NEAR explorers

After the FTX implosion, taking control of your crypto has become more critical than ever. Where can I look up my transactions?

One of the most important ways to do that is by learning to read a block explorer. For the NEAR Protocol, the most popular NEAR explorers are:

• • Pikespeak
  • NearBlocks
  • LNC NEAR Watcher

What is a blockchain explorer?

A blockchain scanner is a software used for visualizing different blockchain network metrics like:

• Hashrate
• Block size
• Block difficulty
• Average transaction fees.

So, what can you do with the blockchain explorer? Let’s take a look.

• Track the status of a pending transaction while it’s awaiting in the mempool.
• Track the balance of wallets without having to use the wallet itself. This can be helpful if you want to check the balance in your hardware wallet.
• Track every single transaction going in and out of a particular address.
• View orphaned blocks, aka blocks that aren’t attached to the main chain.
• Explore whale transactions that could have a major impact on the market.
• Keep track of the addresses of well-known crypto leaders.
• Keep track of coins post-hack.

How do blockchain explorers work?

Blockchain explorers work alongside blockchain nodes and use application programming interfaces (APIs), rational databases, and SQL databases to retrieve relevant information from the underlying network. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• The explorer organizes all this information into a database and displays this data in a searchable format.
• Users can perform searches through an organized table.
• All search requests are sent to the backend server, which provides the required responses.

How do I use a blockchain explorer?

Let’s use the same transaction in Pikespeak and NearBlocks to see how the data presentation differs between these explorers.

Pikespeak

Access to live and historical data with visualisations of the most fundamental Web 3 use cases. Pikespeak is a user-centric (vs transaction-oriented) analytics solution, focusing on user engagement with the most successful applications: DeFi, DAOs, NFTs, Gaming, etc.

NearBlocks

The NearBlocks explorer shows the same data as the total gas and tokens burnt during the transaction.

LNC NEAR Watcher

LNC NEAR Watcher is a super easy to use Telegram bot to monitor NEAR accounts. Just type NEAR account and get notified about transactions in real time. LNC NEAR Watcher integrated with PikeSpeak.

Conclusion

There are more complicated transactions on the NEAR blockchain. However, this article should give you an idea of how to read these transactions. Explorers allow you to exploit one of the most essential traits of blockchain technology – transparency. It empowers you as a user to meticulously track your coins and see where they are going.

Updated: March 6, 2025