Wading through the Ethereum ecosystem is never easy, especially if you are a new crypto enthusiast. For a beginner, one of the best ways to get started is to understand the fundamentals of transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.
So, if you are unsure of how to receive or send transactions, it is time to get down to the basics.
Importance of Checking Ethereum Transactions
No matter the interest you have in cryptos, it is likely you will end up interacting with the Ethereum blockchain at some point. After all, the ecosystem comes with some of the industry’s widely applied platforms, services, and tokens. Therefore, you need to know to track Ethereum-based activities.
Understand the Confirmation Status
On average, it takes about 15 seconds to five minutes for any ETH transaction to be processed based on the amount paid as the fee and congestion.
Every transaction in Ethereum is first logged in the mempool (a sort of a waiting room) before validators pick and load it into the decentralized public ledger. Then, it is completed when validators add data to the block and incorporate it to the decentralized public ledger. Although obvious, the best thing is waiting for the next six new blocks to get added to the blockchain.
Note that blockchain is a link of blocks with transaction information. In situations where validators add two blocks to the chain at the same time, the decentralized public ledger temporarily splits them into two. The blocks that other validators keep adding newly minted blocks will finally become the valid one and the second, orphaned (not accepted in the main chain).
By following the status of your transaction, it is possible to determine if it is successful or pending.
How to Track Ethereum Transactions
Depending on the type of crypto wallet that you are using, it is possible to access the history of your crypto. For in-depth analysis, it is advisable to use the Ethereum blockchain explorer, which is the search engine for Ethereum. Other explorers include:
- Ethplorer.
- EthVM.
- EtherScan.
No matter the selected explorer, you need to have your public address or transaction ID. Then, follow these steps.
- Enter the public address in the explorer’s search field and click the search button.
- You will be provided with an overview of the wallet activities, allowing you to navigate to the part that houses transaction history. If you click on the hashes, you will be able to see the details of each.
- If you used a transaction ID, you are redirected to the overview page of the respective transaction.
What Can You Check with Ethereum Blockchain Explorers?
- Blocks confirmation
- Status
- Timestamp
- Transaction fees
- Gas limit
- Base fees
- Nonce
- ETH price
One of the advantages of checking transactions is to determine when low gas stalls transactions. In such situations, transactions remain pending as long as the minimum fees needed to interact with Ethereum remain low. So, you need to resubmit the transaction with higher gas fees. Ensure that the additional transaction has the same nonce as the pending one so that only one of them will be executed.
