Hi Professor @imagen, I am @ononiwujoel one of your students in Crypto Academy and a member of the steemit platform and this is my homework submission post from your lecture Bitcoin's Trajectory

Introduction

The invention and development of Bitcoin which was launched in 2009 has not only led the era of virtual currencies and DeFi but has also proven the possibility of running finance systems that will be fully controlled by the users and without any intermediaries or government laws. This has provided the world a solution to many questions and desires which we all thought impossible before the concept of blockchain technology.
Apart from the value system and trading functions of cryptos which seem to be increasing in number and peculiarity everyday there is also now the development of many projects including NFTs, blockchain games and several others with the crypto space and it all started with Bitcoin in 2009.

1.) 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.

Before answering this question I'll like to first explain the concept of halving rewards and how it affects the cryptocurrency (Bitcoin)

Bitcoin as a cryptocurrency runs on a blockchain of the type Proof-of-Work (PoW). Blockchains are made up of different blocks connected through their hashes down to the Genesis Block (first block of the chain) and these blocks serves as ledger where all transactions and information on the network are recorded, so as new transactions are made more blocks are needed to record and validate them.

But in PoW consensus algorithm, blocks are created in a process called "mining" and the people involved in creating blocks are called miners. This block creation requires lots of computational power and energy and there are also puzzles to be solved in other to successfully create a block that will be validated and used in the blockchain so the miners has to be rewarded for their efforts to keep them engaged and by extension keep the blockchain running smoothly.

So miners in this platform are rewarded with Bitcoins as incentives for their job of blocks creation. The amount with which miners are rewarded differs in several cryptocurrencies.

The concept of Halving is done to maintain the scarcity of Bitcoin so as to keep it valuable. Bitcoin has a fixed total supply of 21 million BTC from where miners are also rewarded so this incentives adds more Bitcoins into circulation hence the need for halving of rewards else the total supply may run short beforehand and also there may be more supply than demand which will make the coin tremendously loose value.

Bitcoin reward for miners is halved every four years which is approximately after every 210,000 blocks and since it was launched in 2009 Bitcoin has been halved three times so far.
As at 2009 when Bitcoin was launched the reward for mining was 50BTC which was then halved to 25BTC on 28th November 2012 and then to 12.5BTC four years later on 9th July 2016 and then the last halving on 11th May 2020 saw Bitcoin reward at 6.25BTC till date. So we can see that Bitcoin blockchain has been able to follow its halving schedule as stated in its whitepaper religiously so far.

Next Bitcoin halving is expected to come in 2024 and will see miners earning 3.125BTC for each block mined.

Other Blockchain Halving

• ZCash(ZEC): ZCash network was founded by Zooko Wilcox and launched on 28th October 2016. This blockchain also has a fixed total supply of 21 million ZEC and does its halving every four years, hence there has been only one halving occasion already which happened last year (2020) and saw the rewards drop from 6.25ZEC to 3.125ZEC for each block mined.
  Next halving for ZCash is expected to also happen in 2024.

• Dogecoin(DOGE): Dogecoin is currently one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the crypto space maybe due to the several campaign-like support it has gotten from popular persons like Elon Musk and other celebrities.
  DOGE was founded by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer and released on December 6th, 2013.
  DOGE actually has an unlimited supply limit as it is expected to add about 5 billion DOGE into circulation yearly.
  Rewards for miners was initially 500DOGE per block mined but was halved to 250DOGE in 2014.

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

Consensus Mechanisms

To understand this concept properly I will first describe the words consensus and mechanism.

Consensus as a word can be defined as a collective agreement or concurrence of a group to an opinion or structure.

mechanism on the other hand simply refers to the processes or modus operandi by which an operation is carried out.

A Consensus Mechanism is a special fault-tolerance structure or system in a blockchain through which all nodes in the network can come to agreement on decisions in the network or through which all nodes can make collective decisions so as to maintain the focus and smooth running of the network.

Blockchains are decentralized in nature therefore there is no central authority or structure to control decision making hence there is a need for a way to connect all the nodes that make up the system since they all have a copy of the blockchain so that whenever transactions are recorded on the network all nodes will b aware of it as well and also to make collective decisions as a network. And this should also be fault-tolerant so that it will still be able to run if some nodes fail.
This is where the consensus mechanisms come in.

The first consensus must mechanism used in cryptocurrency is Proof of Work which is is used in Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin and several other cryptocurrencies.
Other types of consensus mechanisms include Proof-of-Brain (PoB), Proof-of-Stake (PoS), delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS), Proof of Elapsed Time (Poet), Proof of Burn, Proof of Activity (PoA) etc.

Proof-of-Work (PoW)

Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus protocol is the oldest consensus mechanism in the crypto space and the foundation of all other consensus protocols. It is used the older and most popular blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

PoW is used in decentralized blockchains to validate transactions, block mining, transparency and security of the blockchain.
In PoW, mining of blocks involves the miners solving complex cryptographic mathematical puzzles with high performance computational equipment correctly to validate the blocks and earn incentives. So PoW can be said to be consuming lots of energy because of the equipment needed to mine blocks and can be a threat to the environment.

Proof-of-Stake (PoS)

Proof-of-Stake consensus protocol is also a very popular consensus mechanism and seeks to improve on the PoW to solve problems like energy consumption, scalability and speed.

PoS replaces the block mining system of solving cryptographic puzzles in PoW with acquiring Stakes or vests. This stakes are crypto coins locked up for a period of time and the opportunity to mine blocks is directly proportional to the amount of Stakes the user have on the platform. In other words, the more stakes a user has the more the higher probability of being the next validator or next block selector.
With this mechanism, the PoS solves the problem of massive energy consumption and other related issues.

