Steemit Crypto Academy Season 4 Beginners' course - Task 3: The Genesis Block by @acbaby
QUESTION 3
a) What is a Cryptocurrency?
b) What is Cryptography and how does it make cryptocurrencies secure?
c) Explore the Steem Genesis Block and Sign in as proof of completion.
QUESTION 3a:
What is Cryptocurrency?
The term cryptocurrency was taken from cryptography which is simply an encrypted form of messaging. Cryptocurrencies are currencies built on encrypted data on the web in such a way that the possibility of making counterfeits out of it has become almost impossible. These modern currencies are supported by the blockchain technology with highly encrypted data. The blockchain technology represents an interconnection of computers around the world (summarily a worldwide network). The blockchain acts like a computerized accounting system that enables recording of all transactions in a ledger which enables the system to give value to the said currencies upon high demand (booking and buying) and low values upon sales (dumping). The blockchain technology has given a decentralized status to cryptocurrencies as they can not be manipulated, controlled by governments, and are not issued by a central authority.
QUESTION 3b:
What is Cryptography and how does it make Cryptocurrencies secure?
Cryptography like I said above is simply a means of messaging with highly encrypted data between two or more computers or people. It is done by the message from one computer encrypted by the transmitter making it unreadable by a third party. This can be seen from the common social app called Whatsapp. Whatsapp uses cryptography as a form of messaging whereby a third party (Whatsapp officials) can not read messages between its users. Whenever you open a new message on WhatsApp between you and a user you have never contacted, it will be written above as in the photo below. This is in order to maintain privacy between users. That is a typical cryptography practice.
the above screenshot is from my Whatsapp.
Cryptocurrency relies on the cryptography format of transmission in order to make all transactions secured and anonymous. Therefore this allows no interaction between users prior to making transactions. Both sender and receiver remain anonymous but the transaction in the ledger is made public.
Cryptography provides cryptocurrency with some keys which are used to secure different user accounts. This involves public and private keys which are unique to different wallets together with a transaction hash used to avoid the mistake of different users with the same key codes.
The public key is an encryption of a user’s wallet known as the address to that wallet. This is to avoid public exposure of a wallet securing it from being open to other users.
Cryptography also brings forth the use of a public private key to each wallet. This is also an encrypted key that enables users to do transactions safely with other users and without any intermediate authority.
The transaction hash is also employed. This is an algorithm that encodes transactions by producing transaction hashes for every transaction avoiding duplication of codes between users making the system unique and safe.
Finally, cryptography also makes transactions anonymous between users as it hides their personal information from each other.
QUESTION 3c:
Explore the Steem Genesis Block and Sign in as proof of completion.
To access and explore the Steem genesis block, one has to click to steemworld.org or type it on the search box of an Internet browser.
To login to steemworld.org you have to follow the following simple steps
STEP 1
Click on “login”, you will find it at the top right hand side of the steemworld.org after clicking the link.
STEP 2
Fill the boxes with your user name and private posting key and take “ok”
STEP 3
As you can see I have already signed in and that is my profile picture in the top right. From here you can explore this side further.
To explore the Steem genesis block does not require you to sign in before exploring. You simply follow the steps below to explore the genesis block.
STEP 1
Click on the steemworld.org link and a page will open for you.
STEP 2
Click on “explore block” and a small box will pop up for you to fill.
STEP 3
Since the genesis block is block one or block zero, fill the box with 1 and take “ok”. The following pictures were take from my laptop because my had some complications.
STEP 3
The next page shows you all information about the Steem genesis block under block details, Transactions, and virtual operations. Here you will see “block Id” which is the Id for block 1 and you will see previous Id which will be a series of zeros because there was no block before the current block you are looking at.
To simplify this I have put together the essentials on this table below.
| Activity | Details |
|---|---|
| Timestamp | 2016-03-24, 09:05:00 |
| --------- | ---------- |
| Block Id | 0000000109833ce528d5bbfb3f6225b39ee10086 |
| --------- | ---------- |
| Previous block Id | 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 |
| --------- | ---------- |
| Signing key | STM8GC13uCZbP44HzMLV6zPZGwVQ8Nt4Kji8PapsPiNq1BK153XTX |
| --------- | ---------- |
| Witness | initminer |
| --------- | ---------- |
| Witness signature | 204f8ad56a8f5cf722a02b035a61b500aa59b9519b2c33c77a80c0a714680a5a5a7a340d909d19996613c5e4ae92146b9add8a7a663eef37d837ef881477313043 |
CONCLUSION
Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that are in the form of encrypted data using the cryptography technique for transactions between users. Cryptocurrencies are supported by the blockchain technology and every blockchain begins with a genesis block as the foundation of that blockchain. To access the Steem blockchain one can use steemworld.org and take login options to access their Steemit accounts. On this site it is also easy to access the genesis block of the Steemit blockchain by taking the “block explorer” option. Thanks to professor @awesononso forthisnintroy lesson.