What they used before Blockchain Explorer?

[Flexystar]

I am so confused after reading an About us text from the official website of Blockchain.com

As per their claim they stand out to be one of the first to build a blockchain explorer in the year 2011 and I wonder that is how they got hold of the Premium website domain name with Blockchain in it. If as per the Blockchain.com they were the first to build then what was before 2011 and after 2009?

Did we just transacted before that with peer to peer approach and waited for the Bitcoin to appear in our wallets?

Blockchain.com got its start as an early pioneer of key infrastructure for the bitcoin community. First, with a Blockchain Explorer that enabled anyone to not only examine transactions and study the blockchain, but an API that enabled companies to build on Bitcoin. We also have provided the most popular and widely used crypto wallet that enables anyone anywhere to control their own money.

I tried to search over the internet with key words
"worlds oldest blockchain explorer"
"first blockchain explorer"
"blockchain explorer beginning"

but all of them are just pointing me towards how blockchain started in the old days. All of them are referring me to how it started with Merkle who coined the whole concept as early as in 1979 through his "tree authentication" in his 1979 Ph.D. thesis for Stanford University.

After searching more there is evidence of Blockchain getting mentioned in the New York Times news paper published in the year 1995. But that was just regarding the talks about how we can cryptographically seal the digital documents.

A cool pic to look at from the old era:

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[ranochigo]

Blockchain.com wasn't the one who built the first blockexplorer. By the way, they were known as Blockchain.info prior to that. You are right; no one actually needed to see the balance of someone else's address and most of the information that you see on the blockexplorers are not essential to most.

The first blockexplorer was actually created by theymos: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1727.0. This was before blockexplorer.com and it led to the creation of that which was a lot more polished and with more detailed information.

[Faisal2202]

I just came to know that before 2010 there was nor explorer to see the status of any transaction! I mean really. Because if the Blockchain explorer of theymos is the first one then that thread is also made in 2010 and BTC was originated in 2009. Well, if that's true then how it is possible for people to trust on BTC at start and even in the early days there was a IP option available too to send and receive the funds.

Thanks for pointing out this new set of information for me, because if you had not asked this question then ranochigo might not have answered it. Well, it indicated every project even BTC took one year to make huge developments. I know taproot, Lightening network and now this ordinal things are also huge developments and God knows what types of developments are we going to see in upcoming years. But point is, Good things do take some time and i really appreciate those who have held BTC for that long period because if i were at that time found no explorer then i would not trust the system.

[Flexystar]

@ranochigo Thanks for pointing it out that @theymos was the first to build an explorer. I checked the thread and it seems that Website is long gone. The full fledge explorer was built by blockchain only (it seems like that). But obviously High respect to @theymos for building it.

@Faissal2202 I am also surprised to see the answer and know more historical aspect of explorer. I thought when Merkel designed the blockchain very first we were able to see the data over public ledger. However, it seems that was different interface as compared to what we experience today.

I think people are more keen on having confirmations through the explorers now. Initially it seems very smooth. It was actual privacy by the way. 

[pawel7777]

Before the first block explorer was developed, Bitcoin community consisted almost entirely of highly skilled enthusiast who could analyse the raw data without BE. e.g. they could spot and fix anomalies like this one.

(...) Well, if that's true then how it is possible for people to trust on BTC at start (...)

Bitcoin was (almost) worthless at that time so it's hard to talk about any trust. We're talking about times when anyone could get 5 btc from the faucet and many didn't even bother to claim that.

[nakamura12]

Bitcoin was (almost) worthless at that time so it's hard to talk about any trust. We're talking about times when anyone could get 5 btc from the faucet and many didn't even bother to claim that.

That's why there's no blockchain explorer that is created at that time because of Bitcoin almost worthless at that time since it's not that long from the day Bitcoin was created until many people are using Bitcoin. That's the time where a decision was made which is to create a blockchain explorer which is very useful until now. Well, I have been using blockchain explorer before but I mostly use mempool.space now since you can also see the fee that are being used.

