Manage Your Crypto Assets
Using Stellar Network Data
Managing digital assets is a critical skill for anyone involved in Web3 or blockchain technologies. Whether you’re a developer, investor, or enthusiast, tapping into blockchain data gives you visibility and control over your transactions.
In this article, we’ll explore how to use the Stellar Network and its tools to manage your crypto assets more efficiently. We’ll follow a real-world example from the Stellar Quest learning platform and highlight how tools like Stellar Expert empower users to explore and utilize network data.
The Role of a Blockchain Explorer
A blockchain explorer is a web-based tool that allows users to view information recorded on a blockchain. It acts as a window into the decentralized ledger, providing transparency and accountability.
Here’s what a blockchain explorer typically enables you to do:
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- View recent and historical transactions
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- Check transaction details
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- Explore blocks, (i.e. block height, timestamp, and miner information)
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- Investigate wallet addresses to view their transaction history and current balances
Blockchain explorers are key to using blockchains efficiently. For Stellar, that tool is Stellar Expert.
Introducing Stellar Expert
The Stellar Network is a decentralized protocol that offers various innovative tools and features for its community, enabling fast, low-cost cross-border payments. It supports the issuance, exchange, and management of digital assets.
To help users interact with the ecosystem, Stellar offers useful tools. One of the most powerful is Stellar Expert, the network’s blockchain explorer and analytics platform, used to track network data—from asset stats to account activity.
With Stellar Expert, you can:
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- View asset statistics
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- Track 24-hour ledger stats
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- Analyze ledger performance
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- Explore assets and tokens
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- View accounts
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- Investigate assets and trustlines
The Stellar Network offers a variety of innovative tools and features designed to support its growing community. Usability plays a key role in building trust across the ecosystem, empowering users and developers alike to participate more actively in the network’s evolution.
Managing an Offer on the Stellar Network
One practical use case for Stellar Expert is managing offers—standing orders to buy or sell one asset for another using Stellar’s decentralized exchange.
Step 1: Establish Trustlines
Before buying or selling an asset like USD Coin (USDC), you must establish a trustline with its issuer. On Stellar, assets must be explicitly trusted before they can be held.
To do this, use Stellar Expert to find the USDC issuer’s account. Search for “USDC” and copy the issuer address.
Then, establish the trustline in your wallet or app.
Step 2: Create and Manage the Offer
Now you can create an offer to trade XLM for USDC (or vice versa), using a wallet, app, or the Horizon API.
After creating the offer, return to Stellar Expert to:
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Verify the transaction
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Check the order book
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Monitor your offer
These steps give you full control over the trading process.
Learn By Doing: Stellar Quest
Stellar Quest offers gamified challenges to help users practice on the Stellar blockchain. In one challenge, users learn to retrieve account info, establish trustlines, and manage offers using Stellar Expert.
Gauthier Lamothe, our Business Development and Podcast lead, walks through this process in a step-by-step video below.
