Today's practical session will be about having a practical overview over the blockchain. We will use Elrond, Ethereum and Bitcoin as examples.

We will use Elrond, Ethereum and Bitcoin as examples. We will inspect each blockchain explorer and see how each participant interacts with the blockchain.

A blockchain Explorer is a software for visualizing blocks, transactions, and blockchain network metrics (e.g., average transaction fees, hashrates, block size, block difficulty).

Elrond has been a Proof of Stake blockchain since its inception and uses an Adaptive State Sharding technology.

Go to Elrond's explorer Link. Browser the explorer to see:

• Blockchain metrics
• Blocks
• Transactions in the blocks
• Proposer/Leader
• Consensus Group (number of participants and the actual participants)
• Leader: Latest Consensus Round
• Validators
• Observers

Ethereum Mainnet uses proof-of-stake, but this wasn't always the case. The upgrade from the original proof-of-work mechanism to proof-of-stake was called The Merge (you can search online more about this).

Go to Ethereum's explorer Link.

Browser the explorer to see:

• Blockchain metrics
• Blocks
• Transactions in the blocks
• Proposer/Leader
• Consensus Group (number of participants and the actual participants)
• Leader: Latest Consensus Round
• Validators
• Observers