OASIS FORUM Post by the Golden Rule. GoldTent Oasis is not responsible for content or accuracy of posts. DYODD.

Okay, so check this out—blockchain explorers are the GPS of Ethereum. Wow! They show you where funds moved, when a contract was called, and which token just minted a billion coins. My instinct said explorers were just for nerds. Then I actually started using one daily and things changed. Initially I thought they were only useful for devs, but then realized every user benefits from knowing how to read a transaction, spot a scam, or verify a token’s provenance.

Short version: an explorer turns opaque blocks into readable stories. Seriously? Yes. Transactions are more than hashes; they’re narratives with actors, gas fees, and intents. If you’re tracking ETH or ERC‑20s, you’ll want to learn three things fast: how to read a tx page, how to inspect token contracts, and how to detect dangerous token approvals. I’ll walk through each, with practical tips I’ve used while debugging real wallet problems (and yeah, I messed up a swap once—more on that later).

Start simple. Look up a transaction hash. Look at status. Check block confirmations. See who paid the gas. See the “To” address. These small checks answer the big questions: did it confirm? was it a contract call or plain transfer? Sometimes you don’t need to be a developer to catch a scam. Hmm… somethin’ felt off about that token? Then dig in.

Practical walkthrough — reading a transaction

Open an explorer and paste a tx hash. (I tend to use etherscan for day-to-day checks.) The top-level info is deceptively useful: status, block number, timestamp, and confirmations. A pending tx has zero confirmations—stop there if you need to cancel or replace it. On one hand, waiting five confirmations is usually safe; on the other, your use case may need more. Actually, wait—let me rephrase that: for most retail transfers 12 confirmations is a safe benchmark, but exchanges have their own rules.

Look at the gas section next. Gas price and gas used tell you whether the tx was expensive or cheap. If gas used is way lower than gas limit, something aborted (and you still paid gas). If it used the full limit, that’s a red flag for a possible stuck loop or malicious contract. My gut says always pause if you see weird gas numbers. Also, check the input data. You don’t need to decode everything—just spot whether the tx targeted a contract function like “approve”, “mint”, or “transferFrom”. Those matter.

Internal transactions are often misunderstood. They aren’t separate transactions stored on their own; they’re value transfers triggered by contract logic. So when a swap looks like two transfers, it’s often an internal transfer inside a DEX contract. That detail saved me once when debugging a failed swap that still moved assets internally and then refunded them—very very tricky.

ERC‑20 token pages — what to inspect

Token trackers contain the core facts: total supply, holders, transfers, and contract code. First rule: verify the contract source code is published and matches the verified bytecode. If it’s not verified, treat it like unknown territory. Check owner privileges. Can the owner mint new tokens? Can they pause transfers? Those functions are the knobs that can wreck your bag. I’m biased, but I always look for a renounceOwnership call in the history.

Watch for these specific red flags: excessive mint functions, an ability to blacklist addresses, or functions that can change balances arbitrarily. Also, check the token’s decimals; if you read amounts as whole numbers you could be off by 18 orders of magnitude. Seriously, that mistake burned a colleague once—he thought he had 1 token, but decimals were 6 and… yeah.

Liquidity behavior matters too. See whether liquidity was added to a pool and whether liquidity tokens were locked. If a developer can rug the pool and then drain it, the token is high risk. Look at token transfers: are there many tiny transfers from the deployer to dozens of wallets? That pattern can indicate bot distribution or wash trading.

Approvals, allowances, and how to stay safe

Approvals are the leaky faucet of DeFi. A single approval grants a contract permission to move your tokens. Whoa! If you approved an infinite allowance to a contract with a dubious reputation, revoke it. Use the approvals checker (or interact directly with the token contract) to see which contracts have allowances and how large they are. I like to periodically revoke allowances to dApps I no longer use. It’s tedious, but worth it.

One trick: when interacting with a new contract, approve only the exact amount needed instead of infinite, and only after testing a tiny transfer. My method is conservative: smaller approvals, more confirmations. On the flip side, replacing a pending approval transaction requires nonce tricks—careful, because messing up nonces can lock your wallet until you fix it. I’m not 100% sure this is beginner-friendly, but you can learn it.

Also: watch for contracts that require “setApprovalForAll” or delegate approvals. Those are more powerful and riskier. If a contract asks for that, pause and double-check. This part bugs me—users often sign without understanding the scope of what they’re allowing.

What to do when a transaction is stuck or you suspect fraud

If a tx is pending, you can either speed it up (by resubmitting with a higher gas price) or try to cancel it by sending a 0 ETH tx with the same nonce and higher gas price. That’s basic nonce replacement. But be aware: if the original tx has already been mined by the time your replacement arrives, nothing changes. Timing is everything. On the bright side, many wallets offer one-click “speed up” options that do the heavy lifting.

If you suspect fraud—say you got a token you didn’t expect—don’t interact with it. Immediately revoke approvals where possible, and move high-value funds to a fresh wallet. It’s a pain, but better than losing everything. (oh, and by the way… if you move funds, keep the nonce sequence in mind, or you’ll create new headaches.)