OpenBitcoin.com: bitcoin block explorer, guides tools and games

[openbitcoin]

I have been building a bitcoin block explorer and I feel it's good enough to show:

BTC
openbitcoin.com

The site runs its own hardware, bitcoin node and address index. No third-party blockchain API used.

Inside the site:

• Explorer: blocks, transactions and addresses at root-level URLs. (very important, a feature I always wanted with other explorers, a quick easy way to query an address) For example you can type openbitcoin.com/block_number_here or openbitcoin.com/txid_here or openbitcoin.com/address_here to load the page instantly without visiting the site to use the search bar 

• Node census (/nodes): reachable nodes counted by my own P2P crawler, 8,958 nodes from 92 countries last run.

• Rich list (/rich-list): top 10,000 addresses and balance distributions.

• Prices: spot price as a median of three exchanges, with a quick conversion tool on the front page.

• Tools: fee calculator, address validator, message verifier, QR generator, and key tools built to be downloaded and run offline.

• Guides: on confirmations, UTXOs, self-custody, stuck transactions and more. Newbie friendly.

• Games (/games): three arcade games built on real bitcoin mechanics, stack blocks, clear a mempool backlog, and a slot machine that plays the actual odds of guessing a private key.

The website is open source and so is the code behind the measured numbers: node-crawler and address-index. What stays private is my server's operational layer.

Would appreciate any feedback, happy to contribute to the community.

[joniboini]

Explorer: blocks, transactions and addresses at root-level URLs. (very important, a feature I always wanted with other explorers, a quick easy way to query an address) For example you can type openbitcoin.com/block_number_here or openbitcoin.com/txid_here or openbitcoin.com/address_here to load the page instantly without visiting the site to use the search bar

I've tried it and it feels quite good. On the other hand though, some explorer usually use /address, /blocks, /tx, and so on to facilitate direct view for the users. Personally, I've never feel the need to remove the extra description on the URL. Do you think this advantage is huge to the point that user would switch to your explorer asap?

Speaking of other services, you seem to offer a swap feature through ChangeNOW. I think we have several reports where they request KYC every now and then, CMIIW. Is there any reason why you pick them? Especially when instant swap exchanges are numerous these days.

[robelneo]

I have been building a bitcoin block explorer and I feel it's good enough to show:

BTC
openbitcoin.com

You should be proud you did; it's an all-in-one tool, and it even has a glossary. It's one of the best tools I've seen so far. I'm also surprised the domain dates back to 2012; checking the Wayback Machine, I see a lot of configurations and changes over the years, but this is the best configuration so far, and hopefully it will stay this way.

My recommendation: can we have a day mode option?

I also would like to ask, out of curiosity: are you the original owner of the domain, or did you get it from a marketplace like Flippa
some of the best Bitcoin domain names are no longer available.

[openbitcoin]

Explorer: blocks, transactions and addresses at root-level URLs. (very important, a feature I always wanted with other explorers, a quick easy way to query an address) For example you can type openbitcoin.com/block_number_here or openbitcoin.com/txid_here or openbitcoin.com/address_here to load the page instantly without visiting the site to use the search bar

I've tried it and it feels quite good. On the other hand though, some explorer usually use /address, /blocks, /tx, and so on to facilitate direct view for the users. Personally, I've never feel the need to remove the extra description on the URL. Do you think this advantage is huge to the point that user would switch to your explorer asap?

Speaking of other services, you seem to offer a swap feature through ChangeNOW. I think we have several reports where they request KYC every now and then, CMIIW. Is there any reason why you pick them? Especially when instant swap exchanges are numerous these days.

Hi joniboini, thanks for the feedback, the url structure is always something I wish a reliable explorer had, to easily check addresses instantly. Instead of remembering their folder /addr/, /btcaddr/ or /address/ its just additional steps that are not required, at least for an explorer with only 1 coin.

Who would you suggest switching to? I can take a closer look, thank you.

I have been building a bitcoin block explorer and I feel it's good enough to show:

BTC
openbitcoin.com

You should be proud you did; it's an all-in-one tool, and it even has a glossary. It's one of the best tools I've seen so far. I'm also surprised the domain dates back to 2012; checking the Wayback Machine, I see a lot of configurations and changes over the years, but this is the best configuration so far, and hopefully it will stay this way.

My recommendation: can we have a day mode option?

I also would like to ask, out of curiosity: are you the original owner of the domain, or did you get it from a marketplace like Flippa
some of the best Bitcoin domain names are no longer available.

Hi robelneo, thank you for the kind words. Yes original owner. Day mode option added to the que!

[dkbit98]

Good work on making this explorer, but you really need to make something new and special to make me stop using mempoolspace bitxoin explorer.
I see that fee estimation is different on your explorer, and it is showing only one value, with probably medium or high priority.
Good thing you added is fear & greed bar, but maybe you should add more information when we click on it.

[ABCbits]

• Node census (/nodes): reachable nodes counted by my own P2P crawler, 8,958 nodes from 92 countries last run.

I like this feature, since there aren't that many website that actually collect their own data. Do you have any intention to share more data such as distribution of client type/version  , connection type (IPv4, IPv6 and Tor) and few historical chart?

[joniboini]

Who would you suggest switching to? I can take a closer look, thank you.

Maybe you can look on the services announcements or exchanges board. You can also look at what people wear on the signature I guess since some of them are doing a marketing campaign on this forum (including the one I wears right now). I'm not sure what's your requirement either, since some of them don't offer API yet. At the very least I suggest avoiding any exchange that has a TOS which says they can request KYC at any time (even if hey include minimum amount). Or just remove it entirely and focus more on existing features that some members think are unique, like the nodes stuff above.

[openbitcoin]

Good work on making this explorer, but you really need to make something new and special to make me stop using mempoolspace bitxoin explorer.
I see that fee estimation is different on your explorer, and it is showing only one value, with probably medium or high priority.
Good thing you added is fear & greed bar, but maybe you should add more information when we click on it.

Hi dkbit98, thanks for checking it out and the suggestions!

The front page fee is the next block estimate from our own mempool, high priority.
That tile now links to openbitcoin.com/fees with all four tiers displayed.

Your fear and greed idea is live: clicking it now opens openbitcoin.com/fear-greed
Four components behind the number and a year of history (Displaying what we've gathered so far since the site opened).

• Node census (/nodes): reachable nodes counted by my own P2P crawler, 8,958 nodes from 92 countries last run.

I like this feature, since there aren't that many website that actually collect their own data. Do you have any intention to share more data such as distribution of client type/version  , connection type (IPv4, IPv6 and Tor) and few historical chart?

Thanks ABCbits. All three are live on openbitcoin.com/nodes now, check it out!

[coin-investor]

A few hours ago, Mempool was down; it's not just today, but it's happened many times. Blockexplorer is very important for transactions. I have two other options, but I want something simple with lots of features, and you seem to have it.
I would like to ask if the platform is on a shared or dedicated server; this is important for uptime to guarantee that those frequent users will not be disappointed if they visit the platform.

[Dareo]

Crazy man, this is really an all in one website, today I spent some times exploring it today and kept thinking, what's not here! I also tried 3 games to kill the boredom, it was quite fun. The more I look at the site, the more I find something new. To be honest, it's nice to see so much in one place. Now I've bookmarked the website, I'll visit it again later.