In this track: Your first steps
Reading your first block explorer page
Learn the labels before treating a receipt as a complete story.
A parcel tracking page has an identifier, status and delivery details. A transaction explorer presents similar clues about an onchain instruction.
Maya prepares an instruction: send 0.01 pretend ETH to Leo.
A local simulation. Nothing is signed or sent to a network.
Begin with the network and hash
Confirm which network you are viewing. A transaction hash identifies the encoded transaction, while the explorer’s page is a presentation of its data. A familiar logo alone does not prove a page or URL is trustworthy.
Read the key fields
Look for status, block, from, to, value, gas used and effective gas price. For a contract interaction, input data contains the requested action. Token transfer displays may be interpretations of logs rather than the transaction’s native ETH value.
Successful does not mean safe
A success status means execution completed under the relevant rules. It does not promise a fair price, a useful token or a trustworthy counterparty. A failed status may require revert data or an execution trace to understand.
Check interpretations
Names, tags and decoded inputs are conveniences supplied by software and data sources. Learn calldata and events to understand what those labels are based on.
Does a successful status prove the recipient was trustworthy?
Success describes execution, not the honesty or economic quality of the action.
Original explanations by EtherTools. Examples are educational and source-linked; this site is independent of the Ethereum Foundation. Our approach.