Announcing IOBScan-IBC: A Cross-chain Explorer to Inspect IBC Transactions
Launched on December 23rd, IOBScan-IBC (https://ibc.iobscan.io) is a first-of-its-kind cross-chain explorer to inspect IBC transactions.
Following Cosmos Hub, many chains have enabled the IBC protocol in stages, bringing a surge in IBC transactions. As a result, the need to one-stop inspect IBC transactions becomes apparent. IOBScan-IBC was born in this cross-chain context to provide a smooth user experience.
What is IOBScan-IBC
You may wonder why it is called “IOBScan-IBC”, 2 words connected by a dash. IOBScan is short for “Internet of Blockchain Scan”, a product family for the interchain ecosystem.
IOBScan has 3 kinds of detailed products:
- Single Chain: explorers for different single chains
- Cross Chain: IOBScan-IBC
- Interchain Portal: overview, visualizer, and entry for IOBScan explorers
Among the above products, single-chain IOBScan instances (Cosmos Hub, IRIS Hub, etc.) have already been launched, while IOBScan-IBC, which focuses on cross-chain information, was released this December.
IBC-native Explorer
So what makes IOBScan-IBC different?
IOBScan-IBC is an “IBC-native” explorer, if we summarize IOBScan-IBC’s all cool features in one sentence.
Let’s take a look at how users could track IBC transactions before IOBScan-IBC: users would wait for the confirmation notification from wallets. If something wrong happens during IBC transactions, such as pending on relayers or wrong status on destination chains, users will have to switch explorers of different chains back and forth to identify the problem.
IOBScan-IBC solves this by adopting another paradigm.
In IOBScan-IBC, IBC transactions are first-class citizens. IOBScan-IBC organizes information not based on every single transaction on different chains, but on the whole life-cycle of IBC transactions.
Overview
With all essential information of IBC transactions packed up on the homepage, IOBScan-IBC provides users with a convenient one-stop experience when traveling the IBC cross-chain ecosystem.
With IOBScan-IBC, users can easily track the status and details of IBC transactions across multiple chains, without having to collect scattered information on different explorers to investigate transaction problems. For example, by viewing the status and progress of IBC transactions in IOBScan, users can immediately identify which step of the transaction is pending on.
IBC Transaction List
IOBScan also supports tracking all IBC transactions on the Transfers Page through displaying real-time transaction details such as IBC In/Out address, TxHash, creation time, etc. All transactions can be filtered by chain, status, and date through selecting in the drop-down menus, providing a customized IBC searching service for Cosmonauts, and presenting them with the most integrated IBC map of footprints.
What’s Next
This current version of IOBScan-IBC is only the first step for IBC explorer’s pathfinding. More features are planned on IOBScan-IBC’s roadmap.
More Transaction Details
More transaction details will be available in future versions of IOBScan-IBC, such as showing all In/Out transaction details, total assets, total transferred values, and status in the address details page, as well as enabling the Search by TxHash function.
More Supported Chains
IOBScan currently supports 12 chains, including Cosmos, IRISnet, Crypto,org, Akash, Osmosis, Persistence, Regen Network, Sentinel, Sifchain, Starname, e-Money, and Microtick. More chains, such as Terra and Juno, will be supported in the next iteration. With more chains becoming IBC-enabled afterwards, IOBScan-IBC will include these chains in stages.
Developer-friendly Functions
In addition to improving the user experience, IOBScan-IBC can also serve cross-chain developers as a productive tool with practical functions and references, including collective information of relayers and channels.
