Exploring a Multi-Chain Universe with Polkascan

In our fifth episode, Nicole Zhu and Joe Petrowski talk to Emiel Sebastiaan, WEB3SCAN CEO, about Polkascan, an open-source block explorer that allows any Substrate-based blockchain project to have a block explorer. They discuss the Polkadot multi-chain explorer, how a DAO could fund block explorer services, Polkascan vs. Polkadot UI, and the nitty-gritty of how one actually goes about extracting data from a blockchain.

Links:
https://www.web3scan.com
https://polkascan.io
https://medium.com/polkascan
https://github.com/polkascan
https://twitter.com/polkascan

Highlights:
01:32 - How Emiel got into block explorers
04:38 - Block explorer use cases
06:26 - Getting meaningful data out of Substrate vs. Bitcoin and Ethereum
08:54 - Specialized and upgradable runtimes with Substrate
13:01 - Out-of-the-box block explorer support for parachains
16:00 - Polkascan PRE and Polkascan MC
19:38 - How Polkascan uses archive nodes
21:51 - Tools Polkascan uses
26:40 - Performance benchmarks for block explorers
31:40 - Scalability, roadmap, and managing 10-terabyte databases
37:58 - The roadmap to paid services
45:34 - DAOs as customers
52:18 - Polkascan vs. Polkadot UI
57:34 - A multi-chain universe

Special Guest: Emiel Sebastiaan.