Homework post for professor @awesononso by @abdlkahargunu

Cryptocurrencies have become the way of life of many people. I thank professor @awesononso for the lecture he delivered on the very building blocks of cryptocurrencies, it was an eye-opener and very educational. This is my homework post for the lecture delivered by professor @awesononso, the questions asked were;

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1. What is the Genesis Block of a Blockchain.
2. Write on the Bitcoin Genesis Block and its significance.
3. Go to https://steemworld.org and locate the Steem Genesis Block (You must provide screenshots and sign in as proof of completion).

What is the Genesis Block of a Blockchain?

To explain the genesis block, we need to separate the words “Genesis” and “Block” and explain them.
Genesis: can be said to be the beginning of something or the origin of something, there’s nothing prior to it, only after it, the very first.

Block: block here refers to something like a file that contains transaction data, timestamps, and other data.
Put these two words together and The Genesis Block of a Blockchain can be defined as:
The very first block of a blockchain, this block has no predecessors and all other blocks created after it in the blockchain are built on it. In simple terms, a block can be said to be a container that holds non-editable information.

The Genesis Block is usually termed as block 0 however, others refer to it as block 1.
A block contains various things like:

1. Hash: A hash is the output of a hash function that securely gives a unique output for any given unique input of data. A Hash is designed in such a way that it always provides very different outputs, even if you have two very similar pieces of input data.
2. Timestamp: The timestamp is the precise moment the block was created.
3. Number of Transactions: This indicates the number that this particular block falls on, the Genesis Block is always the first block.
4. Block height: The block height is basically the block number minus one. It is the total number of blocks between itself and the genesis block. The height of the Genesis Block is 0.
5. Transaction fees: The total amount of fees involved with the block.
6. Timestamp: The timestamp is the precise time at which the block was created.
7. Difficulty: How hard it is or the likelihood of discovering the next block hash.
8. Nonce: The nonce is the random variable used to change the sum of the hash. In other words, it is what miners use to see if they’ve won the next block.
9. Block reward: The standard reward that a miner receives after a successful mine.

The first-ever block to be mined was done by Satoshi Nakamoto on 3rd January 2009, this event shocked the world as it paved a way for a new generation of banking which was decentralized, this innovation paved a way for other developers to apply this Blockchain technology in various areas.
However, it is not clear if Satoshi Nakamoto is a person or a group of people.

Write on the Bitcoin Genesis Block and its significance.

Bitcoin, the name that shook the world with a single action. The appearance of this “Bitcoin” changed the world in many ways. Prior to the appearance of Bitcoin, a whitepaper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” was released Satoshi Nakamoto detailing a decentralized system that was based on peer-to-peer.

Source

Bitcoin made its first appearance on 3rd January 2009, at that time the world was struggling with how centralized many things were, especially how the banking system has always been centralized.

The First block of bitcoin to be overproduced was initiated by Satoshi Nakamoto, this block called the genesis block is usually called block 0 or block 1 by other people, this block contains the details of the transaction made by Satoshi Nakamoto and the reward he received for the first-ever mined cryptocurrency was 50BTC and this done within 10 minutes and were sent to “1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa” however, the next block was mined in 6 days. The reason being so is not specific as the original reason isn’t known to anyone but to the founder(s) of Bitcoin. Also for some reason, this 50BTC isn’t spendable, probably because it is the first transaction or could be the cause of a bug in the code, also people send Bitcoins to that address as a token of appreciation or for other reasons known to only them.

The genesis block serves as the mother of all the other blocks in the bitcoin blockchain, they are all built with block 0 as the foundation hence all other blocks in the bitcoin blockchain have it's traits in it or has the DNA of the genesis block. The genesis block paved the way for Bitcoin to be the first-ever cryptocurrency and till it remains the valued cryptocurrency. Over the course of the years, there have been various cryptocurrencies created but one thing that remains for sure is that all of these cryptocurrencies used Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin as their motivation.

Below is data of the Genesis Block of Bitcoin:

Source

From the above image we can see the first ever Block of a cryptocurrency, the Genesis Block of Bitcoin which was made possible by Satoshi Nakamoto. Thorough this first transaction, the world got to know that there was a secret message left by Satoshi Nakamoto in hexadecimal format which was “5468652054696d65732030332f4a616e2f32303039204368616e63656c6c6f72206f6e206272696e6b206f66207365636f6e64206261696c6f757420666f722062616e6b73” this converted by a hexadecimal to ASCII online converter the message left would be:

Converted using an online hex-to-text tool Source

The message in the hexadecimal states that “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” surprisingly, on the 3rd of January 2009 The Times newspaper featured a story with the same heading as the message left by Satoshi Nakamoto.

Source

What’s surprising is that it was released the same they as the Genesis Block of Bitcoin was formed, just that the paper was probably released in the morning and The Genesis Block made its appearance at night, one could say that the secret message left behind was probably a solution for the current problem at hand. And lo and behold, Bitcoin has proven to be a solution and a huge one at that.

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Benefits of the Bitcoin Genesis Block

1. Introduction of Blockchain technology: The Genesis block of Bitcoin changed the technological world as it brought forth a new technique of doing a whole variety of things, this new technology got to be used to improve various aspects of society from Financial Services, Healthcare, to social media platforms.
2. Foundation of Bitcoin: the most important part of Bitcoin can be said to be its Genesis Block, because it has the foundation of all the blocks and to be made blocks embedded inside it, all blocks form must take their foundation from it and has its signature on all new blocks. Without the genesis block, bitcoin wouldn’t have existed.
3. The birth of Cryptocurrencies: Just like the genesis block of bitcoin is considered the backbone of it, it is also responsible for the birth of cryptocurrencies. If not for the first genesis block of bitcoin, there probably wouldn’t be any cryptocurrency, and the fact the fact that is it fully decentralized also shows how Bitcoin’s Genesis Block has given a rise to thousands of different cryptocurrencies.

locate the Steem Genesis Block

To locate the steem Genesis block which is referred to as block these are the processes I use:

1. I visit https://steemworld.org
   
2. I look for and click on “Block Explorer”
   
3. I make sure to select 1 since it’s the genesis block that I want
   
   
4. I can choose to log into steemworld by clicking on “Sign In”, this will allow me to get the best out of steemworld
   
5. I then input my username and password
   
6. Once the login details are correct, I see my profile picture and my username at the top right corner
   
7. I can choose to sign out once I’m with what I have to do by clicking on “Sign Out”
   

Conclusion
From using paper money to the introduction of cryptocurrencies which is different from paper money and not controlled by any government, one can say that the Genesis Block of Bitcoin opened a way for a variety of solutions for the way many things are centralized.
It can be said that this Genesis block has brought forth a new of thinking in the technological world and also a different way of storing data which is also a secured way.