I am glad to participate in the week five class of professor @imagen. Here below is my assessment task.

Q1.

How many times has Bitcoin been "halved"? When is the next expected? What is the current amount that Bitcoin miners receive? Mention at least 2 cryptocurrencies that are or have halved.

Block reward halvening refers to the slashing into two the pace at which a new coin (Bitcoin coin) is created. When a block is mined, the block reward are new minted tokens. When a block reward is halved, it means that the reward is split into two. The benefit of the halving is to cut low on the number of produced token and therefore avoiding the tokens devaluation due to quantity. According to the method applied by bitcoin, such halving is expected to take place at every 210,000 blocks mined and in approximately 4 years.

Bitcoin has been halved three times since it's introduction.

The first Bitcoin halving took place in 2012. The initial reward for mining a block was 50 BTC per new block. Then it was slashed into two at the halving and Bitcoin was mined at 25 BTC per block. The second halving took place In 2016, the halving event cut BTC block mining rewards again to 12.5 BTC per block. May 11, 2020 saw another halving, this time to btc block reward was set to 6.25 BTC for new BTC block created .

Currently Bitcoin block miners receive 6.25 BTC for each block mined.

The next expected halving would be in 2024.

Another crypto coin that has done block reward halvening recently is verge (xvg ). It took place on Sunday August 29, 2021 at block number 5200000.

Verge is scheduled to be halved when the block height reaches 4,700,000. The Blockchain is designed to produce new block every 30 seconds and the block reward is fixed at 200 xvg per block mined but now sliced into two to 100 xvg per new block mined.

Another Coin is Zcash. Zcash underwent it's first halvening from 6.25 Zcash token, and now the reward was slashed to 3.125.
Just like Bitcoin, Zcash is designed to have it's miners block reward halved after every 4 years.

Q2

What are consensus mechanisms? How do Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Staking differ?

Consensus mechanism refers to a set of rules guiding the operation, validation of traction and minting new token in a blockchain platform.

In centralised systems, there may not be need for consensus mechanism, the system is governed as pleased by the central entity. Whatever comes from the center is seen as basis of truth, but in Decentralized platforms there are no central control, but the network cannot run efficiently without establishing a source for truth and trust amidst strangers involved. The set of rules employed by the platform on which everyone (nodes) agree on is the consensus mechanism.

The beauty of consensus mechanism is that it rewards the miners or block validators with new minted tokens but it also punishes block miners acting dishonesty.

Among the popular consensus mechanism includes proof of work and proof of stake consensus algorithms.

Proof of work is a consensus mechanism that requires a block miner to give proof of work involved to mine a block. This process requires that miners compete in solving mathematical puzzles to create a new block. Because of the high computational skills required this can only be actualized presently only through high and efficient computers. This is so because as the Blocks of the network increase, the difficulty in finding solutions to these puzzles increase. A miner having gone through such rigorous process, it's entry can be trusted as valid although it is equally evaluated by other nodes to ensure the process is followed.

The good side of this consensus algorithm is on security. The process has been proven to be more secure when compared to other consensus mechanism.
The downside is that the process is costly to run. To set up the equipments and pay for electricity consumption required is absolutely beyond most people's reach.

Proof of stake consensus mechanism requires that block validators instead of investing on high computers and pay high bills on electricity can stake certain amount of money on the project. Their investment in the project is a proof of their stake - a sort of collateral. Having invested much, the validators can therefore be responsible when tasked to mine blocks. Because they are not willing to risk loosing their fund, they are therefore trusted to act honestly according to the set algorithm.

The difference between proof of work and proof of stake is that while the former rely on high investment in equipments to find mathematical solutions, the later rely on the investment made on the project itself.

The block producers for proof of work consensus algorithm are called miners, those of proof of stake are known as validators.

Q3.

Enter the Bitcoin explorer and indicate the hash corresponding to the last transaction. Show Screenshot.

As at the time of performing this task, the
latest Bitcoin block is block #704003.

blockchain.com

blockchain.com

Block Hash
000000000000000000099537a592238752686dbb1767e08dc9a1f32ee15f2e26

Last transaction was done on coinbase.

blockchain.com

Hash 79341c4b0b6d15653d90f13c12c54a680336da3a301abaf95278ffc759bf34b2

Q4

What is meant by Altcoin Season? Are we currently in Altcoin Season? When was the last Altcoin Season? Mention and show 2 charts of Altcoins followed by their growth in the most recent Season. Give reasons for your answer.

