Each blockchain has its own service for tracking all transfers and transactions, accounting for commissions, smart contracts and other statistics. The most popular blockchain network, Ethereum, uses Etherscan. In this article we will look in detail at how to use Etherscan, the functionality of the service and discuss how it can be useful for a beginner.
What is Etherscan and its functionality?
Etherscan is a special service that shows absolutely all the actions that take place on the Ether network. Many compare the blockchain to an open and accessible ledger in which anyone can check any transaction and action performed on the network. Etherscan is the same address book for the Ether network.
Thanks to Etherscan, you can see how much and what cryptocurrency an address has sent and received. You can find and check any smart contract (if its code is open to everyone). See the balance of any address.
Purposes of using Etherscan for a beginner
Etherscan can be very useful for the basic needs of any user. In order to perform any actions with cryptocurrency, you need to find out basic information about the future transaction. Etherscan will help you find out:
- Recipient and sender wallet addresses;
- Transaction status (whether your funds have been sent or are just being processed by the network);
- The block number in which your transaction will be entered;
- Commission, gas, etc.
What about an alternative to Netstumbler?
Now is it clear how a regular scan can give you away? And it seems like you didn’t do anything, but you can already get a hit on your head. And what about Netstumbler, what about any other software. Let's look at just a few examples.
DStumbler
This is the most famous BSD wireless network , which, unlike Netstumbler, can conduct passive scanning (RFMON mode), that is, it determines the presence of an access point and its SSID. However, it also has exclusive properties in active scanning mode. In search of an access point, the program generates a huge number of requests (frame_control 0x0040). After receiving the access point's response to such a request, an authorization request (0x0b) and an association request (0x0c) will be attempted. These values are constants, which allows them to be used as a unique identifier.
Wellenreiter
Maybe someone reading this will think: “What’s the problem? Use the same one, passive scanning, and that’s it!” Let's take the Wellenreiter scanner, included in the well-known hacker LiveCD distribution - BackTrack. The utility is tailored for a Unixware environment and, of course, uses iwconfig as a basic starting condition. After recognizing the wireless card, the ESSID will be automatically set to “This is used for wellenreiter”, and the MAC address will be configured to a random one. Fade again!
After such a defeat, even one gives up. Not software, but a real bug for a hacker. What to do? Use the Windows mechanism? You don’t need to download anything, and it works, in general, quite well - it seems like a good option... No matter how it is! Its mechanism also uses an active scanning mode; the same requests are sent with a broadcast SSID and a unique software identifier, which will be the basis for detecting this type of scanning. The unique fragment is located in the “SSID Parameter Set” part and consists of 32 bytes.
Using the functionality of the Ethereal sniffer (Wireshark), you can easily determine such activity of a potential “aerial” hacker:
Netstumbler: wlan.fc.type_subtype eq 32 and llc.oui eq 0x00601d and llc.pid eq 0x0001
Dstumbler: (wlan.seq eq 11 and wlan.fc.subtype eq 11) or (wlan.seq eq 12 and wlan.fc.subtype eq 00)
Here 11 (0x0b) is the value in the authorization frame, 12 (0x0c) is the constant from the association request.
Basic function of Etherscan: viewing transactions and wallets
Now let's look at how to use Etherscan in practice. How exactly to check your transaction, its status and exactly how much money you paid for the commission. We’ll also look at what else the service can show you.
In order to view information about any transaction, you need to enter the TXID or hash of the transaction into the Etherscan search bar. A hash is a special code number that every transaction has and which is recorded in blocks on the blockchain. For each transaction it is completely unique and will never be repeated. It usually appears in your wallet after you have made the transfer.
For example, let's take a random hash and paste it into the Etherscan search string, as shown in the screenshot: 0x1321edae883bf08b837314fff2cc764c0782b02e5830344f40d711be5f750e01.
After this, we will see an information field that shows absolutely all the data about this transaction.
Let's figure out what each line means:
- This is the hash of the actual transaction we were looking for.
- What is the status of the transaction: successfully completed, in progress, rejected.
- The block number in the blockchain where our transaction ended up.
- The time and date when the transaction was made.
- Sender's wallet address.
- Recipient's wallet address.
- How much money in Ether and in dollars in brackets the transfer was made for.
- The fee that was charged for the transaction.
- Next, you can click on “Click to see more” to see additional information about the transaction. There you can see the specific gas price, the equivalent in Gwei and the gas limit that was spent on the transaction. Read more about gas concepts and commissions in my previous article.
How to check the balance of tokens on an Ethereum wallet
To check if all the money is in place, you need to specify a public address in the search bar and click “ GO ”. No additional data is required; the service will post all the information about the balance of your ETH wallet.
