and free. Our backend caches each response in Firestore for a few minutes (addresses) to a few hours (confirmed blocks) so we don't hammer it, and so the page loads fast for you.

On every detail page, you'll find a courtesy link back to mempool.space and blockstream.info. They're the canonical reference. We're the editorial layer on top.

What can I look up?

• Addresses starting with bc1q (native SegWit), bc1p (Taproot), 1 (legacy P2PKH), or 3 (P2SH). Testnet too (tb1, m, n, 2).
• Transactions by 64-character hex hash.
• Blocks by height (e.g. 873100) or by 64-character block hash.

Privacy note

Every query you type into a block explorer — ours or anyone else's — touches a server. Blockstream sees the request our backend forwards. We see the request you make to our domain. If you need stronger privacy, run your own node and explorer locally; the easiest path is something like Umbrel or Start9 with the Mempool app installed.

For everyone else: this is a fine way to verify a payment, audit a wallet's history, or just stare at the network breathing.