What is meant by altcoin season.

Altcoin is a word for alternative coin. These refers to other cryptocurrencies that are not Bitcoin. Example includes Ethereum, Zcash, dogecoin, cardano (ada), Solana (sol) etc.

Altcoin season refers to a period usually 90 days when 75% of the first 50 altcoins performs better than Bitcoin.

The last altcoin season took place in 2017.

The chart below shows that we are not yet in an altcoin season.

Image source

75% of the first 50 altcoins needs to outperform Bitcoin. Right from the chart we have 24 altcoins outcompeting Bitcoin. This is less than 50%. However, this analysis shows a good sign that an altcoin season is about.

The below record is from tradingview.com. it shows market dominance based on the market cap.

market cap analysis tradingview.com

Tradingview.com image

Over the months, altcoins has seen tremendous growth with some leading altcoins gaining over 400% in it's capitalization. Among this gainers includes Axie infinity shards (AXS) gaining over over 400%, Luna over 340% and Solana (sol) over 187%.

Three months analysis points out some altcoins percentage increase over the last previous months.

Solusd chart tradingview.com. image source

In the chart above Solana (sol) have seen over 400% increase in the last three months.

Luna price chart. tradingview.comimage source

Luna is currently at over 380%.

The growth seen in altcoins are promising. There likely could be another altcoin season after 2017.

Q5

Make a purchase from your verified account of the exchange of your choice of at least 15 USD in a currency that is not in the top 25 of Coinmarket (SBD, tron ​​or steem are not allowed). Why did you choose this coin? What is the goal or purpose behind this project? Who are its founders / developers? Indicate the currency's ATH and its current price. Reason for your answers. Show Screenshots.

The coin I have chosen for this task is Axie infinity token AXS.

Below I made a purchase of $27 worth of AXS from my binance verified account.

binance app image.

Here below are the process.
I already have usdt worth the amount mentioned above.

At the binance exchange, locate "trades." Then follow below steps.

1• choose "spot" as indicated in the image below.
2• Then I selected the pair AXS/USDT
3• Then I chose the buy window.
4• Next, I chose markets. This is because I want to buy at the current price.
5• I chose 100% option because I want to purchase with the entire $27.
6• lastly I clicked the buy button.
A successful pop up window shows that the trade was successful.

Binance app image.

why I chose Axie infinity coin(AXS).

Axie infinity is Decentralized video game platform and market place, where users earn by playing video games. Users play to earn by growing virtual monsters know as Axie. Each of these Axie are NFT which can be bought or resold at other market places.

Axie infinity is founded by Sky Mavis company based in Vietnam. The token AXS is built on Ethereum platform.

The NFT market growth this year of 2021 shows non-fungible tokens to be the next big thing. The interest of public figures and celebrities added to the buzz, likely, we are on an NFT era. AXS has seen tremendous increase over the months.
Here below is the growth chart.

Tradingview.com image

As at 9-10-2021, Axie Infinity price is $126.94 USD. 24-hour trading volume of AXS is $1,342,178,488 USD. It is ranked #26 in coin market cap.
Axie infinity market cap is $7,731,452,737 USD with a circulating supply of 60,907,500 AXS, max. supply of 270,000,000 AXS coins.

The market cap shows liquidity. It means that people have interest in the NFT game and this likely cause the price to rise.

CONCLUSION.

Cryptocurrencies have come a long way with Bitcoin the first crypto yet taking the lead with a greater chunk of the market capitalization pile. The rice of this asset is amazing and the price currently sitting at 55,066 usd.

Bitcoin employs proof of work consensus algorithm. The process for minting new Bitcoin tokens involves high computational power to solve puzzles which is quite costly to run. Miners are rewarded by newly minted tokens.

Block reward halvening refers to cutting down into halve the amount of new crypto minted at every block created. Bitcoin has halved it block reward three times and each block halvening, happening at approximately 4 years. The last halving took place last year 2020 which saw Bitcoin block reward slashed from 12.5 to 6.125 btc. The next halvening is expected in 2024.

The surge of Bitcoin alternatives or altcoins are equally gaining ground, the big players now includes new tokens like Solana and second most valued crypto Ethereum.

We are not yet in an altcoin season. The season comprises a period of 90 days when 75% of the first 50 alternative cryptocurrencies except stable coins out compete Bitcoin.

Among these growing altcoins includes AXS Axie infinity token , a token for video game platform.