  Many blockchain-based cryptocurrencies provide users with online blockchain
explorers for viewing online transaction data. However, traditional blockchain
explorers mostly present transaction information in textual and tabular forms.
Such forms make understanding cryptocurrency transaction mechanisms difficult
for novice users (NUsers). They are also insufficiently informative for
experienced users (EUsers) to recognize advanced transaction information. This
study introduces a new online cryptocurrency transaction data viewing tool
called SilkViser. Guided by detailed scenario and requirement analyses, we
create a series of appreciating visualization designs, such as paper
ledger-inspired block and blockchain visualizations and ancient copper
coin-inspired transaction visualizations, to help users understand
cryptocurrency transaction mechanisms and recognize advanced transaction
information. We also provide a set of lightweight interactions to facilitate
easy and free data exploration. Moreover, a controlled user study is conducted
to quantitatively evaluate the usability and effectiveness of SilkViser.
Results indicate that SilkViser can satisfy the requirements of NUsers and
EUsers. Our visualization designs can compensate for the inexperience of NUsers
in data viewing and attract potential users to participate in cryptocurrency
transactions.