You will see the total amount of funds in fiat equivalent, as well as the number of ether coins and tokens, transaction history and analytical data.
By clicking the button to access advanced token holding on this wallet, you will see the full list and balance of each asset. This method is convenient for users who prefer cold storage of assets. You can always check whether an incoming transaction has been received without connecting your crypto wallet to the network.
View addresses
If you need to see the wallet address you sent your funds to, you can do so via the transaction hash by simply clicking on the recipient (or sender if you need to) address as shown in the screenshot. But you can also choose your own or any other wallet address. And then, in the same way, insert it into the Etherscan search bar and get information about it.
You are taken to the page for this address and can see full information about it, as shown in the screenshot.
- His overall balance in Ether.
- Its total balance is in dollars.
- Full information about all transactions that were made with the participation of this wallet. Here you can also see the hash of each transaction, the block where the transaction is recorded, time, address of the sender and recipient, the amount of funds sent or received and the commission (all in order from left to right after the number “3” in the picture). If you click on “Txn Hash” of any transaction from the list, you will be taken to the page we are already familiar with, where you will be presented with complete information about this transfer. Thus, you can search endlessly for different wallets and transfers. Some people use this action to analyze market conditions by looking at transfers of large flows of funds.
Let's consider another case. If your wallet contains different ERC-20 tokens, then you can also see their number in the “Token” tab, as shown in the screenshot.
If you click on the wallet icon on the right, you will be redirected to a page with more detailed statistics on the tokens that are in the wallet. Here you can see the wallet balance, changes in the price of assets over the last 24 hours, the price of assets and go to the smart contract of the token to get acquainted with it in more detail.
Platform capabilities
You can work on the site without registration. At the same time, the system gives account owners access to a full list of tools, for example, connecting alerts about transactions. Therefore, members of the crypto community recommend registering on Etherscan.
The platform consists of four sections , each of which collects and broadcasts information about certain Ethereum metrics. Here they are:
- Blockchain . In the section, for example, you can get data on the mining of blocks in the Ethereum network. This section contains all the current information about the state of the project’s blockchain.
- Tokens . The section was created to track information about cryptocurrencies that were built on the basis of Ethereum. For example, you can get acquainted with the top Ethereum tokens.
- Resources . This category represents a variety of metrics. For example, in the section you can see graphs of capitalization, the number of coins in circulation and the prices of Ethereum tokens.
- More . In the section, the developers removed API documentation and minor tools, including an Ethereum mining calculator, a node browser for the cryptocurrency network, and a number of services for DeFi.
The Etherscan main page presents the main indicators of the project’s network: from information about the current ETH rate and market capitalization of the cryptocurrency, to the history of transactions in the coin’s network.
Smart contracts in Etherscan
How to use Etherscan for more than just viewing transactions? Another benefit that Etherscan can bring is the search and analysis of smart contracts of different coins and projects. If you interact with smart contracts or decentralized applications, you will be able to easily verify that you have correctly transferred funds to the correct contract. You will also be able to analyze a particular smart contract and its project and make the right decision to further interact with it or not.
Active methods
All of these examples involved static intrusion detection systems in a wireless environment . But there are probably more complex and effective techniques for detecting an intruder! I would like to draw your attention to the Distributed Wireless Security Auditor system, which is fundamentally different from the rest.
DWSA complex in person! Access points, employees, trusted equipment and even intruders - everything is in full view.
DWSA capabilities make it possible to determine the physical position of the attacker and even display it on an interactive map, that is, to carry out a real reference to the area. This becomes quite real due to constant distributed network monitoring. This is done as follows: a certain number of company employees, say the security service, are issued laptop computers with special software. In parallel with this, a back-end security server is installed, which will read target information from employee devices and at the same time determine their location relative to access points based on information about the signal and their radio coverage. This data is processed centrally by a special server. It analyzes the state of the radio air from various sources and, using the laws of geometry and discrete mathematics, determines the approximate location of the object. It is clear that the more elements participate in the operation of the distributed monitoring system, the higher the accuracy of determination in a given area will be.
What principle underlies the determination of the coordinates of an object? Banal triangulation, which is also used in the global positioning system GPS. It was customary to use an IBM development called the Wireless Security Auditor (WSA) as these portable devices. The device is a very ordinary iPAQ PDA with a special Linux distribution and a set of pre-installed tools for pen tests and auditing of wireless networks : wlandump, ethereal, Sniffer, etc. By using them, employees are essentially conducting an active audit, reporting to the main server.
