Need real-time alpha?

Look no further than Etherscan. It is your best friend.

This thread will teach you how to master it. (1/x)

Few people actually have the patience to sit down and understand all the technicalities of the block explorer.

But, fortune favors the bold.

Even a basic knowledge of Etherscan can put you at a tremendous advantage over others when used correctly.

Let’s start simple…

1. Wallet Tracking

The most obvious use of Etherscan involves tracking notable wallets in the ecosystem.

You are able to see where, when, + why two parties interacted on the blockchain at any moment.

Following big players isn’t enough, you want the guy who is never wrong…

2. Tracing

Working backwards is often helpful to find the relevant source of smart contracts.

For the most part, there is always a trail left on-chain.

You may be able to connect one address to another address that funded it, confirming legitimacy of the source

3. Transaction Filtering

Etherscan lets you filter tx history by address for any ERC-20 or NFT you wish.

This can even get broken down to transactions including only specific to/from addresses.

Looking for something detailed? This has you covered.

4. Exploring Wallets

The main page for an address has several sections to dissect.

Txs - historical tx row + method called on each

Internal txs - contract interactions

ERC-20 txs - latest token txs

ERC-721 txs - latest NFT txs

Analytics - wallet stats

Comments - ENS chat

5. Reading Contracts

Under the contract section of any smart contract, if verified, you’ll be able to read the source code and it’s information.

Here I am querying the metadata of a NFT by tokenID, and then getting the owner.

6. Smart Contract Search

Are you looking for the ultimate search engine for smart contracts?

The etherscan smart contract search is the best there is. It is my number one tool when digging for alpha.

Is token x deployed yet? What are all the contracts that contain x?

7. Etherscan Code Viewer

Ready to be mind-blown?

Next time you are browsing any smart contract code on Etherscan just try changing the URL from “.io” to “.deth.net”

This will open up a deployment ready directory window in visual studio with the exact code you were exploring…

8. Decoding Input Data

Did you know that you can leave a msg on the Ethereum blockchain? Visit a tx with a note & under input data, hit view as UTF-8.

This will convert hexadecimal data on txs to human-readable words.

Input data is also useful for info on contract deployments.

9. Making Transactions

Uniswap bugging? UI not updated? Need to be quick?

Etherscan provides a simple interface for making transactions on different smart contracts, for any connected wallet.

Visit the page and select write contract to view your options.

10. Reading Token Data

Anything and everything you need to know about a given token is here for you.

These pages are useful to get an idea of all the largest holders, overall distributions, and other in-depth analytics.

Here we can see SHIB has 1.13M holders.

Although I likely missed tons of useful tricks, this knowledge has never failed me.

Etherscan is undoubtedly one of the most profound tools built on Ethereum.

It’s up to you to take full advantage of it… Enjoy!