esplora

Explorer for Bitcoin and Liquid

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insight

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btcpayserver

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Accept Bitcoin payments. Free, open-source & self-hosted, Bitcoin payment processor.

Explore the full Bitcoin ecosystem with mempool.space, or self-host your own instance with one-click installation on popular Raspberry Pi fullnode distros including Umbrel, Raspiblitz, Start9, and more!

Quick Overview

Blockstream/esplora is an open-source blockchain explorer and API server for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It provides a user-friendly web interface and a powerful API for interacting with the blockchain, making it a valuable tool for developers, researchers, and cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

Pros

Comprehensive Blockchain Exploration: Esplora offers a comprehensive set of features for exploring the blockchain, including transaction details, block information, and address balances.
Customizable and Extensible: The project is designed to be highly customizable and extensible, allowing users to tailor the explorer to their specific needs.
Efficient and Scalable: Esplora is built on top of the Electrum server, which provides a fast and efficient way to interact with the blockchain.
Open-Source and Community-Driven: Esplora is an open-source project, which means that it benefits from the contributions and support of a large and active community of developers.

Cons

Limited Cryptocurrency Support: While Esplora primarily focuses on Bitcoin, support for other cryptocurrencies may be limited or require additional configuration.
Steep Learning Curve: Esplora's extensive feature set and customization options can make it challenging for new users to get started, especially those who are not familiar with blockchain technology.
Potential Performance Issues: Depending on the size of the blockchain and the number of users, Esplora may experience performance issues, especially when handling large amounts of data.
Maintenance and Updates: As an open-source project, the ongoing maintenance and updates of Esplora may depend on the availability and commitment of the community.

Code Examples

// Fetch transaction details
const txid = '0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef';
const response = await fetch(`/api/tx/${txid}`);
const tx = await response.json();
console.log(tx);

// Fetch block information
const blockHeight = 123456;
const response = await fetch(`/api/block-height/${blockHeight}`);
const block = await response.json();
console.log(block);

// Fetch address balance
const address = '1BvBMSEYstWetqTFn5Au4m4GFg7xJaNVN2';
const response = await fetch(`/api/address/${address}/balance`);
const balance = await response.json();
console.log(balance);

// Broadcast a transaction
const txHex = '0200000001a15d57094aa7a21a28cb20b59aab8fc7d1149a3bdbcddba9c622e4f5f6a99ebb0000000006b483045022100896c2a0c3dd7f1e96f4af5c800e6108f3c9c6d6e8c93be25c8b301c5fc1c1c5f02206d6c98c5d7c9f7afa9d0c3f5c67e7c0d4b1a3aa2c4f486c6b2d67d0c49a2c2e012103c96d495bfdd5ba4145e3e046fee45e84a8a48ad05bd8dbb395c011a32cf9f88ffffffff0200e1f505000000001976a914c42e7ef92fdb603af844d064faad95db97989f8e88ac0000000000000000166a14549fd4d0c369c5aa7a79fd7d37a6a4a4c2a9670200000000';
const response = await fetch('/api/tx', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ tx: txHex })
});
const result = await response.json();
console.log(result);

Getting Started

To get started with Esplora, you can follow these steps:

Clone the Esplora repository from GitHub:

git clone

Competitor Comparisons

insight

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A bitcoin blockchain explorer and API

Pros of Insight

More extensive API documentation and examples
Supports multiple cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin
Longer development history and larger community

Cons of Insight

Less frequent updates and maintenance
Higher resource requirements for running a full node
More complex setup process

Code Comparison

Esplora (TypeScript):

export function estimateFee(blocks: number): Promise<number> {
  return request(`/fee-estimates`)
    .then(estimates => estimates[blocks.toString()]);
}

Insight (JavaScript):

InsightAPI.prototype.estimateFee = function(nbBlocks, callback) {
  this._tryAllClients(function(client, cb) {
    client.estimateFee(nbBlocks, cb);
  }, callback);
};

Both projects provide blockchain explorers and APIs for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Esplora, developed by Blockstream, focuses on a modern, lightweight explorer with a clean UI. Insight, by BitPay, offers a more comprehensive set of features and supports multiple cryptocurrencies.

Esplora uses TypeScript and modern web technologies, resulting in a more maintainable codebase. Insight, written in JavaScript, has a longer history and more extensive documentation but may require more setup effort.

Choose Esplora for a sleek, efficient explorer focused on Bitcoin, or Insight for a feature-rich solution supporting multiple cryptocurrencies with extensive API capabilities.

btc-rpc-explorer

1,637

Database-free, self-hosted Bitcoin explorer, via RPC to Bitcoin Core.