Finger triangulation method
How to view smart contracts and their projects?
First, you need to find the address of the smart contract of the coin, decentralized exchange or application. To do this, follow this link and, using the search, find the coin you need and click on it.
Next, in the field that opens, copy the smart contract address, as shown in the screenshot below, and enter it into the Etherscan search bar. Or just click on it with the mouse. For my example, this will be the SHIBA INU meme token.
In the tab that opens, you can see general information about the token and its contract. At the top you can also see the balance, creator, name. Below are the latest transactions that occurred in this smart contract.
To learn more about the contract itself, click on “Contract”, as shown in the picture below.
In the “Read Contract” tab you can get basic information about the contract itself.
In the “Write Contract” tab you can interact with the smart contract. This is necessary if the website of an exchange or decentralized application is frozen or temporarily unavailable. If you wish, you can interact through this tab. To do this, connect your Metamask wallet to the contract by clicking on “Connect to Web 3”.
After this, click on the “transfer” line in the contract (in the screenshot above it is the very last line number 6) and make the transfer. Insert the recipient's address and the number of tokens. It is imperative that the tokens fit the smart contract. That is, in my case it is only SHIBA INU.
How to detect a scan?
To find nearby wireless devices , and therefore wireless networks , special air scanners are used. You put this thing on your laptop or PDA and walk around the city, while the program keeps logs of all the access points found, indicating the SSID (network identifier), equipment manufacturer, encryption mechanism, operating speed and even coordinates if a GPS is connected to the laptop. module.
Familiar software - Netstambler, Macstambler, Kismet (or its version for Windows - Kiswin) - will scan the air in no time and display all the information on the screen.
But there is one important point that many people don’t even know about! These scanners do not just passively scan the airwaves, but also use active research methods, sending special packets to the network. If you scanned the broadcast with Netstambler, then consider that you have already given away your presence. It’s good if the wireless network is a lonely access point, and it’s unlikely that even the password for administration via the web panel has been changed. But if this is a serious company, then any such activity (within a closed network) will be treated with suspicion. And here's the thing.
When passive scanning is carried out (in accordance with the 802.11 standard, that is, Wi-Fi), nothing terrible happens, but the effectiveness of such scanning is zero! As soon as it comes to intimate information about the network (which can be very useful to an attacker), the stalker reveals its presence due to a special LLC/SNAP frame.
3 years ago (March 23, 2004), hacker-researcher Mike Craik proposed a unique identifier that can be used to detect NetStumbler program traffic: LLC frames generated by the scanner and containing a unique identifier (OID) 0x00601d and a protocol identifier (PID) 0x0001. In addition, a special string variable passed through the 58-byte data field contains information about the product version in a so-called "Easter egg":
0.3.2 Flurble gronk bloopit, bnip Frundletrune 0.3.2 All your 802.11b are belong to us 0.3.3 "intentionally blank"
There can be many reasons for such pitfalls, including the request of operational authorities, with whom the author of a free program, naturally, does not want to quarrel. To eliminate the Easter egg, you should dig into the netstumbler.exe binary with a resource editor and change it. But this will not solve the scan detection problem (nothing can be done with the LLC frame). And by the way, Ministumbler - a tool from the same series, only for the Pocket PC platform - contains similar pitfalls.
Conclusion on how to use Etherscan
As a result, Etherscan really is a big open book where absolutely all information about the Ethereum blockchain is recorded. I would even say that Etherscan is the open face of the Ethereum blockchain. Now you can find a lot of useful and previously hidden information. This can help, as in everyday actions: for example, find out the status of your transaction, see the commission, track a particular wallet or smart contract. The same is true in the analytical segment: for example, check a smart contract for activity, see if tokens are being “merged” by the creator of the project, see where and how large amounts of cryptocurrency are moving, and from this draw conclusions about the future trend of growth or decline in the prices of various assets or the market as a whole.
Of course, this is not all the functionality of the service. But today you learned the most basic and useful information about Etherscan.
Finally, I would like to add that Etherscan is just an example. Any other blockchain has a similar service with exactly the same functionality. And, having understood Etherscan, you will definitely be able to operate and search for information in other blockchains. Just enter the name of the blockchain you are interested in into any search engine. For example, Bitcoin, Tron, Avalanche, Solana and add the word “scan” or “explorer” and you can find any similar service.
Let's sum it up
Etherscan is a multifunctional platform with which you can monitor activity in the Ethereum ecosystem. Participants in the crypto community use the browser to analyze the state of the project’s network and make forecasts.
Also, using the platform, you can quickly find information of interest that has ever been included in the Ethereum blockchain.
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