Introducing Orb: Solana's New Block Explorer

Meet Orb, a fast, human-readable Solana block explorer. 

Orb is built on our state-of-the-art Solana archival system and uses getTransactionsForAddress (gTFA), an exclusive RPC method, to make it faster and easier to understand what’s happening on Solana.

A block explorer is a search engine for blockchains.

Explorers allow anyone to view and analyze historical data stored on a chain’s ledger, and they’re essential data tools for both advanced developers and everyday users. 

Explorers like Orb provide visibility into every block, account, program, asset, and transaction that has ever occurred on Solana.

Blockchain explorers are key infrastructure that enables everyone to inspect on-chain activity, debug programs, trace asset flows, verify metadata, and understand the canonical truth.

Why We Built a Solana Block Explorer

When we set out to build Orb, we had two main goals:

1. Make Solana easier to read
2. Make reading Solana faster

Since the Genesis block was processed on 14:29:00 Mar 16, 2020 (UTC), Solana has executed over 375 million blocks, processed over 450 billion transactions, and produced a ledger over 400 TB in size. 

At Solana’s speed and size, building a great explorer is difficult.

It requires scalable infrastructure, powerful APIs for reading historical data, and deep technical knowledge of how Solana works to make sense of all the information. Lastly, it must be presented in a clean, responsive user interface that any person can use confidently.

Existing explorers are good, but we wanted them to do more.

So we built the block explorer that we wish existed for Solana.

Making Solana Easier to Read

Solana’s read layer has long been criticized for being difficult to understand due to its programming model, numerous instructions, mismatched serialization formats, a lack of published Interface Definition Languages (IDLs), and complex cross-program invocations. 

To make Solana easier to read, we abstracted the technical details and simplified everything:

1. Enhanced Transactions: Orb uses the Enhanced Transactions API to parse Solana transaction details into human-readable formats.
2. AI Explainers: Orb integrates a few LLMs (Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini) that have been trained on archive data and Solana’s documentation to summarize transactions.
3. Time-based Filters: our new getTransactionsForAddress RPC endpoint powers Orb’s time-based filtering and sorting options, which makes it easier to find information you’re looking for.
4. Spam Filters: Orb filters out unverified tokens, junk NFTs, and spam transactions from your wallet history so you can focus on real assets and real transactions.  
5. Search: look up any token, program, validator, transaction, block, or account, and see your recent search history all in one place.
6. Simple UI: Orb’s clean user interface, organized information hierarchy, tabbed layout, minimal branding, and mobile-friendly design make it easy to search and navigate.

Make Reading Solana Faster

Solana RPC nodes typically only store the last two days of data. This means, anytime you query an archival method like getBlock or getTransaction for historical data, your query will likely hit Google BigTable. This process is too slow, given how standard RPC methods are designed and Google BigTable is built.

To make reading Solana faster, we rebuilt everything ourselves:

1. Faster Databases: we shipped a new Solana archival system using PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, and custom databases to replace Google BigTable, achieving 2-10x faster reads across all archival RPC calls.
2. Custom Index: our custom index stores one entry per unique (transaction, account) pair, and despite having almost 500 billion entries, the P50 lookup time is 8ms under production load.
3. Multiple Indices: we built indices partitioned by slot, time, status, and more to power filters for getTransactionForAddress and reduce lookup times when those filters are applied.
4. Best-in-class Hardware: our new archival system runs on purpose-built, bare metal hosts with petabytes of top-of-the-line NVMEs that are replicated across multiple regions for redundancy.
5. Real-time Data Streaming: we integrated LaserStream, the lowest latency gRPC streaming solution on Solana, to stream new blocks and transactions as they’re executed by validators.

Orb’s New Features

Here are five impactful new features included in Orb today:

Reverse Ordering

Unlike standard RPC methods like getSignaturesForAddress, which process queries from newest to oldest, forcing developers to recursively traverse Solana’s history, our exclusive getTransactionsForAddress RPC method enables developers to sort in chronological order. 

Using this method, we added a “Show oldest first” sorting option that lets you quickly jump to the beginning of your transaction history.

The getTransactionsForAddress method also powers Orb's time-based filtering so you can quickly view txns from any time in history.

Heatmaps

Inspired by GitHub’s contribution graph, Orb heatmaps show an address’s activity by day and month in a calendar layout with busier days (i.e., more transactions) in dark orange and inactive days in white.

Verified Programs

Until now, Solana explorers did not have an easy way to view verified programs, their code structure, and their multisig details, which is a common practice on EVM chains.

Now, with the Orb explorer, developers can easily view a program’s history, IDL, verification status, and the full structure of their repository.

Network Statistics

Orb’s Solana network statistics page provides a high-level summary of the network’s health, including:

• The SOL price chart
• A live feed of new blocks
• Network TPS with vote/non-vote filters
• Validator count, client distribution, and node versions
• Active validators, including APY, fees, and total stake
• Transaction confirmation stats by time frame and region
• Epoch information, including progress and start/end slots

AI Explanations

When you click Orb’s “Explain with AI” button, Orb processes all of the transaction instructions and summarizes exactly what happened in easy-to-understand language.

Instead of sifting through rows of opaque instructions to stitch together a story of what happened on-chain, you can simply explain it with AI.

The Future of Orb

Here’s what’s on Orb’s near‑term roadmap:

1. Open-source — fully open-source Orb under an Apache 2.0 license
2. Add DeFi Features — a bigger focus on DeFi data and features (e.g., account balances, DeFi positions, valuations, etc.)
3. Improve AI — enhance Orb’s AI capabilities and features to analyze tokens and accounts to make Solana even more readable.
4. Improve Parsing — improve parsing and summary views including summary headers, instruction summaries, and better type detection.

Integrate Orb with your Product

Give users the fastest, easiest, and most feature-rich experience by making Orb the default Solana block explorer in your app’s frontend. 

To integrate Orb, use these canonical URL paths:

Exploring Transactions

For all transaction details, use this URL path:

https://orb.helius.dev/tx/{SIGNATURE}/history

Exploring Programs and Accounts

For all Solana accounts, wallets, and programs, use this path:

https://orb.helius.dev/address/{ADDRESS}/history

Exploring Blocks

For all blocks, use this URL path:

https://orb.helius.dev/block/{SLOT}/transactions

Cluster

Orb supports Solana Mainnet-beta, Solana Devnet, and Solana Testnet.

For each URL path, make sure you append the correct cluster parameter at the end of the URL:

• Mainnet Beta: ?cluster=mainnet-beta
• Devnet: ?cluster=devnet
• Testnet: ?cluster=testnet

Conclusion

Since Helius launched in 2022, we have committed ourselves to making Solana faster, improving the developer experience, and making the network easier to understand. 

Orb is our latest endeavor to fix Solana’s read layer and drive the network forward. To get started, try Orb, and send us your feedback!