Steemit Crypto Academy Season 4 - Homework Post for Task 3: by @blessingkasabe
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.
A cryptocurrency is a virtual currency used online as a medium of exchange by crypto-traders. It is a currency secured by cryptography, to avoid double spending.
There are numerous of cryptocurrencies in the crypto world, and they includes; Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Carndabo etc which all are in a decentralized blockchain technology, where Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to be created by Satoshi Nakamoto on the 3rd of January, 2009. Due to the decentralized nature of cryptocurrency, it is not control by any central body or power, as other cryptocurrencies are controlled by the central bank, one only need his or her public and private keys to his or her wallet to encrypt and decrypt transactions.
Although there have been some complains about cryptocurrency's high volatility exchange rate, vulnerabilities and some illegal activities, but has also been praised for its divisibility, portability, transparency and the ability to prevent inflation in the crypto world.
Cryptography is a derived Greek words, Kryptos and graph which means "secrets" and "to write" respectively.Cryptography is the study practice that is used to send messages without the involvement of any third-party. Cryptography guarantees secured transactions and anonymity among participants and also it prevent double-spending. Cryptography encrypt messages to become private thereby making that message to be kept secret.
In short, cryptography helps to send messages or make monetary transactions secretly.
Cryptography secure cryptocurrencies through the public and private keys which are in the form of codes, where the sender will encrypt the message with the help of the public key and the reciever will decrypt using the private key, which implies that without the private key the message remain encrypted where no one can access it, making it difficult for one's crypto asset to be stolen. This is how cryptography secured cryptocurrency on a blockchain.
Below shows the steps involve in exploring steem Genesis Block;
Step1: Go to https://steemworld.org/
Step2: Look for Block Explorer and click on it
Step3: A pop up page will appear with Block number 1, click on ok
Step4: Now you will see all the detailed information of the block with some basic details like; Timestamp, Block ID, Previous Block ID and the Witness.
Showing the basic details :
Timestamp : 2016-03-24, 16:05:00
Block ID : 0000000109833ce528d5bbfb3f6225b39ee10086
Previous Block ID : 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Witness : initminer
Step5: Now you can sign in to the SteemWorld by clicking on the right conner and using your username and posting key.
I will like to extend my appreciation to professor @awesononso for this great lectures. In fact i must say i have acquired alot on how cryptography secure cryptocurrencies on a blockchain and also how to explore steemworld.
Hi @blessingkasabe,
#sapwood-s4week1 is a non-relevant tag to your task, so please remove that tag.
Thank you.