What a chain can tell you
A blockchain is a public ledger of who sent what to whom, and when. It records actions, never reasons.
Chapter 1.
A blockchain is a public ledger of who sent what to whom, and when. It records actions, never reasons.
Three kinds of statement
Everything in a scan is one of three things. Observed: read directly from the chain, such as a transfer, a balance, a swap or a contract event. Inferred: a hypothesis drawn from observations, such as two wallets sharing a funder. Unavailable: a source that failed or does not cover the case.
Keep them apart when you read. An observed transfer is a fact about the ledger. An inferred relationship is a reading of several facts, with other explanations that may also fit. An unavailable check is neither a pass nor a zero; it is a gap.
A scan is a snapshot
A scan reads the chain at the block it runs. Balances, liquidity and contract permissions can change in the next block. Every scan shows when it was read; check that time before acting on anything it says.
The same token scanned an hour apart can give different results because the chain changed, not because the method did. When the method changes, the score version changes with it and the score changelog says what moved.
What the ledger never holds
Names, agreements, intentions and off-chain messages are not on the chain. Two wallets controlled by one person look like strangers if they never touch each other on-chain; two strangers can look connected if they used the same exchange. Read every connection as a link in the ledger, not as an identity.
TERMS IN THIS CHAPTER Observed. Read directly from the chain at scan time: a transfer, balance, swap or contract event. · Inferred. A hypothesis drawn from observations, with its reasoning and other explanations. Shared funding does not prove common control. · Unavailable. A source failed or does not cover this case. Never counted as zero or as passed. · Snapshot. A scan describes the chain at the block it ran. Balances, liquidity and permissions can change right after.