Blockchains that use PoS include Cardano (ADA), EOS, Neo, Polkadot (DOT), Tezos, DASH etc.

Differences between PoW and PoS

Proof-of-Work	Proof-of-Stake
Miners solve complex cryptographic mathematical puzzles to earn the opportunity of creating blocks	Opportunity to choose next block is dependent on the amount of stakes the user has on the platform
Require high performance computational equipment to mine blocks	Can be done with low equipment like laptops and phones
Consumes energy massively and can be threat to the environment	Doesn't consume much energy and as such promote a healthy environment
Incentives are earned by miners based on their ability to solve cryptographic puzzles to validate blocks	incentives are earned based on the amount of stakes owned by the user. The more the stake the more the incentive
Due to the possibility of forking there is a probability of someone having up to 51% computational work power and then manipulate the blockchain so it's less secure	A user owning up to 51% will be very expensive and also cause prices to fall heavily so its a very bad move economically hence the possibility of manipulating the platform is very low. It is more secure than PoW
Very difficult to earn by working	Much easier to earn by just acquiring stakes

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

I'll be giving a step by step approach to answer this question.

• I start by visiting the Bitcoin explorer site on https://www.blockchain.com/explorer

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• We can see the list of recent blocks and transactions. So I click on the latest transaction to see it's information.

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We can see that the hash of the latest transaction is c37d7051db077f2d5426df24acefa05e199e6a4f8755e196e59ed28cf8efd35d

4.) 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.

Firstly we have to recall that Altcoins (Alternative Coins) are Al other cryptocurrencies and crypto tokens apart from Bitcoin.

What is Altcoin Season?

Altcoin Season is when 75% of the top 50 Altcoins are performing better than Bitcoin in growth and profits for a period of 90 days.
This is caused majorly as a result of (although not limited to) the crypto market psychology picking interest in diverse altcoins and projects and as such trading their Bitcoins to invest in these projects. Also the development of NFTs and dApps has also paved an easy way for this to occur regularly.

Are we currently in Altcoin Season?

From the information on Blockchain center site at https://www.blockchaincenter.net/altcoin-season-index/ we can see that currently We are Not in Altcoin Season.

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From the screenshot above we can see that the current season rating of altcoins is at 41.

The last altcoin season happened during April and ended on June 2021.

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Altcoins and their growth in recent season

I will be pointing out Axie Infinity (AXS) and Avalanche (AVAX)

Axie Infinity (AXS)

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AXS ranks #25 on coinmarketcap and is currently worth $128.37 at the time I made this assignment. AXS was one of the altcoins with the highest growth in the last altcoin season and so far have seen a growth of 815.8%.
This game token started far below the $1 Mark but today is worth over $100.

Avalanche (AVAX)

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AVAX ranks #13 on coinmarketcap and it's price is at $59.82 at the time I wrote this assignment. AVAX is has also experience an impressive growth in past altcoins season and has seen a growth of about 421.7%.

5.) 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.

I'll be using HotBit exchange platform to purchase Pancakeswap token (CAKE) for this question.

Purchase of CAKE in HotBit exchange

Now I'll be using my USDT worth $18.42 to purchase Pancakeswap tokens.

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Why I choose this Pancakeswap token

CAKE so far has proven to have lots of potentials within the relatively short period of time of its operation compared to other top rated coins. Currently ranks #37 on coinmarketcap and price is at $20.51, marketcap is $4,715,160,288

CAKE is the native coin of Pancakeswap, an Automated Market Maker and DeFi platform built on the Binance smart chain and so supports all BEP20 tokens including CAKE, BUSD, BAKE, SAFEMOON, ALPHA, WBNB, BUX, SXP and others.

Pancakeswap provides many option of earning for users including trading directly with liquidity pools instead of filling order books and becoming a liquidity provider by locking up the tokens you want to be an LP and then earning CAKE rewards as incentives for being a liquidity provider.

Pancakeswap also supports Yield Farming by staking your CAKE tokens to earn rewards in CAKE or other tokens of choice.
There is also a provision for lottery and NFTs on the platform so it is fully loaded.

I must also mention that Pancakeswap is one of the top rated DeFi platforms and currently the most popular in the crypto space alongside Uniswap.

Having pointed out all these, I believe CAKE is a very good option for investment.

What is the goal or purpose behind this project?

Pancakeswap project has a number of goals behind its development among which majority has already been achieved. So will be listing them one after another.

• Pancakeswap was created to provide crypto enthusiasts with a fully decentralized trading platform on Binance smart chain (BSC) where they can engage in swapping, trading coins and NFTs at a very low cost in comparison with Ethereum.

• Pancakeswap was also created as an earning platform requiring vests. Earning can be made in different ways including Liquidity provider, Yield farming, syrup pools and liquidity pools

• Pancakeswap is also a platform where NFTs and coins can be won with lottery and price prediction.

• Pancakeswap as an AMM and DeFi application is created to replace the normal filling of order books with liquidity pools.

Who are its founders?

Unlike several other DeFi projects, Pancakeswap is said to be founded by a group of anonymous blockchain developers in September 2020 so there is no name attached to the founder of this project

Indicate the currency's ATH and its current price

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All Time High of CAKE is $43.96 (on 30th April, 2021)
Current price of CAKE is $ 20.72

Conclusion

So far in this lecture we have been able to cover Bitcoin movements so far and other Altcoins like CAKE. We now understand the difference between Bitcoin season and Altcoin Season and we can see that currently we are not in Altcoin Season as Bitcoin still have a higher percentage in marketcap as compared to other top rated Altcoins.
I have also been able to write a little on pancakeswap token and its potentials.
It was a great lecture and I learnt a lot

Cc: Professor @imagen