Ethereum: What is the difference between chainstate and blocks folder?

Ethereum: Understanding ChainState vs. Blocks Folder

In the Ethereum ecosystem, both chainstate and blocksfolder are crucial components for storing and retrieving blockchain data. However, they serve different purposes, making it essential to understand their differences before diving into reading and displaying the data on a web frontend.

ChainState

The chainstate folder is the central repository of Ethereum’s state, which includes various information such as:

• Block height

• Block number

• Block timestamp

• Transaction count

• Gas ​​price

• Unconfirmed transaction count

The chainstate folder stores this data in a hierarchical structure, with each file representing a block or a section of the blockchain. The files are organized into directories like state_root, state_tree, and tx_count.

Blocks Folder

The blocksfolder is responsible for storing individual blocks of the blockchain. Each block contains various data such as:

• Block hash

• Previous block hash (parent hash)

• Transaction count

• Unconfirmed transaction count

• Gas ​​price

• Timestamp

The blocksfolder stores each block in a separate file, with each file representing a single block.

Key differences

While both folders store the same types of data, there are key differences:

• chainstate is the central repository of Ethereum’s state, whereas blocksfolder stores individual blocks.

• The files in chainstate have a hierarchical structure, with each directory containing subdirectories and files, while blocksfolder has separate files for each block.

Reading and displaying data

To read and display the data on a web frontend like blockchain explorer websites, you’ll need to access both the chainstate folder and the blocksfolder. Here’s an example of how you can do it using Solidity (the Ethereum programming language) and Web3.js:

import * as Web3 from "web3";


const web3 = new Web3(new Web3.providers.HttpProvider('


// Get the chainstate

const chainState = web3.eth.chainState;


// Get all blocks

async function getBlocks() {

  const txList = await web3.eth.getTransactionList();

  for (let i = 0; i < txList.length; i++) {

    const block = txList[i].block;

    // Read block data from chainstate

    console.log(block.timestamp);

  }

}


// Get a specific block by its hash

async function getBlockByHash() {

  const blockHash = '0x1234567890abcdef';

  const blockData = await web3.eth.getBlock(blockHash, true);

  // Read block data from blocksfolder

  console.log(blockData.hash);

}

Displaying data on a web frontend

To display the data on a web frontend like blockchain explorer websites, you’ll need to use Web3.js’s ethers library to interact with the Ethereum network and retrieve specific data. You can then use HTML5 canvas or other technologies to visualize the data.

Here’s an example of how you can display the block timestamp using HTML5 canvas:

This code retrieves the current block timestamp and uses it to draw a circle on an HTML5 canvas element. You can customize the appearance of the circle by modifying the `ctx.