Lens

When to reach for Lens: you are holding a raw transaction or a block file and you want to know what it contains, down to the byte, without guessing.

Lens is your transaction microscope. Hand it raw Bitcoin data and it breaks everything down into a structured, readable analysis. From individual bytes to high-level summaries, nothing stays hidden.

What it does

Lens has two main modes:

Transaction analysis. Give it a transaction fixture (JSON with raw hex, prevouts, metadata) and you get a full structural breakdown: inputs, outputs, script types, addresses, fees, weight, SegWit savings, timelocks, and any warnings worth paying attention to.

Block analysis. Give it a .blk file, .rev undo file, and XOR key file, and it parses the whole block: header fields, coinbase data, merkle tree validation, and summaries for every transaction inside.

Best for

• Learning how Bitcoin transactions are actually structured at the byte level
• Debugging script types and fee/weight behavior
• Verifying that a raw transaction decodes correctly before you broadcast it
• Understanding what SegWit actually saves and how witness data works
• Exploring historic blocks straight from the Bitcoin data directory

What you see

When you analyze a transaction, the output includes:

• Transaction ID (txid and wtxid)
• Inputs with previous outpoint references, script types (P2PKH, P2SH, P2WPKH, P2WSH, P2TR, etc.), addresses, and BTC values
• Outputs with script classification, addresses, and amounts
• Fee breakdown in sats, sat/vB, and BTC
• Weight and size showing raw bytes, virtual bytes, witness discount, and SegWit savings percentage
• Timelock info covering nLockTime, nSequence, BIP65/BIP68 analysis
• Warnings for unusual patterns like dust outputs, high fees, non-standard scripts, or address reuse

For blocks, you also get header fields (version, prev hash, merkle root, timestamp, difficulty), coinbase analysis, BIP34 height extraction, and merkle validation.

Plain English mode

Lens has an explain feature that translates the JSON analysis into plain English. It classifies the transaction type (simple payment, consolidation, batch, coinbase), describes each input and output in human terms, puts the fee rate in context, and surfaces privacy tips for beginners.

Typical workflow

1. Paste a transaction hex or upload a fixture JSON on the web UI
2. Read the structural breakdown, inputs, outputs, script types
3. Check the fee rate and weight to understand the transaction's priority
4. Review any warnings Lens flags
5. Use "Explain" for a narrative summary
6. Move to Sherlock when you want ownership and privacy analysis

CLI usage

# analyze a transaction fixture
txray parse tx fixtures/segwit_v0.json

Transaction 4a5e1e4b...33b
  version:   2         locktime: 0
  inputs:    1         outputs:  2
  weight:    561 WU    vsize:   141 vB
  fee:       1410 sats (10.0 sat/vB)
  segwit_savings: 34%
  warnings:  none

# get a plain English explanation of the same transaction
txray explain fixtures/segwit_v0.json

This looks like a simple payment. One P2WPKH input is spent into two
outputs: a P2WPKH payment of 0.0120 BTC and a smaller change output
of 0.0038 BTC. The fee is typical for a normal-priority transaction
at the time this fixture was captured.

What Lens does NOT do

Lens is purely structural. It tells you what a transaction contains, not who owns what or why it was built that way. For ownership inference, change detection, and privacy analysis, hand it off to Sherlock. For building transactions, that's Smith's job.