The Ethereum blockchain can be frightening. Block explorer solution Scout aims to fight this fear and provide organizations with data-driven insights that may not be apparent on conventional block explorers.
Kuan Huang got into blockchain technology in late 2017. At that year's Devcon, he met some developers working on databases based on blockchain transaction data. Some companies, he noted, were even building applications on top of their databases to try to better understand the information.
"To me, that was actually a very stupid idea," Huang told ETHNews. "Why would anyone keep doing the same thing?"
Huang, who has a background in big-data analytics, naturally concluded that a solution was needed for the blockchain industry's data problem. What he proposed was Scout.
Blockchain's Data Problem
You might not think Ethereum has a data problem.
After all, block explorers, such as Etherscan and Etherchain, allow individuals to see a record of a blockchain's transactions. Generally free to use and easy to access, these explorers have become important components of a blockchain developer's toolbox. Instead of sifting through a litany of code to locate transaction details, which appear in different places on a ledger, individuals can see that information in consolidated form on an explorer's interface.
Though these tools come in handy when piecing together the different components of a transaction, explorers may not provide the data insights a company needs. Imagine trying to analyze companywide trends using such an interface.
Recognizing the limitations of block explorers, Kuan Huang and Chunxi Jiang founded Scout[1] to help Ethereum-based organizations gain insights from their data. Like an "internal block explorer," Scout customizes data dashboards so that organizations can see the information relevant to them, whether that's economic activity or governance. Simply put, Scout aims to distill and translate
