A Picture"s Worth a Thousand Words: 18 of the Coolest Visualizations for Exploring the Bitcoin Network
Analyzing and exploring the Bitcoin blockchain is always interesting, but for the more abstract thinker, several sites provide unique looks at the network, nodes, and transaction data in easy to grok, visual fashion. Some of these even border on the psychedelic or sci-fi otherworldly, taking viewers on a virtual trip through the blockchain.
Also read: How to Check the Bitcoin Price, Hashrate, Data – The 21 Best Monitoring Sites 18 of the Coolest Bitcoin Visuals
billfodl.com – An audiovisual site, Billfodl’s Bitbonkers is the perfect visualizer to have running in the background for some ASMR-inducing white noise. Transactions are represented as shiny balls that fall from the sky — varying in size and color depending on transaction amount — making a satisfying, wooden sound when they strike and subsequently roll off of the surface. Blocks are also represented, and the zoom option allows users to examine even small transactions close up, clicking on them to retrieve their data.
bitcoin-vr.github.io – What better way to relax than watching zeppelins and hot air balloons float lazily through the afternoon sky over the countryside, all the while seeing the bitcoin blockchain play out in real time.
bitcoinal.com – See whether the current bitcoin climate is favorable or freezing with this interactive price graph whose weather-based imagery changes depending on price movement.
bitcoincity.info – “Each city is a bitcoin transaction, on the road to the blockchain!” This neat resource lets users customize a moving street and its cities, which represent transactions. Once clicked on, users can examine info such as hash, value in, value out, fee and size at their leisure.
bitcoinmonitor.com – Jan Vornberger’s old school creation from 2011 is still working great. A simple representation of transaction amounts and block creation.
bitcoinrain.io – Elegant for its simplicity and clean display of information, bitcoinrain shows txs as color and size-coded raindrops falling from the sky, with info on intervals, mempool and the amount in USD being transacted per second on the network.
bitlisten.cash – Users of bitlisten.cash can while away a rainy day studying or cleaning to musical bitcoin cash transactions as they happen. Bigger transactions result in lower tones from a selection of three instrument voices. A BTC version can be found here.
bitnodes.io – Explore a universe of reachable nodes color-coded by IP address, syncing status, and uptime. Click on any section to view ranking and other info. Of course, bitnodes.io provides a wealth of node data other than this map, but there’s something fascinating about the colorful, highly zoomable space.
blocks.wizb.it – Watch the world jerk around wildly before your eyes taking you to bitcoin transactions as they happen across the globe. Amount, time, miner info and relay location are listed.
buyhodlsell.com – Buyhodlsell.com’s Tx Watch features two “highways” showing transactions in BTC and BCH move relaxingly across the screen. Transaction sizes are ranked in USD from “Micro” to “Mega Whale,” and the different-sized paths are representative of the respective block size limits of Bitcoin Core (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). This site is especially helpful for newbies to the crypto space, as the FAQ section at the bottom of the screen is tailor made for common users, and not just veteran crypto heads.
chainflyer.bitflyer.jp – Bitflyer’s “chainflyer” blockchain explorer is one of the more info-rich, highly detailed, and cleanly displayed visualizations on the list. Plus, it has an audio element. Beyond the tone-scaled chimes representing transactions, the color-coded octahedrons are denoted with images of keys if they are multisig transactions, small black octahedrons attached if segwit, and transactions per second as well as mempool info are also displayed. Sit back, relax, and watch the blockchain happen while drinking your tea. Chainflyer is available in Japanese and English via the settings button.
coin360.com – This customizable, interactive heat map shows the state of prices and market cap across the cryptoverse quite uniquely, and at a glance.
dailyblockchain.github.io – Like a scientist examining proliferating single-cellular life under an electron microscope, blockchain researchers can use this site to see transaction relationships unfolding before their eyes, with inputs, outputs, and parent transaction info all on mesmerizing, animated display.
federalbitcoin.herokuapp.com– Keep track of bitcoin transactions as they fall from the sky in the form of golden orbs of BTC, with the larger circles representing bigger transactions. The site is also a simple way to keep track of the BTC market price.
fiatleak.com – Fiat Leak shows government money being turned into various cryptos via exchanges worldwide, with a coin’s symbol beaming out of a fiat flag into the country where the exchange occurred. Users simply select the cryptocurrency they want to monitor, and then watch the exchanges happen in real time.
mempool.space – Mempool.space shows block stats in readily digestible fashion, detailing respective size, number of transactions, and median fee among other stats. At the bottom of the screen, mempool size and unconfirmed transaction number are displayed. An alternate form of this site, showing specific transaction data, can be found at mempool.ninja.
symphony.iohk.io – Arguably the most lushly animated, sonically pleasing, far out visualization on the list, IOHK’s Symphony renders the bitcoin blockchain in outer space as synth-tone producing tx crystals tower into the sky. Flight simulator mode lets you pilot your spacecraft through the alien landscape, exploring ringed bitcoin blocks spiraling outward from the planetary mempool in the center.
txstreet.com – A classic site for comparing and analyzing the Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Core networks in a fashion even the newest of newbs could understand. Buses on each network fill up with riders as transactions come in. “On TxStreet.com, the block size limit is visualized by the number of buses. Each bus represents 1 megabyte of potential storage space in the next block, aside from the segwit storage bus which only holds signature data,” the site details. On top of providing ample mempool, block, tx, fee, and coin info, the site also introduces crypto beginners to the concept of stress testing, BCH social network memo.cash, the lightning network and segwit.
Did we miss any great bitcoin visualization sites? Let us know in the comments section below.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, fair use.
Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The Local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here. Share this story: Tags in this story Animated, Average Fees, BCH Fees, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Block Size, Bitcoin Blockchain, bitcoin cash, Bitcoin Cash blockchain, Bitcoin Cash Price, Bitcoin Fees, Bitcoin Fun, Bitcoin Market, Bitcoin network, Bitcoin Price, Bitcoin Visual, Bitcoin Visualization, bitFlyer, Block explorer, Block Explorers, Block Size, crypto, Cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency, IOHK, network, nodes, visualization, Visualizer Related China Adopts Security Standards for Blockchain Applications in the Financial Sector BLOCKCHAIN | Lubomir Tassev
Keeping the focus on blockchain development, banking authorities in China have issued a set of rules pertaining to the secure… read more. Lightning Network Increasingly Fragile to Attacks – Hope Turns to Drivechain for Bitcoin Scaling BLOCKCHAIN | Graham Smith
A report published February 7 and authored in part by Blockstream researcher Christian Decker found that the BTC Lightning Network… read more. Graham Smith
Graham Smith is an American expat living in Japan, and the founder of Voluntary Japan—an initiative dedicated to spreading the philosophies of unschooling, individual self-ownership, and economic freedom in the land of the rising sun. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.