[panganib999]

before blockchain explorer, there was no collective need for people to look at someone's addresses as well as their balances, bitcoin's not that big back then, nor was it relevant for people to waste time coding something to track addresses and balances. Of course as time went by the need became real and people started asking for a blockchain explorer. if I'm not mistaken it was blockchain.info that made the first blockchain explorer out there and I'm not sure if they are still around, but regardless.

Although scouring through this thread I found out that Theymos was actually the first guy to create a blockchain explorer, goes to show how invested the madlad is about bitcoin.

[Stalker22]

I think back in the day, every Bitcoin full node (using the Bitcoin Qt software) sort of functioned like a blockchain explorer. Good programmers could dig up more info about transactions directly from a local copy of the blockchain data. They did this using command-line tools, and often had to run specific commands to make the data readable.

This is essentially how theymos came up with the idea of making data easily viewable to the public, leading to the creation of the first blockchain explorer.

I created a site that lets you view detailed information about Bitcoin blocks, addresses, and transactions.

http://theymos.ath.cx:64150/bbe/

This data is all gotten from the block chain. It has always been possible to get this data, but you had to patch Bitcoin with getblock or use the clunky -printblock switch in Bitcoin, and then you had to search through miles of data to get what you wanted. Now everything is available in a clickable and easily-searchable format.
~

[lassdas]

(...) Well, if that's true then how it is possible for people to trust on BTC at start (...)

Why would we need a blockexplorer to trust in BTC?
And why should we trust the blockexplorer (instead of BTC?)?

Back in those days every user was running a "full node",
bitcoinQT was the only wallet around and "pruning" didn't exist, so everyone had his own copy of the complete blockchain.

Don't trust, verify!

You can't verify anything on a blockexplorers website, you have to trust the operator.
The only reliable source of information is the blockchain itself, so it's best to keep your own copy.

[suzanne5223]

In addition what others have sai,  I idea of Bitcoin Blockchain Explorer ^{which was know as BBE then} was brought up by they before was advance to https://www.blockexplorer.com/
Later Blockchain.com formerly Blockchain.info step in, another Bitcoin transaction explorer called Blockr.io join the list before it was acquired by Coinbase and we later see BTC.com before there's a lot of Bitcoin blockchain explorer.
That's what I find through my research.

[Husires]

In the beginnings of Bitcoin, there were not many wallets, it was the Bitcoin version, and then the Bitcoin-Qt version. All of this, and transactions were made from full nodes, and the user did not need block explorers, but over time and the possibility of using web wallets, Blockchain.info appeared as a quick solution to accept Bitcoin and conduct transactions, but the question He was the one who owned Blockchain.com, and why was it not used in the first place, since the domain has been moved to in recent years.

The first blockexplorer was actually created by theymos: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1727.0. This was before blockexplorer.com and it led to the creation of that which was a lot more polished and with more detailed information.

wiki page need some edits.

Blockchain.com (formerly Blockchain.info) is a cryptocurrency financial services company. The company began as the first Bitcoin blockchain explorer in 2011 and later created a cryptocurrency wallet that accounted for 28% of bitcoin transactions between 2012 and 2020. It also operates a cryptocurrency exchange and provides institutional markets lending business and data, charts, and analytics

[adaseb]

Generally when you go to a block explorer you are normally just looking at your own balances. Almost never anybody else’s. So normally you have the private keys for your addresses and so all the balances and transactions show up in the Bitcoin wallet software.

So if you send someone some bitcoins all they need to do is just load up their wallet and make sure they received it and it’s all that is needed. But the blockchain explorer sure was a great tool for analyzing transactions.

[Flexystar]

Before the first block explorer was developed, Bitcoin community consisted almost entirely of highly skilled enthusiast who could analyse the raw data without BE. e.g. they could spot and fix anomalies like this one.

(...) Well, if that's true then how it is possible for people to trust on BTC at start (...)

Bitcoin was (almost) worthless at that time so it's hard to talk about any trust. We're talking about times when anyone could get 5 btc from the faucet and many didn't even bother to claim that.

Haha, no wonder why many of us miss those days when literally did not care about it. So basically it is true that no one would have ever imagined that they need a block explorer to work with the transactions. It is just some "other" enthusiasts who entered the market and made it one sort of business. They first got it launched as explorer, then slowly launched the wallets in the same official name and thus it was clearly business point of view.

