How to Deploy a Rollup Explorer with Autoscout

Rollups have significantly improved Ethereum’s user experience, reducing gas fees from dollars to cents and increasing transaction speeds to thousands per second. By utilizing zero-knowledge proofs for ZK-rollups like zkSync or fraud proofs for optimistic rollups like OP Stack and Arbitrum, these Layer 2 (L2) solutions process transactions off-chain while ensuring security is anchored to Ethereum’s mainnet. The result? A scalable, decentralized network ready for millions of users.

However, you need a way to interact with these solutions. Whether it’s an Optimistic Rollup, Arbitrum Nitro chain, or zkEVM testnet, you require a block explorer to monitor transactions, verify smart contracts, and showcase L1-L2 bridge activity. Building an explorer for L2-specific data, such as batch transactions, can be complex and time-consuming.

This is where Autoscout steps in, empowering developers, Rollup-as-a-Service providers, and L2 teams to launch professional explorers in minutes with just a few clicks. This guide will walk you through deploying a customized explorer for your rollup.

Let’s get started!

Getting Started

To kick things off, let’s set up our account.

1. Create an Account

Go to Autoscout and create an account. Click the Login button to log in.

2. Top up Balance

You can request free credits in the Blockscout Discord to begin testing Autoscout; however, for long-term deployments, Autoscout follows a pay-as-you-go model, and the price is based on the volume of transactions your Explorer Instance processes daily.

Below are the pricing options

• X-Small: $250/mo → ideal for new chains
• Small: $350/mo → up to 50K transactions per day
• Medium: $750/mo → up to 150K transactions per day
• Large: $950/mo → up to 1M transactions per day

Click the Top Up button to add credits.

3. Create an Instance

 Click on “Create” or "Add new Instance" to begin configuring your Explorer.

Deploying an Explorer for Optimism

For this example, we’d deploy an explorer for Optimism Mainnet.

Step 1: Chain Info

The chain info tab includes the required information for the given chain.

Let’s go over each one briefly.

• Instance Size: Your instance size should be chosen based on the expected daily transaction volume, allowing you to test different types of setups.
• Chain name: This can be any name of your choice, which will be shown on the hero banner of the explorer.
• Instance name: This would be included in the URL of the explorer.
• Chain ID: This unique identifier is assigned to a blockchain network to distinguish it from others, and it can be found in the chain’s Docs.
• Node Type: This is the type of Execution client the chain uses. Optimism, for example, uses op-geth, a fork of Geth (short for Go Ethereum).
• HTTP RPC URL - This web address connects to a blockchain node’s JSON-RPC interface, allowing wallets, dApps, or tools to interact with the blockchain. Optimism provides a public RPC URL, but it is rate-limited, so you would need to utilize a third-party RPC node provider such as Alchemy or Quicknode.
• Rollup Stack - Select the specific Rollup stack from the options.
• Customizations - You can further customize your explorer to include certain features. This includes a custom domain name, a public RPC URL that enables the “add to the metamask” button, and a wallet connect ID to allow secure communication between Dapps.

Step 2: Branding

In this step, you will define your explorer's user interface, including the logo, navigation style, and background color. Feel free to be creative.

Step 3: Rollup Configuration

This section requires configuration info such as contract addresses, block info, and URLs. More on ENV variables for various rollup configurations are available here.

Let’s go over each one briefly.

• L1 Blockscout URL - This is the Blockscout Explorer URL for the L1 network.
• L2 withdrawal URL - This is the L2 bridge URL for withdrawals.
•  RPC endpoint for L1 - This is the node provider URL for the L1 chain.
• System config contract - This stores essential configuration parameters for the Optimism network.
• Blockscout blobs API URL - This is an endpoint for retrieving blob data (large data chunks from EIP-4844, used by Optimism) from Blockscout’s explorer
• Celestial Blobs Indexer URL - This URL allows access to the Celenium Blobs API for retrieving blob data (e.g., transactions, namespaces, and data chunks).

• Block chunk size - For Optimism, block chunk size relates to how blocks or transactions are grouped when syncing a node (e.g., full node, archive node) or indexing data with tools like Blockscout. It is set by default to 4
• L2 genesis block number - The L2 genesis block number for Optimism is 0, as the genesis block is the first block in any blockchain
• L2 output Oracle contract - This contract stores the output roots, which are commitments to the L2 state, and is critical for indexing output roots as part of Optimism's rollup architecture. You can find it here 
• Deposit batch size - The Deposit batch size refers to the number of Ethereum (L1) blocks included in a single eth_getLogs request when fetching deposit events from the L1 blockchain. It is set by default to 500
• Withdrawals start block - A withdrawal start block is the Ethereum (L1) block number from which withdrawal-related events or transactions, initiated on the L2 rollup to move assets or data back to L1, are tracked or indexed. It is set by default to 1
• L2 to L1 message passer contract - This contract allows L2 transactions to initiate messages relayed to L1, such as withdrawing ETH or ERC-20 tokens from Optimism back to Ethereum. Without specifying any address, the field is set by default to a Base L2 to L1 message passer contract.

Step 4: Save and Deploy

After filling in the required fields, click the “Save and Deploy” button.

The Deployment would take about 5 to 10 minutes.

After Deployment, you can manage your Explorer directly from your dashboard.

A few things you can do;

• Add a new Explorer Instance
• Reach out to Blockscout support on Discord
• Edit your Explorer configuration and redeploy
• Pause your Explorer to save resources
• Delete the Explorer completely

Conclusion

Autoscout provides a streamlined solution for teams and builders looking to incorporate explorer instances into their workflows efficiently. By eliminating the need for in-depth knowledge of database management and indexing processes, Autoscout allows users to seamlessly integrate explorers without the usual complexities, making it an ideal choice for those wanting to enhance their operations with minimal overhead.

Autoscout offers support for EVM-compatible chains and various Rollup stacks. The primary distinction when deploying other Rollup stacks lies in their specific configurations. You can conveniently find the necessary information in the respective chain's documentation or seek assistance from a large language model. However, it's essential to verify contract addresses using the official chain documentation to ensure accuracy.