On Tuesday (6 November 2018), blockchain startup Blockstream launched a sleek and powerful new block explorer tool (located at blockstream.info) for the Bitcoin blockchain and the Liquid sidechain.

Here is how Blockstream announced the news on Twitter:

Back in August, before Blockstream had launched the Liquid Network, which it calls “the world’s first production Bitcoin sidechain”, it published a blog post that said Blockstream was working on a tool called the “Liquid Block Explorer”, which was going to be “a website to visually examine Liquid’s blockchain data and cross-check transactions.” The idea was that this tool could be used by the member of the Liquid Network to help them with “their integration and testing efforts.” 

However, later, Blockstream decided that the beautiful dark-themed user interface it had developed for this tool could also benefit the much wider community that uses the Bitcoin blockchain (both mainnet and testnet). That’s why Bitcoin support was added, such that the combined block explorer launched yesterday “allows users to search and view specific data that is published in real-time to the Bitcoin blockchain and the Liquid sidechain.”

According to Blockstream, here are the main features of this new block explorer:

  • “Bitcoin Mainnet, Testnet, and Liquid support”
  • “No analytics scripts, no tracking”
  • “Support for Bech32 addresses”
  • “Support for Confidential addresses (Liquid)”
  • “Monitor peg-in and peg-outs between Bitcoin and Liquid”
  • “Better privacy through Tor support (version 2; version 3)”

Here is a peak at the interface:

 Blockstream Explorer Screenshot.png

Crypto trader/analyst Willy Woo had this to say about this new tool:

Francis Pouliot, the founder and CEO of Satoshi Portal, seems to be an even bigger fan:

 

Featured Image Courtesy of Blockstream Corp.