What are the hex and asm field values in the JSON decoded from a raw transactions?

Question

I used the command line bitcoin-cli decoderawtransaction <hex-value> and got back a JSON output (see below). However, I noticed there are hex and asm fields that are themselves hex values (at times). I am thinking these are metadata that can further be decoded. Is that right?

Is there any more documentation on the structure and meaning of the JSON passed back for these 2 fields (or more)?

I read this SO post which referred to this out-dated article.

Also, I checked the transaction on bitcoin block explorer. They seem to have a few metadata that I don't see in the JSON (e.g. received time, confirmations, relayed ip, etc...). Where are these values coming from?

{
  "txid": "2514161c059ac18bf2eff1e05c4628e322d846e930fd6dd4b24805ea59dc4913",
  "hash": "2514161c059ac18bf2eff1e05c4628e322d846e930fd6dd4b24805ea59dc4913",
  "size": 259,
  "vsize": 259,
  "version": 1,
  "locktime": 0,
  "vin": [
    {
      "txid": "4f40655c4ab1a029bc41bc547f79556a0dc48d22df7202778fad592791c77fcd",
      "vout": 0,
      "scriptSig": {
        "asm": "3046022100cd6795ebcd1b6b87833a4ad812733d3804065d34bafee24da181a770892272b902210088cd2484952ad2572f9bfb2874643dbb4b3c492b749e79d8177a14eb4a3bc61a[ALL] 04bbf2b84900b6f898548687aefba86cc06da6f4656a71e45fa55128b501455b5486cb09705cfa23c1899fe46d4355c9058bb2de4f1a7f1a01ff27e00b306f7356",
        "hex": "493046022100cd6795ebcd1b6b87833a4ad812733d3804065d34bafee24da181a770892272b902210088cd2484952ad2572f9bfb2874643dbb4b3c492b749e79d8177a14eb4a3bc61a014104bbf2b84900b6f898548687aefba86cc06da6f4656a71e45fa55128b501455b5486cb09705cfa23c1899fe46d4355c9058bb2de4f1a7f1a01ff27e00b306f7356"
      },
      "sequence": 4294967295
    }
  ],
  "vout": [
    {
      "value": 889.94500000,
      "n": 0,
      "scriptPubKey": {
        "asm": "OP_DUP OP_HASH160 f9d49c5cf3e120ad1be60b67d868603a8fc945d2 OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG",
        "hex": "76a914f9d49c5cf3e120ad1be60b67d868603a8fc945d288ac",
        "reqSigs": 1,
        "type": "pubkeyhash",
        "addresses": [
          "1PmyxDv5VvGoSAKMr1DQcWB6sHPx1ZbgWe"
        ]
      }
    }, 
    {
      "value": 10.00000000,
      "n": 1,
      "scriptPubKey": {
        "asm": "OP_DUP OP_HASH160 088465c1f0c8b3b3da06f7073a921d6b95b22f49 OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG",
        "hex": "76a914088465c1f0c8b3b3da06f7073a921d6b95b22f4988ac",
        "reqSigs": 1,
        "type": "pubkeyhash",
        "addresses": [
          "1n31g4rKiEeXnZEZR6VZwm3LggLicEqEC"
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Furthermore, I decoded the raw transaction using https://blockchain.info/decode-tx and got something different.

{
   "lock_time":0,
   "size":259,
   "inputs":[
      {
         "prev_out":{
            "index":0,
            "hash":"4f40655c4ab1a029bc41bc547f79556a0dc48d22df7202778fad592791c77fcd"
         },
         "script":"493046022100cd6795ebcd1b6b87833a4ad812733d3804065d34bafee24da181a770892272b902210088cd2484952ad2572f9bfb2874643dbb4b3c492b749e79d8177a14eb4a3bc61a014104bbf2b84900b6f898548687aefba86cc06da6f4656a71e45fa55128b501455b5486cb09705cfa23c1899fe46d4355c9058bb2de4f1a7f1a01ff27e00b306f7356"
      }
   ],
   "version":1,
   "vin_sz":1,
   "hash":"2514161c059ac18bf2eff1e05c4628e322d846e930fd6dd4b24805ea59dc4913",
   "vout_sz":2,
   "out":[
      {
         "script_string":"OP_DUP OP_HASH160 f9d49c5cf3e120ad1be60b67d868603a8fc945d2 OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG",
         "address":"1PmyxDv5VvGoSAKMr1DQcWB6sHPx1ZbgWe",
         "value":88994500000,
         "script":"76a914f9d49c5cf3e120ad1be60b67d868603a8fc945d288ac"
      },
      {
         "script_string":"OP_DUP OP_HASH160 088465c1f0c8b3b3da06f7073a921d6b95b22f49 OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG",
         "address":"1n31g4rKiEeXnZEZR6VZwm3LggLicEqEC",
         "value":1000000000,
         "script":"76a914088465c1f0c8b3b3da06f7073a921d6b95b22f4988ac"
      }
   ]
}

Answer 1

asm refers to the de-serialised form of the script, with well-known tokens parsed as script tokens.

hex is just the serialised form of the script in hex encoding.

If you compare them carefully, they are essentially equivalent.

For example:

OP_DUP OP_HASH160 f9d49c5cf3e120ad1be60b67d868603a8fc945d2 OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG

76 a9 14 f9d49c5cf3e120ad1be60b67d868603a8fc945d2 88 ac

76 is OP_DUP

14 is the number of bytes to be pushed onto the stack.

and etc...