The Genesis Block - Steemit Crypto Academy Season 4 - Homework Post for Task 3
Hello CryptoAcademy Family,
Below is the list of the Questions to this assignment written in bold...
1a) What is the Genesis block?
b) What are the significances of the Genesis Block?
c) Explore the Bitcoin Genesis block and indicate how many transactions so far and the number of bitcoins.
OR
2a) Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
b) Explore the Coinbase Transaction of the Bitcoin Genesis block.
c) Find and decrypt Satoshi’s secret Hex message. What do you think the message means?
OR
3a) 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.
I will Answer the Question 3 of the above listed Questions which is...
3a) 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.
What is a Cryptocurrency?
The word "crypto" means "hidden" and the word currency means "a medium of exchange for goods and services which is generally accepted and use by the public". By putting this together we can simply define Cryptocurrency as a hidden medium of exchange for goods and services which is generally accepted by the public.
Cryptocurrency is a digital currency which means it is designed by the collection of binary data (0's and 1's), it utilizes a database called the ledger to store the records of individuals transactions. The cryptocurrency uses a strong security method known as cryptography to secure the transaction records and also control the creation of additional coins, and also used for the verification of coin ownership.
Unlike the Central Bank Digital Currency which uses a central authority to control the account of their users, Cryptocurrency is decentralized which means there's no central authority that controls it.
A decentralized Cryptocurrency utilizes a financial transaction database that is typically stored as a blockchain. Each block is mined by miners and any miner that successfully mined a block is being rewarded with the transactions fees of 1 block which is worth around 50BTC.
What Is Cryptography and how they make cryptocurrencies secure.
The term Cryptography simply means writing in secret codes. It utilizes mathematical algorithm to enhance the confidentiality, integrity and non-repudiation of information! It is the best security method in information technology. It makes use of Public key and Private key.
It is the best security method for cryptocurrencies because it makes use of two keys; public key and private. The Public key is used to encrypt the information by the sender before it's transmitted on a public domain in a cipher text to the receiver, the receiver can now decrypt the encrypted information back to a plain text. This method protects the confidentiality and integrity of information from an unauthorized disclosure or modification. *Note: The public key is the address of a wallet. And the signing of the transaction is done by with the Private key. These Ownership transfer is recorded in the ledger. Without the private key, the receiver cannot decrypt the message and there won't be any proof of ownership.
Explore the Steem Genesis Block and Sign in as proof of completion
Exploring the steem Genesis Block
Step 1. I visited www.steemworld.org
Step 2. I clicked on "Block Explorer"as shown below...
Step 3. I clicked ok and the Genesis Block (Block 1) details is shown...
The Genesis Block details are:
Timestamp: 2016-03-24, 17:05:00
Block Id: 0000000109833ce528d5bbfb3f6225b39ee10086
Previous Id: 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Signing key: STM8GC13uCZbP44HzMLV6zPZGwVQ8Nt4Kji8PapsPiNq1BK153XTX
Witness: initminer
Witness Signature:
204f8ad56a8f5cf722a02b035a61b500aa59b9519b2c33c77a80c0a714680a5a5a7a340d909d19996613c5e4ae92146b9add8a7a663eef37d837ef881477313043
Step 5. I finally signed to my account as a proof of completion...
Conclusion
Cryptocurrency has make a breakthrough in recent times as a medium of exchange digitally Because of it's Decentralized nature. The Security method know as cryptography is the security method in information technological space! Thanks for reading!!!
@awesononso