The Basics of Blockchain Explorer: Solscan

In this article, you will learn how to effectively use Solscan, one of the most popular blockchain explorers for the Solana network. Through detailed explanations and screenshots, we will guide you through key features and functionalities. While the focus is on Solscan, the principles covered are applicable to other Solana-based explorers due to their similar structure and logic.

The Basics of the Interface

This is the main page of Solscan, displaying general information about the Solana blockchain:

The current price of SOL and its circulating supply.
Data on the latest transactions and blocks.
The total number of transactions on the network.
The number of transactions per second (TPS) and real-time TPS.
A DeFi dashboard showing recent activity in decentralized finance on Solana.

The graph in the DeFi dashboard provides insights into Solana's on-chain activity, illustrating trends in liquidity and trading volume. This data helps track shifts in network engagement and DeFi protocol usage.

How to Check Your Wallet on Solscan?

Copy your Solana wallet address and paste it into the Solscan search box. Press enter or click on the search result.

Here you can view the current balance of your (or another's) Solana wallet. Additionally, you can see the total value of other tokens held in.

Sometimes, the total value of all other tokens may be zero due to the following reasons:

The token has only recently commenced trading.
The tokens hold no market value, which may indicate a recently created token or one that has experienced a rug pull.

Exploring the Types of Transactions

Half of your screen will display the wallet's transaction history. For convenience, transactions are divided into several categories:

Transactions: Displays a comprehensive list of all wallet transactions, including transfers, token swaps, and smart contract interactions. This provides an overview of the wallet's activity sequence.
Transfers: Shows only direct SOL and token transfers between addresses, filtering out other types of interactions.
DeFi Activities: Highlights interactions with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, such as staking, liquidity providing, and lending.
NFT Activities: Collects all NFT-related transactions, including purchases, sales, and transfers of NFTs.
Balance Changes: Displays modifications in the wallet's balance over time, showing increases and decreases in SOL and token holdings.
Analytics: Provides deeper insights into the wallet’s transaction patterns, frequency, and interaction with specific dApps.
Portfolio: Offers an overview of all assets held in the wallet, including SOL, tokens, and NFTs.
Stake Accounts: Displays staking-related transactions, including delegated and undelegated SOL.
Domains: Shows any associated Solana Name Service (SNS) domain names linked to the wallet.

Reading Transaction

This is the Transaction Details page on Solscan, providing a comprehensive breakdown of a specific transaction on the Solana blockchain.

Key Sections:

Signature: A unique identifier for this transaction, allowing users to track and verify it.
Block & Timestamp: Displays the block number and the exact time when the transaction was confirmed.
Result: Indicates whether the transaction was successful or failed. In this case, it is marked as SUCCESS with "Finalized (MAX Confirmations)."
Signer: Shows the wallet that initiated the transaction. Here, it is linked to the address onchainrape.sol.

Transaction Actions:

The transaction involved swapping 28,009,884.111216 WatchCoin for 3.241563123 SOL (~$409.05) on Pump.fun.
A token transfer also occurred from onchainrape.sol to Pump.fun (WatchCoin) Bonding Curve.
Fees: The transaction fee was 0.005005 SOL (~$0.6303).
The priority fee (extra fee for faster confirmation) was 0.005 SOL (~$0.6297).
Compute Units Consumed: Displays the amount of computational resources used for processing the transaction. In this case, it consumed 42,642 compute units.
Previous Block Hash: This hash represents the identifier of the previous block, ensuring the continuity of the blockchain.
Your Notes: Users can add personal notes to the transaction for future reference.

This page provides all the essential details to analyze transactions, including token swaps, transfers, gas fees, and execution results.

Final Word

By integrating these basic principles of wallet analysis, you can extract a wealth of information. Although the process can be complex, the transparency of Solana's blockchain allows you to gain exclusive insights or trace a complete chain of fund transfers to identify the primary wallet address or establish connections.