Steemit Crypto Academy | Season 4 | Beginners' course - Task 3: The Genesis Block
Question
What is a cryptocurrency?
What is crypto and how does it make cryptocurrencies safe?
Explore the Steem Genesis block and log in as proof of completion.
Today, cryptocurrencies have taken on a vital role in human life, and despite the fact that they have been on the market for a long time, their popularity is growing as they are introduced as an interesting alternative to the conventional monetary system due to the speed and security of your transactions; as a result, it is necessary to learn more about them.
What is a cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency is a word used to describe a digital money that may be used to make exchanges, transactions, and even purchases. Cryptocurrencies are similar to traditional currencies in that they all fulfill the same duties. The difference is that cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that operate on a blockchain-based digital ledger. Currently, there are hundreds of thousands of cryptocurrencies available for exchange and trade in the crypto world.
The Bitcoin digital money was the first ever cryptocurrency to be established, and it is frequently referred to as the mother of all cryptocurrencies. Despite the fact that there are many cryptocurrencies traded throughout the world, cryptocurrency trading is prohibited in some countries. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Steem, Trons, and a variety of other cryptocurrencies are examples of cryptocurrencies.
Features of Cryptocurrency
Decentralization: Cryptocurrencies are decentralized in the sense that when a transaction is performed from one person to another, no middlemen or third parties are involved. Unlike traditional currencies, where banks serve as the central authority for the transaction process between dealers, Bitcoin does not require a central authority.
Transparency: Cryptocurrency transactions are recorded on decentralized blockchains. Any transaction recorded on the blockchain is saved as a block, and any block or user on the blockchain platform can view the transaction but not the specifics.
Advantages of Cryptocurrency
Low Transction Fee: transction using cryptocurrency doesn't require any middleman and because if this the fee is very low compared to bank and other financial system.
Open Source: blockchain technology is transparent that is the transaction on it are open to everyone that are connected to the network
Anonymous: Transactions are carried out in an anonymous manner.
Disadvantages of Cryptocurrency
Price Volatility: the price of Cryptocurrency is not stable so there is big risk on it
Cyber security issue: this is another drawback of Cryptocurrency, because it's likely to fall into the hand of hacker
Regulations: the system is not fully adopted by the government and there is a big setback as the can ban citizen from gaining access to it.
What is cryptography and how does it make cryptocurrencies safe?
Cryptography is a Greek word which implies "hidden text" in English language. In layman's terms, cryptography is a notion that describes a situation in which two individuals communicate without allowing anybody else to listen in on their discussion. The Sender encrypts the message before sending it, and the Recipient must decode it with his or her public key before receiving it. Because an encrypted communication is made up of symbols and letters that have no meaning, it must be decoded into plain English for easy comprehension.
How Cryptography make cryptocurrencies secure
Asymmetric cryptography is used to secure cryptocurrency transactions; the private key generated during the creation of the user's wallet is used to encrypt transactions by the sender of the cryptocurrency; during this process, a digital signature linking the transaction to the receiver's public key is generated. The transaction is then decrypted by the recipient using the created public key. The public key is used to verify transactions, while the private key identifies the wallet's owner.
Exploring the Steem Genesis Block
To learn more about the steem genesis block, go to steemworld.org
To log in using your account information, click Sign In.
In the box presented, enter your username and copy and paste your private posting key.
After you've successfully logged in, go to Block Explorer.
Because block 1 is the genesis block of STEEM, you should just click on "Ok".
You only need to enter in the block number to get the information of any block. Below is the screenshot of the block 1 of STEEM, the first ever block Genesis block.
**Timestamp, Block Id, Previous Id, Signing Key, Witness, Witness Signature, Transaction Merkle Root and Extensions are some of the details of the Steem Genesis Block that will be shown in the screenshot
Timestamp 2016-03-24, 16:05:00
Block Id 0000000109833ce528d5bbfb3f6225b39ee10086
Previous Id 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Signing Key STM8GC13uCZbP44HzMLV6zPZGwVQ8Nt4Kji8PapsPiNq1BK153XTX
Witness initminer(25)
Conclusion
Cryptocurrency is a type of digital currency that is protected by a cryptographic algorithm and runs on a blockchain network. Individuals or the users are required to use encrypted keys provided by cryptography, in order to successfully transfer cryptocurrency in the blockchain.
Furthermore, the system is a peer-to-peer (P2P) and the transaction on it doesn't require any middleman or third-party. All transactions are safe, which contributes to cryptocurrency's success.
Thank you for reading, and thank you for the lecture, professor @awesononso.
