Not just yet.

I am using Mercurial and pushing to BitBucket, but I haven't shared a link to the repository. It will be open-source, but it's a bit premature at the moment.

Had to restart bitcoind. Thanks for letting me know.

Thanks Joel

Yeah I agree; showing the transactions for an address would be very useful, but I haven't figured out how to do that just yet. Thanks for bringing that up though.


Been working on the explorer for about 4 months in total, but not 4 months straight. Probably could have been done in about a month, but I've been learning things as I go along.

And thanks... I've been trying to lay things out in a way that make the most sense in my head.


Your websocket tutorial saved my brain.


Ha, perfect.

And yeah, I don't love javascript, so I'm glad there are still people out there who are cool with webpages that don't have shit flying everywhere.

Thanks! Glad I'm not the only one who enjoys the "classic" look. Although I dare say my lack of front-end skill does force my hand somewhat.

Can you go in to more detail about the search feature you mentioned?


Good question.

The primary goal with this website was to explain how bitcoin works in a way that's easy to understand. I started with the written guide, but after finishing it I realised that it would make things easier if I could show how it works, so that's why I started the blockchain explorer.

So the secondary goal has been making a blockchain explorer that anyone can understand. I think the existing blockchain explorers are difficult to use for anyone who is new to bitcoin, so I'm making something that's easy.

In the end, I think a good blockchain explorer will help get more people in to bitcoin.

tl;dr I thought I could make something better than blockchain.info


Thank you sir

I created the site from scratch using PHP, so I've tried to make the pages load as quick as possible (although some parts of the explorer are going to be sluggish until I figure some things out). Nonetheless, my hope is that faster page loads will distract from my god-awful web design skills.

Update: 24 January 2017

learnmebitcoin.com Blockchain Browser - New Version

Hey, spent some time improving the block explorer. Here's an overview:

• Node
  
  • Shows you how many transactions are in the memory pool, how many of those have been selected for inclusion in a candidate block, and the current difficulty (how hard it is to mine it on to the blockchain).

• Blockchain
  
  • View blocks in the blockchain at any part of the chain, along with each block's; size, number of transactions, and fees collected.
  • Example:  The first 10 blocks in the blockchain.
  • Tip: Entering a negative value in the height field will take you that many blocks from the top.

• Block
  
  • See the order of transactions in a block, along with the block header data.
  • Example:  The block of the last block reward halving.
  • Tip: Hovering over the "bits" field in the block header will show you the target value for the block (so you can see how much "under" this block's hash was).

• Transaction
  
  • Shows you the inputs and outputs of a transaction, and the addresses they have been locked to. Allows you to travel through transactions, so you can follow the path of coins.
  • Examples: First ever bitcoin transaction to Hal Finney, Pizza transaction for 10,000 BTC in 2010.
  • Tip: Click on the 'serialized' switch in the top-right corner to see the raw transaction data (along with highlighting of each field when you hover over it).
  • Tip: Click on the lock icons to see the locking scripts used for each transaction. Also, any scripts possibly containing hidden messages have been decoded, such as; the Marry Me message, the original Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks, and these co-ordinates of some sort.

• Address
  
  • View the balance of an address, based on all the outputs that have been locked to that address.
  • Examples:  Silk Road seized funds address (click on the first output to start following where they have been sent), Hi Mom address

Extras

• Memory Pool - See the latest transactions, and which ones have been selected for inclusion in a candidate block (hovering over a transaction tells you the fee per byte, which is the metric used to determine which transactions are selected).
• Candidate Block - This is actually trying to be mined on to the blockchain. It refreshes every 20 seconds to include the transactions with the highest fees. (The lowest fee-per-byte transactions tend to be at the bottom of the block, so by hovering over the bottom one, you can work out the minimum fee-per-byte needed to be included in the next block in the blockchain.)

Original Post:

Hey,

I've been working on making a simple bitcoin blockchain explorer. This is what I've got so far:

http://learnmeabitcoin.com/browser/

There are a number of things that I'd like to add/improve (such as getting the data to update live on the page), so I know it's not finished yet. But I've been working on this in the dark for so long that I thought it would be a good idea to share what I've got so far, and could do with some opinions.

So yeah, hope it's useful. Tell me what you think.

Greg.

I see, thank you.

So how does 244 112.487774 = 440711666?

http://blockexplorer.com/b/125552

Okay, so f2b9441a is the Little-endian of 440711666.

Where does 440711666 come from?

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_hashing_algorithm (PHP script at the bottom)

I do not understand the structure of the code well enough to answer your question accurately. Although I'd say that "hashing the contents of the merkleblock.cpp file" is an inaccurate evaluation of what I'm looking to achieve.

To try and clarify, what I believe I am now looking for are the file(s) that performs this:

"When mining bitcoin, the hashcash algorithm repeatedly hashes the block header while incrementing the counter & extraNonce fields."
 - https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_hashing_algorithm

Note that finding the block header field names (container names?) in the source code is still my primary goal.

Yes. Sorry my terminology is poor.

I was able to find (I think) that hashMerkleRoot is a block header field name from this file: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/src/merkleblock.cpp

However I must confess that I am noob to the source. Can you point me in the direction of where I might find the code for the hashing the block header (and thus the field/container names)?

Hi there,

I'm looking at the block header information on this page: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_hashing_algorithm

It covers the following block header fields:

Version
hashPrevBlock
hashMerkleRoot
Time
Bits
Nonce

1. Are these the exact field names used in the protocol, or are these just descriptive names for the purposes of the article?

2. A question about the Bits field.

When hashing the block header in the example PHP code at the bottom of the bitcoin wiki page, the value used for Bits is 440711666.

