Open any recent block on GNKScan and you will see a header — height, hash, timestamp, proposer, transaction count, gas — followed by a list of transactions with names like start inference and submit poc batch. Every one of those fields has a precise meaning, a specific data source, and at least one way to mislead you if you read it like an Ethereum or vanilla Cosmos block. This guide covers all of them.

The header, field by field

Height is the block's position in the chain, and on Gonka it is worth internalizing that height marches on regardless of activity. Block production never waits for transactions, so empty blocks are routine — a quiet stretch of consumer traffic still produces a steady drumbeat of them. An empty block is not an outage; it is a heartbeat.

Block hash identifies the block's exact contents. GNKScan shows it when our own indexer has processed the block. When the page is served from the network's public indexer instead — which exposes per-block transactions but not headers — the hash renders as "—". More on that honesty policy below.

Timestamp is consensus time — what the validator set agreed the time was, recorded in UTC. GNKScan renders both the absolute time and a relative "ago" form.

Proposer is the validator that assembled this block. On Gonka the proposer rotation is weighted by proof-of-compute results, not token stake — so the names you see proposing blocks are, by construction, the participants with the most verified GPU capacity. Like the hash, this field comes from our indexer and shows "—" when unavailable.

Transactions counts the messages included in the block, and gas used totals their execution cost accounting. Which brings us to the first Gonka quirk.

Gas that nobody pays

Every transaction on Gonka reports gas used and gas wanted, but no one is charged for it. The chain's configuration sets transaction fees to zero — the network's entire fee model lives in inference pricing instead, where users pay per model token processed, with escrow and automatic refunds.

So read gas figures as computational accounting, useful for spotting heavy transactions and comparing block weights, not as an economic signal. There is no fee market to outbid, no priority auction, and a "gas used: 0" transfer is perfectly normal.

The transaction type glossary

Gonka's message mix is unlike a general-purpose chain because the network exists to do one job. Here is what you will actually encounter in the feed, roughly ordered by how often you will see it:

• Start inference — a user request enters the system: the fee's maximum cost is escrowed and the work is registered on chain.
• Finish inference — the completion is done; actual token counts are recorded, the provider is paid from escrow, and any difference is refunded to the user.
• Send / transfer — an ordinary GNK transfer between addresses.
• Submit PoC batch — a participant submits proof-of-compute results during the epoch's Sprint window. These arrive in bursts near epoch boundaries.
• Submit PoC validation — a participant reports its audit of another participant's proof batch.
• Claim rewards — a participant collects its epoch settlement: work coins plus its share of minted reward coins.
• Delegate — standard Cosmos staking machinery; note that on Gonka consensus power comes from compute, not delegation.
• Submit new participant — a new entity registers to join the network.

If you can date-stamp a block within its epoch from the transaction mix alone — proof batches mean the Sprint, validation messages mean the audit phase, claim-rewards clusters mean settlement just ran — you understand Gonka. Gonka Epochs Explained covers that clock in detail.

Why some fields show "—"

GNKScan draws on two sources: our own tx-scanner indexer, which follows the chain tip and stores complete block data, and the Gonka network's public indexer, which serves per-block transaction lists but no block hash or proposer. When a page is assembled from the public indexer — during our indexer's catch-up, or for ranges it has not covered — the fields that source cannot provide render as an em dash.

The alternative would be guessing, and an explorer that guesses is worse than no explorer. A "—" on GNKScan means exactly one thing: this value was not available from a source we trust, so we are not showing you one. The same policy drives the freshness chip on the home page, which tells you outright when data is cached, degraded, or when our indexer is behind the chain tip, instead of silently serving stale numbers.

Reading a transaction row

Each row in a block's transaction list gives you:

• Hash — the transaction's unique ID; click through for full detail.
• Type — one of the messages from the glossary above.
• From — the signing address; click it to open the address page and trace the account's history. Every Gonka address starts with the gonka1 prefix.
• Gas used — execution accounting (unpaid, as above).
• Status — success or failure. Failed transactions are included in blocks and consume gas accounting; failure means the message's logic rejected it (say, an escrow check that did not clear), not that it vanished.

Anchors: what to check when something looks wrong

A short diagnostic list we use ourselves:

1. Block seems missing? Check the blocks list — if the tip has moved past it, it exists; our indexer may still be catching up on its details.
2. Transaction count is zero for many blocks in a row? Normal during quiet hours. Verify cadence by comparing consecutive timestamps.
3. A participant's transactions stopped? Look at the epoch phase on the home page first — mid-epoch silence from a participant that missed the census is expected, and the participants page shows who is active this round.
4. Numbers differ between explorers? Check whether each site is reporting the active epoch's participant set or cumulative registrations, and which of Gonka's two weight systems it reads — see What Is Gonka? for that distinction.

The block as a story

A block is a sentence in the network's diary. On Gonka the diary reads differently than on most chains: the subject is almost always AI work — a request escrowed here, a completion settled there, a burst of proofs at the census, a payday at the boundary. Once the vocabulary is familiar, the live feed stops being noise and becomes a running account of a network earning its keep.

Start reading at the current block, and if a term still trips you up, the Gonka FAQ has short answers to the most common questions.