Pros of btc-rpc-explorer

More lightweight and easier to set up, requiring only a Bitcoin Core node
Offers a clean, user-friendly interface with customizable themes
Provides detailed mempool statistics and visualizations

Cons of btc-rpc-explorer

Less scalable for high-traffic scenarios compared to Esplora
Lacks some advanced features like address tracking and API endpoints

Code Comparison

btc-rpc-explorer:

router.get("/block-height/:blockHeight", function(req, res, next) {
  var blockHeight = parseInt(req.params.blockHeight);
  res.locals.blockHeight = blockHeight;

  coreApi.getBlockHashByHeight(blockHeight).then(function(blockHash) {
    res.redirect("/block/" + blockHash);
  });
});

Esplora:

pub fn block_by_height(
    app: &App,
    req: &mut Request,
) -> Result<Response, Error> {
    let height: u32 = req.param("height")?.parse()?;
    let blockhash = app.query.get_block_hash(height)?;
    Ok(Response::redirect(format!("/block/{}", blockhash)))
}

Both examples show routing for block height queries, but Esplora uses Rust for better performance, while btc-rpc-explorer uses JavaScript for easier customization.

btcpayserver

6,565

Accept Bitcoin payments. Free, open-source & self-hosted, Bitcoin payment processor.

Pros of BTCPayServer

More comprehensive payment processing solution, including invoicing and e-commerce integration
Supports multiple cryptocurrencies, not just Bitcoin
Offers a user-friendly interface for merchants and customers

Cons of BTCPayServer

More complex setup and maintenance due to its broader feature set
Requires more server resources to run compared to Esplora
May have a steeper learning curve for users new to cryptocurrency payments

Code Comparison

BTCPayServer (C#):

public async Task<IActionResult> CreateInvoice(InvoiceModel model)
{
    var store = HttpContext.GetStoreData();
    var entity = await CreateInvoiceCore(store, model, Request.GetAbsoluteRoot());
    return RedirectToAction(nameof(Invoice), new { id = entity.Id });
}

Esplora (JavaScript):

app.get('/tx/:txid', (req, res) => {
  const { txid } = req.params
  rpc.getTx(txid)
    .then(tx => res.json(tx))
    .catch(err => res.status(400).send(err.message))
})

The code snippets show that BTCPayServer focuses on invoice creation and management, while Esplora provides simpler blockchain data retrieval functionality.

mempool

2,144

Pros of mempool

More comprehensive feature set, including mempool visualization and fee estimation
Active development with frequent updates and community contributions
Supports multiple cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin

Cons of mempool

Higher system requirements due to more complex functionality
Steeper learning curve for setup and configuration
May be overkill for simple block explorer needs

Code comparison

mempool (TypeScript):

export interface MempoolInfo {
  loaded: boolean;
  size: number;
  bytes: number;
  usage: number;
  maxmempool: number;
  mempoolminfee: number;
  minrelaytxfee: number;
}

Esplora (JavaScript):

app.get('/mempool', (req, res) => {
  rpcClient.getMempoolInfo((err, info) => {
    if (err) return res.status(500).send(err)
    res.send(info)
  })
})

Both projects provide mempool information, but mempool offers a more structured approach with TypeScript interfaces, while Esplora uses a simpler JavaScript implementation for API endpoints.

mempool's codebase is generally more extensive and modular, reflecting its broader feature set. Esplora's code is more focused on providing a lightweight block explorer with a simpler architecture.

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README

Esplora Block Explorer

Block explorer web interface based on the esplora-electrs HTTP API.

Written as a single-page app in a reactive and functional style using rxjs and cycle.js.

See live at Blockstream.info.

API documentation is available here.

Join the translation efforts on Transifex.

Features

Explore blocks, transactions and addresses
Support for Segwit and Bech32 addresses
Shows previous output and spending transaction details
Quick-search for txid, address, block hash or height by navigating to /<query>
Advanced view with script hex/assembly, witness data, outpoints and more
Mobile-ready responsive design
Translated to 17 languages
Light and dark themes
Noscript support
For Liquid and other Elements-based chains: support for CT, peg-in/out transactions and multi-asset
Mainnet, Testnet and Elements high performance electrum server

Developing

To start a development server with live babel/browserify transpilation, run:

$ git clone https://github.com/Blockstream/esplora && cd esplora
$ npm install
$ export API_URL=http://localhost:3000/ # or https://blockstream.info/api/ if you don't have a local API server
# (see more config options below)
$ npm run dev-server

The server will be available at http://localhost:5000/

To display debugging information for the Rx streams in the web developer console, set localStorage.debug = '*' and refresh.

