Self-Hosted Block Explorer

[Persqual]

User Story

As a user I want to explore the zero blockchain so I can track/look up transactions, wallets etc..

Acceptance Criteria

1. Explorer is reachable through an URL (SSL)
2. Blockchain data should be in the explorer (Txs, blocks, wallets)
3. ... talk with team about more criterias

Additional Information

Check out:

• https://github.com/subscan-explorer/subscan-essentials
• https://github.com/polkascan/explorer-ui
• https://github.com/Balou9/block-explorer-research
• ...

How to test

1. Query transactions, blocks and addresses

[Persqual]

• Tested local setup of subscan essentials (works fine besides UI)
• Tested plugins (didn't do a lot, but works so far)

ToDo:

• Set up on Zero Server
• Check out if we need to create any additional plugins to display the data in a more user friendly way

[5-mark]

@Persqual explore alternatives like polkascan and if they offer backend and UI for a self hosted blockchain explorer solution.

[Persqual]

• Subscan-Essentials is just a scaffold project for a custom frontend Block-Explorer-Application.
• Now we're trying the Polkascan UI (+ PolkADAPT - the adapter/data source for the UI) (https://github.com/polkascan/polkascan-os)

[Persqual]

• Tested Polkascan-OS but looks like it's outdated. Set up itself does work, but there is no data available on the explorer.
• Someone already did a research with a lot of information about existing block explorers: https://github.com/Balou9/block-explorer-research
• ToDo: Trying to fix the Polkascan-os with Ahmad

[Persqual]

I looked with Ahmad today into the problems we have, but we didn't really found smth. out how to fix it.

Afterwards I researched a bit more and could at least fix some issues like the mysql connection problem or a missing module. Now it looks like we've only one problem left. It is about the "scalecodec" module for substrate chains.
It's Pretty hard to fix it actually - so not sure if we should continue to:

• Try to fix it (polkascan-os scalecodec)
• Use subscan-essentials scaffold project (write our own frontend)
• Look for other public explorers (Couldn't find any others)