In 2014, Blockr.io was acquired by Coinbase.
The multi-currency blockchain was innovative and relied upon by numerous outfits, including Satoshibox, a service that allows anyone to sell digital goods for Bitcoin. At the time, Coinbase said of the acquisition:
Today, we’re excited to announce that Coinbase has acquired Blockr.io. As part of the acquisition, we’re able to welcome two of its exceptionally talented employees to the Coinbase team: software engineer Sašo Matejina and designer Samo Drole. The pair recently moved from Slovenia to join our staff of 40 full-time employees here in San Francisco. Saso and Samo will be focused on continuing to make the Coinbase API the premier tool for developers who want to build on top of bitcoin. They’ll also work on building out Coinbase’s own bitcoin node….Blockr.io will continue to operate as usual for now as Sašo and Samo transition to their work at Coinbase.
Coinbase has yet to issue a statement as to why they shuttered Blockr on September 4th. Blockr itself only gave four days notice:
We are shutting down blockr.io on September 4th 2017. Thank you for your past support.
It’s unclear what will become the easy-to-use Blockr API or the blockchain software that was developed by Samo Drole and Sašo Matejina. It could be that Coinbase has decided to rebrand the technology and build a new product to account for all its new offerings, including Bitcoin Cash. We can speculate all day, but word from Coinbase will be slow to come, if ever. Their press department is legendarily slow about responding to this author, in effect always putting him behind the scoop. This article will be updated if we receive a response/statement from Coinbase proper.
In any case, at present time, Blockr.io simply redirects to Coinbase.com. There are plenty of block explorers to choose from, but some services will miss Blockr. In particular, the author discovered it was gone when he tried to click a transaction link inside of SatoshiBox, a service which allows anyone to sell digital goods for cryptocurrencies. Various other services will also have to migrate to other options. Another good alternative to Blockchain.info is Chain.so, which currently scans four blockchains.
image from Shutterstock.
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