However, when looking at the block information (http://blockexplorer.com/b/125552), the value they have displayed for Bits is Difficulty?: 244 112.487774 ("Bits"?: 1a44b9f2)

How do I convert the difficulty/bits information displayed on blockexplorer to 440711666?

Want to buy 1000 CAT for BTC. PM me your best Christmas offer

Not really an interesting feature, but I know a lot of online casinos implement a "turbo mode" feature, which makes the results of each game instantaneous (no animation etc.). More for the hardened gamblers.

Also, I sometimes use a display with a 1280x720 resolution. The games are ever so slightly too large to fit within the window. It's very close and hardly unusable, but would be nice if I could see everything in my browser without ever scrolling. This is as much as I can view in Firefox:



A responsive game interface based on browser window size would be cool, but I understand this would require time to develop.

In the event that the cryptocurrency makret spreads out and other coins gain popularity against Bitcoin, how do you feel about maintaining the CasinoBitco.in domain and brand?

I personally don't see any issues. Even if Peercoin (for example) achieves wider adoption for Internet transactions, "Bitcoin" will remain synonymous with "crypto" for the foreseeable future. Just wondering if you had thought about the brand name on a longer time scale.

Would the selling point of be that with Bitcoin you're attaching data to a transaction (the transaction is the focus, and the data is secondary). But with Datacoin you're attaching a transaction to data? So the data is the focus and the transaction supports it?

Also, would it be possible to create a data explorer for a coin like BTC like krypte.net is doing for DTC? Or is that kind of unique to the way DTC has been set up?

I don't think the masses need to understand the technical workings of Datacoin as much as they need to be shown the awesome advantages.

It's a worldwide store of data. If you want to secure some data and give it the best chance of being discovered 1,000 years from now, Datacoin could be the solution. The data is permanent, and it's stored on thousands of hard drives across the world. I think people would be interested in buying in to something like that.

I'm sure some cool applications for Datacoins will be unearthed. I love the concept and can't wait to see how it develops.

No worries. I hope my post didn't come across as too rude. I just like the way you do things and wanted to throw out any ideas that sprung to mind that might help.

Didn't know about that thread. Thanks.

Okay thank you, that answered my question well.

So basically, there's no major concern that this CPU method would have any possible negative effects when it comes to miners being able to work to keep the datacoin blockchain nice and secure if the coin becomes popular?

I also notice that it's a CPU-only coin. Does that tie in with the goals of the coin somehow, or is there no specific reason to it?

Are there any notable advantages/disadvantages worth considering as far as how CPU might influence the adoption and usage of datacoin?

Would it be possible to use datacoin as some sort of web host to serve html pages? If so, it could be the Internet's first hosting service with 100% (not 99.5%) uptime?

That would be useful.

Hi, first post. Been a full-time online gambling affiliate for a few years. Building content websites, SEO, converting visitors, playing at loads of online gambling venues. No experience on the operator side of things, but experienced on the traffic and conversions side.

I like CasinoBitco.in. It's more functional than the other bitcoin casino websites I've tried out. It's certainly basic, but it works well and it's easy to use.

What's the plan for the web development side of things?

I like the way you've set up the site - the sign-up process is quick, and the get started guide upon first log-in is smart. The whole registration process was a good one for me.

As I mentioned, the website is wonderfully functional, but also basic. It doesn't seem as though it would be difficult for a new competitor or an already etablished online casino to start competing for market share in a relatively short period of time.

How can you move far enough ahead right now to give yourself an advantage over emerging competitors? I think Bitcoin casinos and sportsbooks have a future, and it won’t be long before more people arrive to exploit the opportunity. You’ve got a head-start, and I want to believe that you have the ability to remain innovate and continue to improve in the face of inevitable competition.

A few general thoughts:

1. The casino games work well. They’re quick and efficient, and that’s such a breath of fresh air from the existing set of online casinos. But the games are not pretty just yet. They’re not as fun as the colourful slot machines I love to watch, or the sound of being dealt another hand in blackjack that I love to hear.

Is this a limitation of HTML5? Could you improve the aesthetics and gameplay given time? The experience isn’t as good as the one I’m going to get at a Flash casino.

2. http://www.casinobitco.in/bitcoin-casino - Screenshots of the games with bigger “Play Now” buttons would be awesome. I don’t want to have to scroll through a text description of the game. Text descriptions don’t get me excited to play roulette, but having a screenshot of the roulette table will get me clicking.

3. I’m sure you could find a more attractive deck of cards. The current deck design reminds me of my time spent playing Hearts on Windows 95.

4. Why the footer navigation? Wouldn’t sidebar navigation be more practical? This way I can see everything on offer. I don’t have to search for it, or forget about trying different things because all the stuff is buried at the bottom.

I think the site would benefit from taking a few design elements from existing online sportsbooks. I really like Bet365. I think their layout is functional works well. Maintain your own casinobitco.in style of course, but why not grab some ideas?

5. With the small generic logo and large stock photo splashed across the front page, there’s very little to distinguish the site. No brand or feel. It’s easily forgettable.

Also, on the homepage I'm not shown any casino games to choose from, or any cool sports betting options. The focus is for me to "learn more", but all I want to do is create an account and start gambling.

Where’s the fun gambling stuff and how do I get down to it?

How can you get me more excited to start wagering? More importantly, how can you make creating an account as obvious and frictionless as possible?

How about a big registration form? So it’s like “look here, look how quick and easy this is”.

One of the awesome things about Bitcoin is how quick and easy it is to move money, so why not showcase this by highlighting how quick and easy it is to gamble at casinobitco.in, as opposed to trying to sign up and deposit at 888.com? I’m not shown the advantages.

6. I think you could get a sexier logo by running a $400 logo contest.

7. I love the help and support section. You’re doing the important things very right. You’re making me feel comfortable with your well-presented pages than any other online casino does. I’m sure this will give you an edge.