Bitcoin Forum

In reality, you can check your Bitcoin balance and transaction history directly with your own wallets, nodes and even don't need any Bitcoin block explorer to do it.

Bitcoin block explorers practically provide a lot of convenience for us. Obviously we have to be careful when using block explorers because they are centralized hosted and our privacy can be leaked. Use them with Tor connection if you do care about your privacy.

Let's return to this topic.

What is the first Bitcoin block explorer in history?
It is built by theymos. Are you surprised?  :D

Bitcoin Block Explorer (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1727.0)
It used to be hosted at http://theymos.ath.cx:64150/bbe/
It was live on November 10, 2010.

At some points of time, it was mirror hosted at https://109.123.116.245/
Need mirror for blockexplorer.com (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=23340.msg313827#msg313827)

How does the first Bitcoin block explorer look like?
See its archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20101113061427/http://theymos.ath.cx:64150/bbe/

I use it to explore the Bitcoin Genesis block and get a result as follows.

• https://web.archive.org/web/20101113075930/http://theymos.ath.cx:64150/bbe/block/000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f

You want to have block explorers today?

• Get many of them from List of useful Bitcoin block explorers (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5197909.0)

Yes we can check but it is limited to our own transaction and wallet history but if we want to check the details if block, sender wallet address or checking of current fee then we have to go for explorer.


hmm, I never used Tor for using Bitcoin explore, Indeed i don't care much about our privacy but thanks for suggestions. Whenever I feel that it times to hidden your privacy then I will use Tor browser. .


wow heard something special, I was not aware of it. event of the year in 2010 should be given to Theymos  :o



I am using Blockchain and blockchair explorer for checking purpose which fulfill my need and I think if one explorer already give you all information then why to use different explorer?

You can import a Bitcoin public address and check its balance as well as transaction history. It's undeniable that block explorers make it more easier to randomly check any address without any more step or storage on your device like with Watch-only wallets.

• [Tutorial]How to monitor multiple addresses without Insert seed and key (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5473679.0)

It's just privacy-wise recommendation.

I and nobody can force you to do anything. The list gives you different explorers to choose and use, that's it. You are free to do whatever you want.

I am not using any blockchain explorer other than https://mempool.space/ lately and to be honest, it is more convenient and a lot easier to navigate than other blockchain explorers but I am not using it for tracking the addresses primarily but it comes in handy when it is needed and its the best to estimate the optimal fee needed for our transactions. :)

Each person, unique need so there is a list of Bitcoin block explorers (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5197909.0) for everyone to choose.

I discussed about mempool.space there (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5464944.msg62764890#msg62764890) about its color theme. There is a solution for it as guided by NotATether (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5464944.msg62773350#msg62773350) with his post.

Additionally, it seems the owner of jochen-hoenicke.de website decided to create a mirror of it at another domain name. I guess the mempool prefix can help the site more easily to appear on top of searching results.

• https://mempool.jhoenicke.de/#BTC,24h,weight

Interesting, I didn't know about that fact.
It looks very basic without bitcoin addresses on main page and without extra features we have today, but it was useful back in the days.
Just look at all those regular 50 BTC transactions that are now worth more than $2 million dollars each 8)

I am sure not surprised learning for the second time that the first bitcoin block Explorer was built by theymos, I've read about this outside this forum one time, and that was even how I discovered this forum.

And from the look of the first bitcoin block Explorer as shown in the shot you posted, I do not think a lot changed so far, aside from background and text designs, fonts, more css properties, more functionalities through programming languages used.

Alot of the changes will probably be in the back end, for the front end, it's possibly still the same arrangement with little or minor readjustments here and there.

All the same, kudos to how far technology have brought us.

Other hidden facts you did not know, I guess so, because I did not add it in OP.

• theymos initially launched the Block explorer as a close source (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1727.msg21321#msg21321), and told that he maybe make the code public later which never happened.
• He run it for a long time till 2012 ^{not sure because theymos announced the new domain in 2010, but Wayback machine shows it in 2012 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1727.msg24009#msg24009)} when he switched the domain to blockexplorer.com ^[1], before selling it (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1727.msg1539613#msg1539613) ^{around Feb 2013} to Liraz.org (http://liraz.org/). The owner of Liraz site is Lira Siri (https://twitter.com/lirazsiri) (Twitter/ X). His account on Bitcointalk is liraz (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=78131).
• Lira Siri runs the Bitcoin block explorer for a while until May or June 2020 before made some change and later turned it to Joseon Explorer (https://www.blockexplorer.com/l/en-US/)
• Source of the information (https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1dkqcx/i_am_theymos_ama/)

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20120308072440/http://blockexplorer.com/

Some screenshots for above information.

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Blockchain.info possibly a second Bitcoin block explorer in history.

It was run by piuk (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=17928). Blockchain.info - Bitcoin Block explorer & Currency Statistics (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=40264.0) (announced in August 2011).