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How to Send Crypto/NFTs & Use a Block Explorer to Check Transactions
So you want to send some Ether to a friend or maybe transfer an NFT into cold storage. This article will go over how to send crypto and NFTs and use what's called a block explorer to check on your transaction, allowing you to see it being processed in real time and give you peace of mind that your valuable cryptoassets are on the way to where they are supposed to be going. The process for sending NFTs is slightly different and will be covered in a separate section.
Sending crypto
This section will go over how to send crypto from Metamask on a laptop, however, this process will be very much the same regardless of the device or wallet used. It is a very simple process, the most difficult part being knowing that if you send it to the wrong place, it could be gone forever, so be extremely careful and triple check where you are sending it to! A good practice is sending a test transaction with a small amount of crypto to ensure everything is arriving safely to the right place.
Step 1: Select what you want to send. If you have multiple cryptos in your wallet, then you need to choose which one to send. In this case I want to send Ether so I click on Ether and then click send.
Step 2: Copy and paste the address that you want to send your crypto to in the "send to" field.
Step 3: Input the amount you want to send and click next. Make sure the amount you are putting in is in the correct currency. Sending 1 Ether is much different than sending 1 dollar. Use the small arrow icon circled in green to switch between US dollars and whatever crypto you are sending.
Step 4: Look over everything and make sure it all looks good. As you can see, the gas fee, or transaction fee, in this case is actually higher than the amount I am sending. This is due to high network congestion on Ethereum at the time of the transaction. You can edit the fee to make it go through faster, however, is beyond the scope of this article. More on this in another article. Always double check the address you are sending funds to circled in green at the top. If everything looks good, click "confirm" and off the transaction will be!
The transaction will be sent to the blockchain for processing and will go through after it has been accepted by the network. More on the mechanics of this in another article. If you want to know how to check the transaction on a block explorer, skip to the section below. Next I will explain the process of sending an NFT.
Sending NFTs
Sending NFTs is just as easy and very much the same as sending crypto. You select the NFT you want to transfer, input the address you want to transfer it to and click send/confirm. The process is a bit different depending on the device you are using. In this section, I will explain how to do it on a laptop since it is even easier to do with Metamask on a mobile device.
Step 1: Navigate to https://opensea.io/ in your browser. Connect your wallet, go to your profile page and select the NFT you want to transfer.
Step 2: Click "transfer" in the upper right hand of the screen, input the address you want to transfer the NFT to and click transfer. FYI: All transactions are first confirmed in Metamask before sent. Just because you press transfer does not mean it will transfer right then and there. It must be confirmed by you through Metamask first.
Step 3: Check that everything looks good including the address it is sending to and click "confirm" in Metamask.
Now that you have sent your transaction, it is time to check the status of it on a block explorer.
Etherscan
https://etherscan.io/ is one of the most widely used block explorers. There are many more, however, this one is quite user friendly and has a nice user interface so is recommended. There are multiple ways to check a transaction on a block explorer. You can use the transaction hash, receiving or sending address, and even link directly to the transaction from Metamask. They all accomplish the same thing. I will go over how to check transactions from laptop and mobile since they are slightly different.
From Metamask on Laptop/Desktop:
After you send a transaction, navigate to the "activity" tab (circled in green below) in Metamask. There you will see a list of transactions you have performed. Click on the one you wish to see the status of, most likely being the first/most recent one.
After clicking on the transaction under the activity tab, details about the transaction will appear. To directly link to the transaction on the block explorer, click on the arrow in the top right of the window.
You will be taken to a page that outlines the details of your transaction: gas fees, estimated confirmation time, to and from addresses, whether it's pending or not etc. below is a pending transaction that has yet to go through.
And below is a successful transaction that has gone through.
Next, I will detail out how to check the status of your transactions from mobile.
From mobile
Open your Metamask and select the 3 lines in the top left corner of the screen.
Select "transaction history" from the menu.
Select the transaction you want to view the status of. In this case, there is only one (circled in red), but if you have done many transactions, there will be a list. You can also view the account's full transaction history by selecting "view full history on etherscan" (circled in green).
Once you have selected a transaction, select "view on etherscan" to view it's status on the blockchain.
This is an example of a transaction on the blockchain. Information displayed includes time the tranaction occured, gas fee, to and from address, successful or not etc.
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