Why this matters
Every stablecoin transaction, deposit or payout, touches a blockchain. Start from the transaction record in the API, then confirm it on-chain. Explorers are your eyes on-chain, allowing your team to:- Confirm if a transfer happened
- Understand why a deposit hasn’t been credited
- Catch customer mistakes early (wrong token, wrong chain, failed tx)
- Backtrace issues without waiting on engineering
What is a blockchain explorer?
A blockchain explorer is a real-time search engine for blockchains. It lets you:- Look up wallet addresses, including the deposit addresses you issued through Bitnob
- View stablecoin transfers (e.g. USDT, USDC)
- See whether a transaction is confirmed
- Decode failed transactions, gas used, and token details
- Spot errors like wrong chain or unsupported token usage
How to investigate a transaction
Let’s say a customer says:“I sent $100 USDT to my deposit address, but I haven’t received anything.”Your process: Step 1: Ask for the transaction hash (txHash) Tell them:
“Please share the transaction hash from your wallet or exchange. It’s a long string like 0xabc… or 7f3a… depending on the chain you used.”Step 2: Paste it into the right explorer
If you don’t know which chain they used, you can guess from the txHash format:
- 0x… → Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Plasma
- 64 hex characters with no 0x → Tron or Stellar
- Base58 → Solana
What to look for
Compare each of these against the Bitnob side of the record: the hash, amount, chain and address fields on the webhook payload, or on the transaction record.Explorer examples
Ethereum / BSC / Polygon
- Use “ERC-20 Token Txns” or “BEP-20 Token Txns” tab
- Confirm USDT contract matches official one
- USDT (BSC):
0x55d398326f99059ff775485246999027b3197955 - Look at gas price if tx failed
- Reverts often say why: “out of gas”, “invalid opcode”
Tron
- Use Tronscan.org
- Check “TRC-20 Transfer” tab
- Confirm the required confirmations: 19 to 50, depending on deposit value
- Address format: starts with T
- Token sent using TRX instead of USDT
Solana
- Use Solscan.io
- Paste the address or txHash
- Confirm token is USDT in the “Token Transfers” list
- Bitnob needs 32 to 64 confirmations, depending on deposit value
Teach through examples
Confirmed deposit (Ethereum)
- Status: Success
- To: Bitnob-issued address
- Confirmations: 30
- Token: USDT
- Contract: Matches official USDT ERC-20
Wrong chain
Customer was given a Tron USDT address (TRC-20), but they sent via Ethereum (ERC-20). How to detect:- Their txHash starts with 0x…
- It only shows activity on etherscan.io, nothing on Tronscan
- Bitnob didn’t detect anything → the address wasn’t valid on Ethereum
“You sent USDT using Ethereum, but the address we gave you only works for USDT on Tron. These are separate networks. Unfortunately, the funds may be lost.”
Stuck pending payout
A transfer from Bitnob to an external wallet has been stuck in pending for 20+ minutes. Steps:- Search for txHash on explorer
- Check:
- Is the tx still pending? → network congestion
- Did it fail? → out of gas, contract revert
- Was it never broadcast? → contact engineering
- Retry or escalate via reference ID and chain
Visual cheatsheet
Bonus tips for ops dashboards
- Include “View on Explorer” button in every transaction record, built from the hash returned by Get All Transactions
- Show a “Copy txHash” shortcut
- Auto-detect incorrect confirmations and flag them
- Flag tokens that don’t match official contracts
- Add internal note: Explorer confidence: ✅ Confirmed / ⚠️ Not enough confirmations / ❌ Wrong chain