Building

To build the static assets directory for production deployment, set config options (see below) and run $ npm run dist. The files will be created under dist/.

Because Esplora is a single-page app, the HTTP server needs to be configured to serve the index.html file in reply to missing pages. See contrib/nginx.conf.in for example nginx configuration (TL;DR: try_files $uri /index.html).

Pre-rendering server (noscript)

To start a pre-rendering server that generates static HTML replies suitable for noscript users, run:

# (clone, cd, "npm install" and configure as above)

$ export STATIC_ROOT=http://localhost:5000/ # for loading CSS, images and fonts
$ npm run prerender-server

The server will be available at http://localhost:5001/

Configuration options

All options are optional.

GUI options

NODE_ENV - set to production to enable js minification, or to development to disable (defaults to production)
BASE_HREF - base href for user interface (defaults to /, change if not served from the root directory)
STATIC_ROOT - root for static assets (defaults to BASE_HREF, change to load static assets from a different server)
API_URL - URL for HTTP REST API (defaults to /api, change if the API is available elsewhere)
CANONICAL_URL - absolute base url for user interface (optional, only required for opensearch and canonical link tags)
NATIVE_ASSET_LABEL - the name of the network native asset (defaults to BTC)
SITE_TITLE - website title for <title> (defaults to Block Explorer)
SITE_DESC - meta description (defaults to Esplora Block Explorer)
HOME_TITLE - text for homepage title (defaults to SITE_TITLE)
SITE_FOOTER - text for page footer (defaults to Powered by esplora)
HEAD_HTML - custom html to inject at the end of <head>
FOOT_HTML - custom html to inject at the end of <body>
CUSTOM_ASSETS - space separated list of static assets to add to the build
CUSTOM_CSS - space separated list of css files to append into style.css
NOSCRIPT_REDIR - redirect noscript users to {request_path}?nojs (should be captured server-side and redirected to the prerender server, also see NOSCRIPT_REDIR_BASE in dev server options)

Note that API_URL should be set to the publicly-reachable URL where the user's browser can issue requests at. (that is, not via localhost, unless you're setting up a dev environment where the browser is running on the same machine as the API server.)

Elements-only configuration:

IS_ELEMENTS - set to 1 to indicate this is an Elements-based chain (enables asset issuance and peg features)
NATIVE_ASSET_ID - the ID of the native asset used to pay fees (defaults to 6f0279e9ed041c3d710a9f57d0c02928416460c4b722ae3457a11eec381c526d, the asset id for BTC)
BLIND_PREFIX - the base58 address prefix byte used for confidential addresses (defaults to 12)
PARENT_CHAIN_EXPLORER_TXOUT - URL format for linking to transaction outputs on the parent chain, with {txid} and {vout} as placeholders. Example: https://blockstream.info/tx/{txid}#output:{vout}
PARENT_CHAIN_EXPLORER_ADDRESS - URL format for linking to addresses on parent chain, with {addr} replaced by the address. Example: https://blockstream.info/address/{addr}
ASSET_MAP_URL - url to load json asset map (in the "minimal" format)

Menu configuration (useful for inter-linking multiple instances on different networks):

MENU_ITEMS - json map of menu items, where the key is the label and the value is the url
MENU_ACTIVE - the active menu item identified by its label

Development server options

All GUI options, plus:

PORT - port to bind http development server (defaults to 5000)
CORS_ALLOW - value to set for Access-Control-Allow-Origin header (optional)
NOSCRIPT_REDIR_BASE - base url for prerender server, for redirecting ?nojs requests (should be set alongside NOSCRIPT_REDIR)

Pre-rendering server options

All GUI options, plus:

PORT - port to bind pre-rendering server (defaults to 5001)

Note that unlike the regular JavaScript-based app that sends API requests from the client-side, the pre-rendering server sends API requests from the server-side. This means that API_URL should be configured to the URL reachable by the server, typically http://localhost:3000/.

How to build the Docker image

docker build -t esplora .

Alternatively, you may use the pre-built blockstream/esplora image from Docker Hub.

