So why did this transaction have a MetaMask pop up and why is this the only function interaction that has been registered on Etherscan. To understand it better let us look at "stateMutability" witin the ABI (docs.soliditylang.org/en/v0.8.13/abi…)
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As per the ABI, the state mutability has been pure or view for the other functions. These do not affect the Blockchain. While on the other "authenticate()" function has a state mutability as nonpayable which does affect the blockchain as data is being registered.