Steemit Crypto Academy |Season 3 Week 2| Homework Post For Prof @awesononso
WHAT IS THE GENESIS BLOCK OF A BLOCKCHAIN.
A block is refers to information or data regarding a transaction of a cryptocurrency on a blockchain network and this data is stored permanently. In sampling accounting language I will say a block is just like a page containing a transaction on a ledger book.
A blockchain is a collection of different blocks which are stored in such a way that alteration to these blocks becomes impossible. In a simple accounting language I will say that a blockchain is the ledger book containing the different transactions.
source
GENESIS BLOCK OF BLOCKCHAIN.
Genesis usually refers to the beginning of something, it is not coincidence that the first book in the holy bible is Genesis.
In this regard we can define genesis block to be the first ever block to exist in in the history of blockchain. This block has no previous hash. The Genesis block is referred to as a foundation of any blockchain its found in. Blocks are built on each other as new ones with the Genesis block always in the bottom being their foundation. Every new block’s hash has the genesis block’s hash referenced in it.
The Genesis block of a blockchain is usually called block 1 or block 0 depending on the blockchain involved.
WRITE ON THE BITCOIN GENESIS BLOCK AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE.
In short I will be writing about the first bitcoin block in this answer.
Before the introduction of bitcoin cryptocurrency the financial system was centralized and was controlled by Government.
The genesis block was created on the 3rd of January, 2009 when Satoshi Nakamoto made the first ever bitcoin transaction. The bitcoin genesis block is referred to as Block 0. Satoshi Nakomoto an anonymous entity is referred to as the founder of Bitcoin.
This can be regarded as the birth of a whole new system of cryptocurrencies which is continuously growing even after 12 years.
He was rewarded 50 BTC for minnig the Genesis Block but not reward for mining a block now is 6.25BTC. this might be as a result of how mining a block is now easier.
Data from https://www.blockchain.com has given the hash of the genesis block to be 000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f
The reward for mining Block 0 was sent to an address where it appears to be untouchable.
This is the address to which the coins was sent to: 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa
As at the time I opened the address to check for myself I realized there was a total of 68.45BTC from a total of 2,945 transactions. This is because considering the great impact of Satoshi Nakamoto project has had on individuals 12 years after its implementation, people offer their tribute to him by contributing some coins to this address from time to time.
WONDERFUL STORIES ABOUT THE BITCOIN GENESIS BLOCK
In as much as the creation of this block has being a blessing to humanity now it also has a lot of mysteries and I will like to write on some of them.
●. It has an irregular timestamp between its minig and the minig of Block 1.
After the Genesis Block was mined it took six days for the next block to be mined instead of the usual 10 minutes we now know. There are two school of thoughts for this happening. First reason is that the new technology was been studied to see how stable it was and the other reason was that the founder wanted to imitate God’s creation of the world in six days.
timestamps fro block 1 and block 0
●. ANONYMOUS FOUNDER.
Another mystery of the genesis Block is that after the bitcoin was launched the hailed founder Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared from this earth and no one has been able to trace his whereabout of him since his disappearance.
●. THE GENESIS BLOCK SECRET
Satoshi Nakomoto left a message on the transaction coinbase of this block. After checking the inputs of the transaction I saw the Hex Sigscript to be: 04ffff001d0104455468652054696d65732030332f4a616e2f32303039204368616e63656c6c6f72206f6e206272696e6b206f66207365636f6e64206261696c6f757420666f722062616e6b73
NOTE: ALL DATA ABOVE ARE ACQUIRED FRO http://blockchain.com
When you an online converter, this is a link to a converter the hex will read as
THE TIMES 03/JAN/2009 CHANCELLOR ON BRINK OF SECOND BAILOUT.
The meaning of this statement is still not clear because he didn’t explain it before disappearing but bitcoin lover describe it as the mission statement of Bitcoin.
SIGNIFICANCE OF BITCOIN BLOCK.
INTRODUCTION OF CRYPTOCURRENCIES:
We now live in a world with over 10,000 cryptocurrencies. The creation of these cryptocurrencies were all inspired by the success of bitcoin. Bitcoin is the first successful cryptocurrency and it was also implemented in a decentralized system.REJUVENATION OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY.
Even though there was knowledge about blockchain technology, it was inactive for a long time till the mining of the Genesis Block brought about the practical application of blockchain technology. This has given rise to the various applications of the blockchain in various aspects of life.
- SERVES AS A MODEL FOR ALL OTHER BLOCKS.
With the orderly manner of the content of the genesis block. any other block mined on the bitcoin blockchain must meet the criteria set by the genesis block before it will be accepted.
** GO TO https://steemworld.org and locate the Steem Genesis Block (you must provide screenshots and sign in as proof of completion).**
It is now clear that every blockchain has a genesis block and steem blockchain also has a Genesis Block so in this question I shall be exploring the genesis block of steem. It is important to note that the Genesis Block is denoted by Block 1. The following are steps you can use to explore the Genesis Block.
• Open https://steemworld.org
• Tap on Block explorer and a new page will be opened.
• The default block number is always 1 so you just clock on ok to continue. The block 1 details will be opened for you.
• You can log in by clicking on the sign in on the top right corner.
• Enter your details and click on ok to log in.
It has really being a great lecture by professor @awesononso, thanks to this lecture I now know how this world of cryptocurrencies evolved. Its always nice reading on milestones like these and I will be looking forward to learning more on the steemit crypto academy.