Author: Richard Moore 2015-08-29 19:24:12
Published on: 2015-08-29T19:24:12+00:00
A proposal for a simple URI scheme for looking up blocks, transactions, and addresses on a blockchain explorer has been made in a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) by Marco Pontello. The purpose behind this is to enable users to handle all the requests for details about blocks, transactions, etc. with their preferred tool- being that a web service or a local application. Currently, a Bitcoin client usually points towards an arbitrary blockchain explorer when the user looks for the details of a transaction. Therefore, the same happens with posts and messages that reference some particular txs or blocks, if they provide links at all. The URI follows a simple form: blockchain: , where examples include blockchain:00000000000000001003e880d500968d51157f210c632e08a652af3576600198, blockchain:001949 and blockchain:3b95a766d7a99b87188d6875c8484cb2b310b78459b7816d4dfc3f0f7e04281a. From the point of view of a wallet developer or other tools that need to show any kind of Blockchain references, using this scheme means that they can simply make it a blockchain link and be done with it without worrying about any specific blockchain explorer or providing a means for the user to select one. Blockchain explorers will simply offer to handle the blockchain URI, the first time the user visits their website, launches/installs the application, or even set themselves if there isn't already one. Users get the convenience of using their preferred explorer, which can be especially handy on mobile devices, where juggling with cut&paste is far from ideal. However, suggestions have been made to use a real URI scheme, blockchain:// so that normal URL parsing libraries can be used. This would help the URI be more human understandable as well as give the explorers the ability to optimize a bit what they are looking for when hitting various databases.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T21:16:22.142822+00:00