Farbeam and block explorers
A block explorer indexes a chain and shows it to people: every block, every transaction, every address. Etherscan and Solscan are well-known examples. Farbeam does not try to do that. It watches a narrow set of large transfers across several chains and adds rule-based alerts and field-level token checks.
For most lookups an explorer is the correct tool, and Farbeam links out to one on its transaction results.
#Comparison by capability
| Capability | Block explorer, in general | Farbeam |
|---|---|---|
| Shows every transaction on its chain | Yes | No. Only lookups by hash, and an index of transfers of $100,000 or more |
| Chains in one view | Usually one chain per site | Seven in one API, with a different depth per chain |
| Transaction history of an address | Yes, full history is typical | 7 days of large transfers, plus the last 5,000 blocks of curated-token logs per EVM chain |
| Token holdings of an address | All tokens, typically | EVM: native asset and curated tokens only. Solana: fungible holdings |
| Internal transactions and traces | Commonly shown | Not available |
| Verified contract source and read/write UI | Commonly shown | Not available. The token report reads whether source is verified from GoPlus |
| Decoded logs and events | Commonly shown | ERC-20 Transfer logs only |
| NFT data | Commonly shown | Not available |
| Address labels | Often a large set | 54 hand-curated public addresses |
| Alerts on rules across chains | Varies by product | Beamline rules with signed webhooks |
| Field-level token checks with named sources | Not the usual focus | Yes, with pass, warn, fail and unknown |
| Coverage flag on each record | Not needed for a full index | sampled on each event |
| Public JSON API | Many offer one, with their own terms | Yes, free during early access |
| Live stream of large transfers | Varies | SSE at /api/live |
#Use a block explorer instead when
- You need the full history of an address or a contract.
- You need an internal transaction, a trace or a decoded event other than an ERC-20 transfer.
- You need to read a contract or see its verified source.
- You need to confirm a transaction as a final check. Farbeam also recommends this for anything important.
- You need a token that the Farbeam list does not cover, and you want its full transfer list.
- You are looking at a chain that Farbeam does not cover.
#Where Farbeam can help
These cases are narrow.
| Task | How |
|---|---|
| Watch a labeled exchange for large USDC moves across chains | A Beamline rule with to_type == "exchange" |
| Run the same contract checks on many tokens with one JSON shape | Token report API |
| See balances of one EVM address on six chains in one call | Wallet overview API |
| Get a large-transfer feed in your own code | GET /transfers or the live stream |
#How they work together
A normal workflow uses both. Farbeam raises an event or returns a report, and the explorer link on a transaction lookup takes you to the explorer for the full picture.
curl -s "https://farbeamlabs.com/api/v1/tx/ethereum/0x635ceb5456c60caf1364b4499ab484d762c8ca9b02e3f3ed55e6e12c89b48091"The response at 2026-11-04T19:24:40Z included "explorer": "https://etherscan.io/tx/0x635ceb5456c60caf1364b4499ab484d762c8ca9b02e3f3ed55e6e12c89b48091".
The description of block explorers on this page is general and is not a review of a product. Check each product for its current features and terms.