Pi Block Explorer

What is the purpose of the Pi Block Explorer?

It is a search tool that allows all Pioneers to see the history of the Pi Blockchain. Similar to how a search engine combs through the internet, the explorer will comb through the blocks and transactions that occur allowing Pioneers to search for past history.

What do we do with the explorer?

The explorer can be used to find and research past payments, transactions and blocks that occurred on the Pi Blockchain. This will allow Pioneers to verify transaction information such as sender’s address, receiver’s address, and amount. It is important to note that Pioneers won’t see usernames as sender and receiver but rather long strings of what appears to be random numbers and letters. These strings are known as public keys and can be thought of as the numbers or letters on the outside of houses or apartments, they allow others to know someone lives there but not who or gain access inside.

What is a blockchain?

The simplest way to think about a blockchain is as a database storing information in a linked order. It is made up of blocks of data which are chained together so that each new block is connected to the previous block, this is known as the ledger. For Pi, all nodes have a copy of the ledger, this is known as a distributed ledger system. Each node is able to verify their copy of the ledger which prevents fake or altered ledgers, and a single point of failure is unable to compromise the ledger. Each block has a header, a link to the previous block’s header, and a collection of data which in most cases is transactions. That information is what the block explorer collects and displays.

How do we use the Pi Block Explorer?

There are three categories that can be researched through Pi Blockexplorer payments, transactions, and blocks. All categories are listed from most recent to oldest. If the Pioneer has the address or transaction ID that they are looking for they can use the search bar to quickly locate it.
Addresses are the strings of letters and numbers that identify Pioneers on the Pi blockchain. Each Pioneer has an address that starts with the letter “G” and the rest is unique to them. This is the public address and others are able to locate the Pioneer using this string however they are unable to access any of the Pioneer’s Pi. On the Pi Block Explorer all addresses are shown as a 4 letter abbreviation of the address, e.g. “GCOR.”
Payments
- Each payment is listed by the sender (account), followed by the operation, receiver, and amount (Payment), transaction ID, operation (Type), and time compared to the page being loaded.

Clicking on any link for the payment will take you that information
- Account - Senders Public Information
- Payment - Receivers Public Information
- Transaction - Transaction Information
- Time - Transaction Information
Transactions
- Each transaction is listed by its transaction ID. Other information includes who originated the transaction (source), the block it information is in, how many operations were performed, and the time since sending when the page was loaded.

When a Pioneer clicks on a transaction they can see the details of that transaction.

Account is the sender
Operation is what occurred such as “created account”, “pay”
Fee is the amount of Pi that was paid to preform the transaction
- Note - This is also known as gas fee

Blocks are the groups of transactions that have occurred since the last block was created. Each block is assigned a number to identify it (#), Transactions are the number of transactions within a block, and Time is the creation vs when the page was loaded.