Tezos is an open-source blockchain that allows for peer-to-peer transactions and smart contract functionality. Being the Top 31st cryptocurrency by market cap, it has got a lot of potential — its transaction per second rate is 40 compared to Ethereum’s 15 and Bitcoin’s 7, and the network is more resistant to hard forks
If you want to build your crypto business on Tezos, you’d need robust access to a Tezos block explorer. In this article, we will discover what it is and how you can access it in the most favorable conditions.
Block explorers as search engines for blockchains
Any cryptocurrency’s blockchain consists of nodes — full-fledged network participants who validate transactions in it. To do so, they dispose of a fully downloaded copy of the blockchain database and refresh it 24/7. A block explorer is a piece of software that connects to this database, derives all the information, and presents it in a human-readable way.
A block explorer is the Google of a cryptocurrency — it allows you to see everything that is happening in its network. Thus, you can see any transaction’s status and its history, transacted amounts, wallet balances, block heights, lists of the richest wallets, sources and destination of funds, and much more.
What is Tezos (XTZ) block explorer?
Tezos is a platform that focuses on improved community governance and protocol development. The main goal of creating Tezos was building a protocol that would be resistant to hard forks. In cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, splits happen in the network regarding the vision of updates that need to be implemented. This is followed by hard forks — the main chain is divided in two, and they start to act separately.
This weakens both of the chains and hinders the introduction of updates in them. Thanks to the community governance in Tezos, the network boasts of the “self-amending” protocol that has demonstrated its efficiency over time: although disagreements take place in the Tezos network sometimes, they are resolved in a civilized way, and the platform has never experienced a hard fork.
XTZ block explorer allows deriving all the information present in the Tezos’ blockchain: the data on the latest transactions as long as historical data. One of the most frequently used Tezos block explorers is Tezblock.
Explore the landing page of Tezblock
Here is Tezblock. On its main page, you can see Tezos’ market cap and circulating supply, the list of the latest blocks and their sizes, and the list of the latest transactions. In other sections of the website, you can explore the biggest Tezos-based decentralized applications and assets, see the list of the biggest stakers, and so on. You can use the search bar to find a transaction status with its hash or to see how much crypto a certain address has. You can use Tezblock to see if a transaction that you sent has reached its destination.
However, all this is manual work. If you’re building a project like a wallet, an exchange, or an analytical platform on Tezos, you need constant access to databases in the XTZ explorer, and the data needs to be derived automatically. NOWNodes allows you to do this.
Accessing Tezos blockchain explorer with NOWNodes
NOWNodes is a service that allows you to leverage fast and reliable connection with 40+ block explorers including one for Tezos. If you ever need to work with cryptocurrencies other than Tezos, NOWNodes will help you out so you don’t have to look for multiple services and pay all of them at once.
The connection with the Tezos block explorer goes via our API. Its speed is less than 1 second, which ensures instant responses to your requests. In our Docs, there is a BlockBook API folder with the XTZ directory where you can see all sample requests for the Tezos blockchain explorer. By using them, you can learn the Tezos account by its address and find the list of its contacts, see accounts and block count, balance history, account delegators, chain and block id, hash, and much more.
Our API uptime is 99.95%, meaning that the XTZ block explorer is to our service 24/7. If something goes wrong, we always have reserve resources to ensure constant access to the block explorer even at the downtime.
How do I start working with NOWNodes?
To access Tezos block explorer, get an API key. Visit our main page and click the “GET FREE API-KEY”, fill in the form, and check your email — the key should have already arrived there. If you don’t find it, check the spam folder or feel free to contact us at sales@nownodes.io.
Once you have the key, you can start using NOWNodes right now! Head on to our Tezos block explorer docs, find the request you need, paste your API key in the ‘api-key’ line, and you’re good to go. 20,000 requests a day for free are yours. Whenever you feel this is not enough, check out our Pricing section and see what plans we have. To activate one, contact us and make the most of the Tezos blockchain explorer!
Bottom line
A Tezos block explorer is a tool that allows you to keep track of what is going on in the Tezos blockchain 24/7. NOWNodes offers you access to such a block explorer at a blazing speed — reach out to us to start or to learn more. If you’ve ever considered working with Litecoin or Zilliqa block explorers, check out the guides on their block explorers using the links attached.
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