Block

export class Block {
  constructor(
    public hash: Bytes,
    public parentHash: Bytes,
    public unclesHash: Bytes,
    public author: Address,
    public stateRoot: Bytes,
    public transactionsRoot: Bytes,
    public receiptsRoot: Bytes,
    public number: BigInt,
    public gasUsed: BigInt,
    public gasLimit: BigInt,
    public timestamp: BigInt,
    public difficulty: BigInt,
    public totalDifficulty: BigInt,
    public size: BigInt | null,
    public baseFeePerGas: BigInt | null,
  ) {}
}

Fields and Use Cases

hash

• Description: The unique identifier of the block (32 bytes)
• Use Case: Identify and reference specific blocks in the blockchain

parentHash

• Description: The unique identifier(hash) of the previous block also known as the parent block
• Use Case: Maintain blockchain integrity and verify block order

unclesHash

• Description: The unique identifier(hash) of the uncle blocks
• Use Case: Can be used to track network metrics in PoW chains. Less relevant for PoS subgraphs as it’s set to a constant value.
• Note: In PoS, this is set to a constant value

author

• Description: The address of the creator of the block
• Use Case: Tracks miner activity and enables analytics on mining performance or reward distribution

stateRoot, transactionsRoot, receiptsRoot

• Description: Root hashes of the state, transaction, and receipt tries respectively
• Use Case: Can be used for advanced verification logic or to track chain state evolution in specialized subgraphs.

number

• Description: Current block number
• Use Case: Essential for temporal ordering, filtering, and pagination in your subgraph queries. Often used in mapping logic to track indexing progress.

gasUsed

• Description: The total gas consumed by transactions in the block
• Use Case: Used to create block-level analytics entities and track network utilization patterns in your subgraph.

gasLimit

• Description: The maximum gas that could be used by transactions in the block
• Use Case: Useful for creating network capacity analytics and tracking protocol parameter changes in your subgraph.

timestamp

• Description: The Unix timestamp of the block’s creation
• Use Case: Critical for time-based queries and analytics. Used to create time-series data and enable temporal filtering in your subgraph.

difficulty

• Description: The difficulty of mining the block.
• Use Case: Identify and reference specific blocks in the blockchain
• Note: In PoS, this value is set to constant

totalDifficulty

• Description: The cumulative difficulty of the chain up to and including this block
• Use Case: Identify and reference specific blocks in the blockchain
• Note: In PoS, this value is set to constant

size

• Description: The size of the block in bytes
• Use Case: Useful for creating block size analytics and tracking network growth metrics in your subgraph.

baseFeePerGas

• Description: The minimum gas fee required for transactions in this block
• Use Case: Essential for tracking gas price dynamics and creating fee-related analytics in post-London fork subgraphs.

Important Notes

• difficulty and nonce have constant or reduced significance in Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchains compared to Proof of Work (PoW) as mining-based computation no longer determines block creation.
• baseFeePerGas were introduced in specific Ethereum upgrades, such as the London Upgrade, and are critical for calculating gas fees and implementing the fee burn mechanism
• unclesHash field is relevant in Ethereum’s PoW era, representing the Keccak-256 hash of uncle blocks. It becomes less relevant in PoS Ethereum as uncle rewards are no longer part of the protocol