I think then they also brought the exchangers and now rest is history with trillions of dollars already transacted through various wallets until now (maybe more).

(...) Well, if that's true then how it is possible for people to trust on BTC at start (...)

Why would we need a blockexplorer to trust in BTC?
And why should we trust the blockexplorer (instead of BTC?)?

Back in those days every user was running a "full node",
bitcoinQT was the only wallet around and "pruning" didn't exist, so everyone had his own copy of the complete blockchain.

Don't trust, verify!

You can't verify anything on a blockexplorers website, you have to trust the operator.
The only reliable source of information is the blockchain itself, so it's best to keep your own copy.

True. Makes complete sense. I think initially only the highly technical people who understood what bitcoin is must have entered the realm of blockchain. Its like they knew very well what they are getting at and what is needed to "run" the process.

Also makes sense why many people did not even bother to claim the faucets when they were distributing more than 5-10 bitcoins per claim. None of them were wrong, it's just that the knowledge, the future clarification, actual usage nothing was clear back then.

I believe, explorer, exchangers, wallets increased over the time and then it was "ready made" tool for common/ non technical person and that's why the boom of Bitcoin.

[Uruhara]

.....

I've never thought about this. And now I just realized it and started to think about it when I read the topic you made OP. I think this is one of the topics that awakens old insights that must be brought up again by the seniors here who know about this. Thank you friends for creating a topic which I think is a good question that really represents the curiosity of every newbie here, including me personally who just found out about this.

Blockchain.com wasn't the one who built the first blockexplorer. By the way, they were known as Blockchain.info prior to that. You are right; no one actually needed to see the balance of someone else's address and most of the information that you see on the blockexplorers are not essential to most.

The first blockexplorer was actually created by theymos: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1727.0. This was before blockexplorer.com and it led to the creation of that which was a lot more polished and with more detailed information.

This is a new insight for me. Thank you guys for sharing.

[ImThour]

The first blockexplorer was actually created by theymos: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1727.0. This was before blockexplorer.com and it led to the creation of that which was a lot more polished and with more detailed information.

Today I learned that theymos developed the first ever block explorer. I didn't knew that, the amount of significant role he is playing or played for the Bitcoin community is underrated and not much appreciated. Although, he has  been single handedly running this forum from years. Thank you for your contribution @theymos. We all appreciate it and if you ever need anyone's help, do let us know.

[Helena Yu]

That's mean before 2010 Bitcoin was a privacy coin, but it's become pseudonymous after Bitcoin explorer is existing.

But it's better to have Bitcoin explorer than not because we can see we're really receive the coins or not if we don't carry our wallet/watch only wallet.

The first blockexplorer was actually created by theymos: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1727.0. This was before blockexplorer.com and it led to the creation of that which was a lot more polished and with more detailed information.

If he use more friendly domain name, I believe it can be popular until now and it can be used to promote this forum, but it's what it's.

[pooya87]

That's mean before 2010 Bitcoin was a privacy coin, but it's become pseudonymous after Bitcoin explorer is existing.

Having a block explorer doesn't really change much about the level of privacy that bitcoin offers. Not to mention that before 2010 there weren't that many transactions to go through using your own full node, you can even check all of them manually if you skip the coinbase transactions since there are only a little higher than 200 of them in first year: https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/transactions?s=time(asc)&q=time(2009-01-03..2010-01-01),is_coinbase(false)#f=block_id,time,is_coinbase

[Faisal2202]

However, it seems that was different interface as compared to what we experience today.

I think people are more keen on having confirmations through the explorers now. Initially it seems very smooth. It was actual privacy by the way. 

We should not compare the UI&UX of today with the old ones because today all the UI are so friendly and easy to use while back then things were also User friendly but a little difficult though like back in time. Yeah, I can not agree more because I will not take anyone else's example here but of mine. If I found no Explorer at that time it would become so hard for me to trust the system. But those who trusted and worked consistently are teaching us a lesson, a lesson for new projects, and new innovations, that we should not give up.

