AlgoExplorer — Algorand Block Explorer
AlgoExplorer retrieves human-readable data from Algorands’ new Blockchain.
Unlike all previous blockchains, most of which are simple clones, Prof Silvio Micali’s blockchain excels at all features of the blockchain trilemma, decentralization, security, and scalability.
By using verifiable random functions (VRF) to determine the next block creator as well as the committee verifying it, Algorand is able to achieve a high TPS (transaction per second) rate. Using the VRF, nodes run a lottery to determine the block creator and the committee for each verification round. Security is increased because it is not possible to target an attack to a specific node given that no one knows who the next block proposer will be nor who will integrate the committee.
AlgoExplorer enables anyone to quickly retrieve information on the most common queries such as the latest transactions made in the network, the balance of an account, transaction history log, the data from a certain block and much more.
In addition to this, the AlgoExplorer has a built-in complete API to access the Algorand Blockchain, the engine of the block explorer. By leveraging it, dapps will be able to access blockchain data by simply calling a Rest API from any device.
The main challenge we faced was the performance required for a high transaction network. By researching different architectures, implementations, and databases we were able to insert 700–2000 transaction per second while maintaining the same reliability in an environment of high-volume of API and block explorer requests.
Note Field
Algorand added a data field where it is possible to store up to 1 Kb of arbitrary data. This field will be very useful to develop different types of digital assets (or tokens) and custom protocols.
We show this field on Base64, Hexa, and Ascii to help developers to implement and debug their code:
You can see a transaction with Note field here.
Feel free to test AlgoExplorer and reach out to us on twitter @algo_explorer
