Matija Hanzevacki (Product Manager at WhatsOnChain) recently provided a comprehensive overview of the platform’s current features and developments at BSV DevCon 2024.
WhatsOnChain provides essential tools and features for exploring and understanding the BSV blockchain. Acknowledging that most attendees are familiar with WhatsOnChain, Hanzevacki emphasised the platform’s role in delivering real-time information about the BSV blockchain. The platform’s independent infrastructure and continuous development efforts ensure that users have reliable and up-to-date information at their fingertips.
Real-time blockchain information
Hanzevacki explained that WhatsOnChain offers a detailed view of the BSV blockchain. He encouraged users to explore the platform independently at whatsonchain.com. The website features a block explorer and numerous other tools, allowing users to gain insights into blockchain activities. One of the key highlights of WhatsOnChain is its commitment to providing an independent verification method for BSV blockchain transactions.
Unlike other services that might depend on miners, WhatsOnChain operates its full node and maintains an independent infrastructure. This independence ensures that the data available on their website and API accurately reflects the blockchain’s current state.
Features and insights
Hanzevacki introduced the statistics dashboard, which gives a high-level view of the blockchain’s activity over the past 24 hours. This dashboard includes critical metrics such as total transactions, miner statistics, and top tags. The data is updated live, and users can delve deeper into any metric to analyse blockchain activities in detail.
In addition to real-time data, WhatsOnChain helps users track trends, protocols, and applications within the BSV ecosystem. The platform provides tools to observe behaviour over time and examine output volumes, transaction counts, and data sizes. Users can filter and analyse specific categories, tags, and periods to understand the blockchain’s developments better.
Another exciting feature introduced by Hanzevacki is the plugin platform. This platform allows developers to enhance their experience by building and using plugins that operate at the output or transaction level. He showcased a plugin from Watson Wallet that visualises transaction chains interactively. Plugins can be either private or public, and WhatsOnChain offers guides and examples to help developers create and deploy their plugins quickly. Submissions are reviewed via their GitHub repository.
Recent developments
Hanzevacki also discussed a recent project aimed at replacing the outdated ElectrumX system, which tracks unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs). Due to the limitations and lack of maintenance of ElectrumX, WhatsOnChain is developing an in-house solution called the UTXO Store. This new system is designed to scale with the BSV blockchain and simplifies the tracking of addresses, script hashes, and spent outputs via their API.
The UTXO Store is already in use by major wallets and apps. Detailed information is available in their API documentation, which outlines various features for building on the BSV blockchain based on user feedback and requests.
Community Engagement
Community feedback is crucial to the development of WhatsOnChain. Hanzevacki highlighted their active Telegram channel, which has nearly 500 members and serves as a primary platform for feedback, questions, suggestions, and requests. Developers, including Hanzevacki, actively monitor this channel. Additionally, WhatsOnChain uses Twitter for product announcements and updates. Building plugins is made easy with a comprehensive guide available on their website.
