Short introduction to Block Explorers
At the time of writing we have 4 real options for block explorers for WAX, the major one being wax.bloks.io, but it's far from the only option.
wax.bloks.io
Bloks is a product built for EOS but is now supporting a lot of EOSIO based blockchains. It's a fast block explorer with a lot of features that come in handy. It's one of the oldest, fastest and most reliable block explorers in the EOSIO ecosystem. - https://wax.bloks.io
To use it with your account you simply login in the top right corner and can then utilize the Wallet options as well as interacting directly with smart contracts.
EOSAuthority
EOS Authority is a good option for most users that want to look at their account history or interact directly with smart contracts. It's slower than bloks.io, but perfect to use as an alternative. EOSAuthority has a few features that Blosk doesn't have, it's very easy to follow the CPU usage of WAX.
EOSQ
EOSQ is a block explorer focused on providing the technical information in a fast and reliable way. This is great if you are looking for a specific transaction.
When do you need a block explorer?
Block explorers are a great tool as soon as you need to fetch any information from the blockchain. At first glance, it's information overload when you interact with these tools. But as soon as you learn how they all work, it's very useful.
You can use the Block explorers to get history information from your account, you can locate individual transactions or double check what actually took place earlier. The basics are rather simple, yet can be rather complicated at the same time.
This can be to verify some information for a specific need, like taxes, support tickets, or out of plain curiosity.
In the next chapter, let's go through how you can use the block explorer for some of the basic needs.