# How to Interact With the Blockchain

# Getting Started

The core-blockchain package is the central entity around which everythign revolves. It provides a state-machine that controls the state of your node and switches between states to sync, rollback or recover from a fork.

It holds all of the information that is important to know when you want to see what the current state of your node is. Do not trust the database, trust the in-memory data it exposes as it's updated in real-time.

# Interacting With the State of the Blockchain

import { app } from "@swipechain/core-container";

const blockchain = app.resolvePlugin("blockchain");

async function callBlockchainMethods() {
  // Check if the blockchain is fully synced
  blockchain.isSynced();

  // Get the last block we've received
  blockchain.getLastBlock();

  // Get the height of the last block we've received
  blockchain.getLastHeight();

  // Get the last block we've downloaded
  blockchain.getLastDownloadedBlock();

  // Get a list of events the blockchain emits
  blockchain.getEvents();
}

callBlockchainMethods();

# Conclusion

This guide should give you a rough idea of how to interact with the blockchain to get information about the state of your node.

Treat the blockchain as a read-only entity when interacting with it through your plugin to avoid any unwanted side-effects..