How to run the explorer for Bitcoin mainnet

docker run -p 50001:50001 -p 8080:80 \
           --volume $PWD/data_bitcoin_mainnet:/data \
           --rm -i -t esplora \
           bash -c "/srv/explorer/run.sh bitcoin-mainnet explorer"

How to run the explorer for Liquid mainnet

docker run -p 50001:50001 -p 8082:80 \
           --volume $PWD/data_liquid_mainnet:/data \
           --rm -i -t esplora \
           bash -c "/srv/explorer/run.sh liquid-mainnet explorer"

How to run the explorer for Bitcoin testnet3

docker run -p 50001:50001 -p 8084:80 \
           --volume $PWD/data_bitcoin_testnet:/data \
           --rm -i -t esplora \
           bash -c "/srv/explorer/run.sh bitcoin-testnet explorer"

How to run the explorer for Bitcoin signet

docker run -p 50001:50001 -p 8084:80 \
           --volume $PWD/data_bitcoin_signet:/data \
           --rm -i -t esplora \
           bash -c "/srv/explorer/run.sh bitcoin-signet explorer"

How to run the explorer for Liquid testnet

docker run -p 50001:50001 -p 8096:80 \
           --volume $PWD/data_liquid_testnet:/data \
           --rm -i -t esplora \
           bash -c "/srv/explorer/run.sh liquid-testnet explorer"

How to run the explorer for Liquid regtest

docker run -p 50001:50001 -p 8092:80 \
           --volume $PWD/data_liquid_regtest:/data \
           --rm -i -t esplora \
           bash -c "/srv/explorer/run.sh liquid-regtest explorer"

How to run the explorer for Bitcoin regtest

docker run -p 50001:50001 -p 8094:80 \
           --volume $PWD/data_bitcoin_regtest:/data \
           --rm -i -t esplora \
           bash -c "/srv/explorer/run.sh bitcoin-regtest explorer"

Regtest options

When run for Bitcoin regtest or Liquid regtest, the esplora container will create a default wallet and mine 100 blocks internally. You can disable this behavior by setting NO_REGTEST_MINING=1.

Docker config options

Set -e DEBUG=verbose to enable more verbose logging.

Set -e NO_PRECACHE=1 to disable pre-caching of statistics for "popular addresses", which may take a long time and is not necessary for personal use.

Set -e NO_ADDRESS_SEARCH=1 to disable the by-prefix address search index.

Set -e ENABLE_LIGHTMODE=1 to enable esplora-electrs's light mode.

Set -e ONION_URL=http://xyz.onion to enable the Onion-Location header.

Build new esplora-base

docker build -t blockstream/esplora-base:latest -f Dockerfile.deps .
docker push blockstream/esplora-base:latest
docker inspect --format='{{index .RepoDigests 0}}' blockstream/esplora-base

Build new tor (or you can pull directly from Docker Hub - `blockstream/tor:latest`)

docker build --squash -t blockstream/tor:latest -f Dockerfile.tor .
docker push blockstream/tor:latest
docker inspect --format='{{index .RepoDigests 0}}' blockstream/tor

Run: docker -d --name hidden_service blockstream/tor:latest tor -f /home/tor/torrc (could add a -v /extra/torrc:/home/tor/torrc, if you have a custom torrc)

Example torrc:

DataDirectory /home/tor/tor
PidFile /var/run/tor/tor.pid

ControlSocket /var/run/tor/control GroupWritable RelaxDirModeCheck
ControlSocketsGroupWritable 1
SocksPort unix:/var/run/tor/socks WorldWritable
SocksPort 9050

CookieAuthentication 1
CookieAuthFileGroupReadable 1
CookieAuthFile /var/run/tor/control.authcookie

Log [handshake]debug [*]notice stderr

HiddenServiceDir /home/tor/tor/hidden_service_v3/
HiddenServiceVersion 3
HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:80

License

MIT

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Quick Overview

Pros

Cons

Code Examples

Getting Started

Competitor Comparisons

Pros of Insight

Cons of Insight

Code Comparison

Pros of btc-rpc-explorer

Cons of btc-rpc-explorer

Code Comparison

Pros of BTCPayServer

Cons of BTCPayServer

Code Comparison

Pros of mempool

Cons of mempool

Code comparison

Convert designs to code with AI

README

Esplora Block Explorer

Features

Developing

Building

Pre-rendering server (noscript)

Configuration options

GUI options

Development server options

Pre-rendering server options

How to build the Docker image

How to run the explorer for Bitcoin mainnet

How to run the explorer for Liquid mainnet

How to run the explorer for Bitcoin testnet3

How to run the explorer for Bitcoin signet

How to run the explorer for Liquid testnet

How to run the explorer for Liquid regtest

How to run the explorer for Bitcoin regtest

Regtest options

Docker config options

Build new esplora-base

Build new tor (or you can pull directly from Docker Hub - blockstream/tor:latest)

License

Top Related Projects

Convert designs to code with AI

Build new tor (or you can pull directly from Docker Hub - `blockstream/tor:latest`)