Dissecting An Open Source ETC Blockchain Explorer

3 min readAug 14, 2018

Many rely on Ethereum Classic (ETC) blockchain explorers for information about the ETC system. I will analyze the open source ETCPlanet.org blockchain explorer application and source code which is available here.

Basics

ETC blockchain explorers display information about the ETC system. Typically this involves web applications with access to ETC network nodes (computers). Information requests to ETC nodes use the Web3 JSON RPC (Javascript Object Notation Remote Procedure Call) interfaces. The ETCPlanet.org explorer is written in Python using the Django framework. It requires access to an ETC Parity node. See the json_rpc.py file for details regarding how Web3 requests are made.

Interface

Users specify search requests by entering numbers into a search box. Sizes of numbers determine search request types. Numbers can denote block numbers, block hashes, transaction hashes or account addresses. All numbers, with the possible exception of block numbers, must be hexadecimal and begin with “0x”.

Results

Block, transaction and account search results contains all the associated fields. Block search results also specify block sizes, block header hashes and mining rewards. Transaction search results also specify transaction hashes, transaction gas requirements, block numbers, block creation dates and times, block transaction list indices, sending account addresses, and, sending account public keys. (Although transactions do not specify sending addresses, they can be found from the digital signatures.) Account search results also specify whether accounts are external accounts or smart contract accounts.

Conclusion

Feel free to utilize the ETCPlanet.org application and source code as desired. As we all keep improving the ETC toolset, the entire ETC system keeps getting stronger.