Grokking the Cartesi Explorer

No blockchain network is complete without its own block explorer and Cartesi is no different. As a community-driven project, Cartesi relies on transparency tools such as explorers to keep its users informed in real-time about the latest activity in the ecosystem.

However, on Cartesi, explorers can have a slightly different role because of its novel approach to scalability using app-centric rollups. Let’s see what this means.

The explorer landscape

To understand what and how we can examine blockchain activity in the Cartesi ecosystem, we first need to differentiate between the work done by Cartesi Rollups and Cartesi’s staking mechanism. Both are important parts of the ecosystem that are addressed by separate sets of nodes.

As we’ve seen, Cartesi Nodes are the middleware used to exchange information between a main chain and the CVM. The work done by these nodes will reflect all of the activity that’s carried out by dApps building in the Cartesi ecosystem and making use of Cartesi Rollups for their scalability needs. Examining these nodes lets anybody verify their computations.

Then, we have the work done by a different set of nodes known as Noether. These are responsible for staking activity in Cartesi. By making their activity examinable, we add transparency to CTSI tokenomics.

What are Cartesi’s block explorers?

Cartesi provides ways to explore the on-chain activity in real-time for both Cartesi Nodes as they relate to Cartesi Rollups and for Noether nodes as they relate to CTSI staking. These are CartesiScan and Cartesi Explorer.

We can think of both of these tools as accessible front-ends for all of Cartesi’s backend processes. They’re simplified ways to visualize and query data about the underlying network. By using them, we can explore, verify, and gather data about the operations of Cartesi Rollups and Cartesi staking, respectively.

CartesiScan

CartesiScan is a tool for inspecting and analyzing Cartesi Rollups applications. All of the work that is taken off-chain and then verifiably back on-chain via Cartesi Rollups can be examined on the explorer. It features:

• A Connect Wallet feature
• A list of dApps currently using Cartesi Rollups
• A record of inputs for Cartesi Rollups
• Detailed information around inputs, including:
  • Sender
  • Receiver
  • Portal used
  • Amount of assets
  • Method used
• Expandable data around outputs, including:
  • Notices
  • Vouchers
  • Reports

Cartesi Explorer

Cartesi Explorer is more akin to a traditional block explorer, where information about a network’s block activity, transactions, nodes, and resulting tokenomics can be freely examined. This plays a key role in keeping Cartesi transparent while helping Cartesi supporters visualize the benefits of staking. It features:

• A Connect Wallet feature that enables users to stake CTSI and run a node
• Staking data on the number of active nodes and total CTSI staked
• Tokenomics data on current CTSI price, circulating supply, and market cap
• Detailed information on individual blocks mined
• Detailed profiles on individual block producers

Altogether CartesiScan and Cartesi Explorer provide the ecosystem with all the information they need. The information on CartesiScan about off-chain computations happening on Cartesi Rollups is key to builders and can also play an essential role in the system’s fraud-proof system. Likewise, Cartesi supporters, stakers, and node-runners rely on Cartesi Explorer for making decisions around staking.

Do you think you grokked Cartesi’s block explorers? Test your knowledge by taking the Grokking Cartesi Block Explorers quiz in the Cartesi questboard.

Learn more about Cartesi in general by reading the docs. You can also stay in the loop with everything happening in the Cartesi ecosystem by joining the community.