THE GENESIS BLOCK OF A BLOCKCHAIN

DEFINITION

The Genesis block of a blockchain is the very first block of that blockchain which does not make reference to any previous block because it is the very first block that was mined in such a blockchain. This kind of block is labelled in modern versions of Bitcoin as **block 0**, but previous versions usually label it as **block 1**. The Genesis block is a special block because it represents the foundation of that blockchain and all other blocks which make up that blockchain are layered on top of the Genesis block. In most blockchains including Bitcoin, the Genesis block is referenced in all other blocks in the blockchain and those blocks are always making use of the template of the Genesis block.

Significance of the Genesis block

The Genesis block is always tagged as block 0 and this seemingly shows that there was no data processed previously before the Genesis block was created, this Genesis block has Its own special hash just like other blocks.
The hash of this Genesis block is always added to the new transactions in the new blocks in order to create or generate a unique hash for the new block, this process is repeated for all other news blocks that are to be added to that blockchain.

Why is the Genesis block needed

The Genesis block shows when a blockchain began, it is that first ring that a blockchain must have before other blocks can join for it to become a chain.
Without this Genesis block, it will be difficult for miners to trust a particular blockchain because the initial status of such blockchain will not be visible for the miners to see. But with the availability of the Genesis block, the miners can easily get to see some data of such block like the timestamp, transaction fee, block height, block difficulty and so on.

2 - THE BITCOIN GENESIS BLOCK

In every Blockchain, there must be a Genesis block, so the Bitcoin blockchain is not an exception. As a matter of fact, it is the very first and most popular Genesis block which was created on the third day of January in 2009 by Satoshi Namatoko.
This Bitcoin Genesis block was rewarded with 50BTC but it is uncertain whether the reward was mined or not.

Issues with the Bitcoin Genesis block

The Genesis block of Bitcoin have been surrounded by many question marks, and one of those question marks is the code that makes the block to be completely untradable, it is not known if that was an intention from him or a mistake because he (Namatoko) did not make any comments about that.

As a matter of fact, the Bitcoin Genesis block's transaction is seen by many to be a mere wierd special case that is contained in the code because the latest Bitcoin system is now handling the databases of the block/transaction in a way that is different from the original system.

A website address is also written into the code of the Bitcoin Genesis block and the block points to that website address, but the link is always displaying an error message when activated.

The secret message

When the raw data of the Bitcoin Genesis block is converted to the raw HEX version, a message could be seen and it reads;

"The Times 03/Jan/2009
Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks."Source

The message is the same as the headline of an article written on The Times newspaper on the same day that the Genesis block for Bitcoin was created.
Since the article on the newspaper was talking about the inability of the British government to stabilize the economy of the area, many people believe that Namatoko was making a reference to the article as an attempt to hint on how Bitcoin will bring a better financial situation.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BITCOIN GENESIS BLOCK

A template for all other Bitcoin blocks: All other blocks built on the Bitcoin blockchain makes use of the template created in the Genesis block. A reference of this block is always made in all other blocks too.
The combination of the hash of the Genesis block and the new transaction of a new block gives rise to a unique hash for that new block.

A Springboard for other Genesis blocks; The Genesis block of Bitcoin was the very first of its kind. Over the past years, many developers have created unique Genesis blocks for their blockchains, but it is certain that they must have studied or learn how to build their own Genesis block from the one built by Namatoko because it was the very first.

The take off of cryptocurrency: Bitcoin was the first ever cryptocurrency to be developed in this world, and that came to the for the day that the Genesis block for its blockchain was created. And today, this has given rise to a very large number of cryptocurrencies due to the fact that Bitcoin has been very successful so far.

3 - THE STEEM GENESIS BLOCK

Just like every other blockchain, the steem blockchain also has its own Genesis block, here is how to locate it.

Step 1: open Steemworld

Step 2: Click on "Block Explorer"
Step 3: A pop-up will appear showing you a space where you can input the block number of the block you want to explore, the Genesis block which is numbered as block 1 is already the default, so click on okay.

Step 4: The Genesis block will now display and you can see all tg details of that block.

You can also login your steemit account here in case you want to do some other like account recovery.
To login, click on the login button on the top right corner of the page.

Supply your account name and your posting key and then click on "okay" to login.

CONCLUSION

The Genesis block is always the beginning of every Blockchain, it is always good to take a look at it because it can give us a slight idea of he the other blocks of such blockchain will look like.
The Bitcoin Genesis block has brought about many controversial debates, but the important thing is that it opened the way for many other blockchains and we have benefited from some of them today.