Bitcoin was (almost) worthless at that time so it's hard to talk about any trust. We're talking about times when anyone could get 5 btc from the faucet and many didn't even bother to claim that.

Yeah, I can understand, in fact, the thing is, that opportunity of getting free BTC has triggered people to not give up on any new token since then which provides free mining and earning them free. (I know we are BTC enthusiasts who do not talk about shit coins but we cannot also ignore them too at least I can use them in my examples). The trauma of missing that opportunity out had hit everyone so hard that they just do not want to miss any other chance and I can see the smartphones of my friends, family members (talking about my father), and other connections downloaded almost every app related to mining. I mean really that's some scene of watching with popcorn.

Once I joined a Zoom meeting (the link was shared by a class fellow who asked me to join it because they are teaching us to make money) and the funny thing is, the representative of the meeting was selling his coin and saying that we have lost the opportunity to grab the BTC but you guys have another opportunity like that buy our token blah blah blah). And I was laughing but I tries to tell my CF that this is a scam and I will lose her money but she did not listen to me and in the end, she lost around $150.

Why would we need a blockexplorer to trust in BTC?
And why should we trust the blockexplorer (instead of BTC?)?
...............

I can understand your concerns you must be one of the very early adopters of BTC that's why you are an enthusiast about BTC because in today world I do trust BTC and its decentralization but I meant to say, live data is bit relaxing for everyone because it gives them some time to wait just like this newbie who just entered crypto sphere and worried about his trade in BTC. He is totally depend on BE.

Please help me to understand what happened with a bct transaction I made from one cold wallet address to another. In short: I transferred the correct amount in the receiving address and when I check the status, it appears another transaction with a similar but smaller amount to a total unknown btc address. This unknown transaction appears on top of my correct transaction. The transaction(s) is pending since one hour and in the explorer it shows that the transaction will be completed in 12 hours.

Are you suggesting to creat a full wallet node instead of using SPV wallets? Because if Blockchain Explorer is not trusted then things will get confusing for everyone. Because it just displays the data of blockchain even the validators and miners are increased so much since the inception of BTC so we should trust the BE.

I do understand that everyone was running a full node but what I do not understand here is how that provides one information and history of transactional data in live time. Just like the BE do. Because AFAIK, the addition of new transactional data when occurred then that data is also upgraded in all the blockchains (means who have run a full node). But what happened in between that time who knows that live status's information?

[so98nn]

That's mean before 2010 Bitcoin was a privacy coin, but it's become pseudonymous after Bitcoin explorer is existing.

Having a block explorer doesn't really change much about the level of privacy that bitcoin offers. Not to mention that before 2010 there weren't that many transactions to go through using your own full node, you can even check all of them manually if you skip the coinbase transactions since there are only a little higher than 200 of them in first year: https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/transactions?s=time(asc)&q=time(2009-01-03..2010-01-01),is_coinbase(false)#f=block_id,time,is_coinbase

This is true about privacy. I think back then it was not even private because you could literally point out the person who made that transaction considering the number of transactions. Like in the Block #170 or a few previous other blocks the input and output of mining is around 50 BTC with repeated bitcoin addresses. Let us say back then the whole world was watching these few miners doing their jobs they could easily tag the Bitcoin Addresses with the names and keep track ever after. This anyway did not happen but it was possible back then. In similar ways as they kept the tracking of Satoshi's address, it would be done for the others.

However, the reality is, the network has outgrown so much that even with the Block explorer you end up in the giant network of conformations and see thousands of them intertwined due to various destination transactions, output and input both.

[OgNasty]

Before the first block explorer was developed, Bitcoin community consisted almost entirely of highly skilled enthusiast who could analyse the raw data without BE. e.g. they could spot and fix anomalies like this one.

(...) Well, if that's true then how it is possible for people to trust on BTC at start (...)

Bitcoin was (almost) worthless at that time so it's hard to talk about any trust. We're talking about times when anyone could get 5 btc from the faucet and many didn't even bother to claim that.

I was surprised by the amount of seemingly experts that posted on the forums back when I joined. I can only imagine the years before that. The forum atmosphere has changed a lot over the years as the Bitcoin price increased and the focus became less about technology providing freedom and more about number go up.