Steemd.com is the first blockchain explorer for Steem.
Just like how you use a video player to watch a video, a blockchain explorer is basically a software that allows you to view the content in a blockchain. And also, just like how a video player has some additional functions to make your viewing experience more enjoyable, a blockchain explorer has some custom features to make the data more meaningful for you to view.
Special thanks goes to those who have done some excellent write-up which I've used as foundational references to better understand Steemd:
In this post, I'll be guiding you through the usage of Steemd.com platform.
Steemd is a very comprehensive block explorer. In fact it is showing so much data that it may overwhelm an average, non-technical Steemian like myself. Hence, I'll either skip or skim through those sections that I feel are not all too useful for a lay-Steemian, and focus on the features that can make your Steem experience more enjoyable or profitable.
I've broken down this article into 2 parts so as not to shove all the information down your throat all at once.
To simplify the discussion, I think that it will be best to segmentise the Steemd platform to it's various sections. I've identified these following primary sections of this blockchain explorer:
The front page contents 2 primary sections:
This column contains all the transactions that happened in the past 5secs. Each transaction can be further broken down into 5 sections
You can go into further details by clicking on the links to the above, except the Action.
Typically, I'll ignore this section as it's too generalised and often those transactions has nothing to do with me or are of no significance to what I need to know. I'll usually go to the specific users involved in the transaction.
This section gives the overview of the Steem ecosystem, with information like
Mostly, details in this section are inconsequential as these are Steem-wide situation that we can make little impact to.
The only item here that really interest me .. (and it should interest you as well) .. is Rewards Fund. If 770k Steem don't excite you what will??
This is the page that I personally love the most as this has some really usable information. I will explain in greater detail later.
To get to this page, you can:
This page is generally split into 4 sections
This section contain the non-financial status overview of your account. You can click on the links below to see the description.
An convenient feature of this section also is the "view on: steemit | steemdb" links at the bottom. Click on those links will bring you to:
This shows the financial status of the Steemian. It's the details that will show up at the Wallet section in your Steemit account.
Here is one great article by @themarkymark that clearly defines all these terminologies:
https://steemit.com/steem/@themarkymark/steem-steem-power-vests-and-steem-dollars-wtf-is-this-shit
This is a super long list of very technical details. Mostly, it's a for-your-information data. Those that matter are readily available in the user's Steemit or Busy profile.
All transactions done by this user are displayed here. They are as follow:
There are many apps that are built on the Steem Chain to enhance the Steem ecosystem.
They serve a myriad of functions like:
If you see an user who has any apps that you do not know of, feel free to click on the links to find out more about them. You might just discover something useful.
If you want a more complete lists of the projects that have been built on top of Steem you may visit these sites:
Witnesses are the people or group of people that runs some special software that processes the transactions in the Steem Blockchain. They are voted in by the Steem community, so let's just say that they've earned their rights
A detailed write up was done by one of the witnesses @dragosroua.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@dragosroua/steemit-newbie-faq-witnesses-what-are-they-and-why-should-you-care
This is the default page that shows all the details of a particular post in Basic mode.
Upon clicking on the Advanced Mode button, a lot of technical details appear.
Skip these as they are mostly not useful for lay-Steemians, and scroll till you see the Vote Details
Here you will see the details of:
A block contains batch of transactions that is being updated into the blockchain together. This page details the transactions within a particular block number.
This page is too detailed for most of our day to day usage, unless you want to do some investigative works. If so, you can click the link on the right side of each transaction. This will bring you to the Transaction Page
Like the Block Page, this contain very technical details that is of little significance to a normal Steemian.
Witnesses are critical to the Steem blockchain as mentioned earlier in the User Page section earlier. Here you'll see the performance of the witnesses and you can also see their profile by clicking on the link.
This concludes the Part 1 of the SteemD Tutorial. Do take some time to get some hands-on experience navigating it. I'm currently working and refining Part 2, and it should be out in 1-2 days time.
Meanwhile, if you've feedback, please feel free to comment below.