Hello Professor @imagen, I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn from you. It's been wonderful following your courses, I really appreciate your works in providing us with valuable information and having us make worthwhile researches. Here's my homework post, I hope you like it.

Bitcoin was created in January 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. There is a lot of mystery regarding the creator because no one knows their identity. What people know is that he didn't like the central financial system and Bitcoin was created to save the financial system. You can find that in the hidden message of the Genesis Block. This Block is known as Block 0.

The reward for the first block mined is 50 BTC. It was transferred to this wallet address: 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa. This 50 BTC is regarded as untradeable. Some people say it is a result of an error in the code while others also say that it was done intentionally by Satoshi Nakamoto. People also send some BTC to the wallet address as a sign of respect to Satoshi for this revolution.

The latest block at the time I took screenshots for this homework post was Block 703530. The timestamp was: 2021-10-04 16:21

The Block reward is 6.25000000 BTC. Compared to Block 0, the block reward has decreased significantly. It is now 12.5% of the current reward. This is all part of Satoshi's plan for Bitcoin to maintain a high value and prevent prices from falling.

Bitcoin is gotten from mining just like gold but in a different process. The total number of Bitcoins to be in circulation is 21 million as stated by Satoshi in Bitcoin's whitepaper and this is expected in the year 2140. Miners have managed to have about 90% of BTC in circulation. Miners perform complex calculations required for the Consensus Algorithm/Mechanism of the Blockchain and earn rewards. As we compared the Current Block reward to the genesis block you could see the great difference in value.

This is because of an event called Halving. Halving is when the mining rewards are cut into two or should I say reduced by half. It occurs after every 210,000 blocks which take about four years. This event reduces the inflation rate of Bitcoin by half also.

Bitcoin has been halved 3 times. The first halving reduced the block reward to 25. This was on November 28, 2012. The second halving was on July 9, 2016. This reduced the block reward to 12.5. The recent halving was on May 11, 2020. This reduced the Block reward to 6.25. The next halving is expected on March 26, 2024.

Other cryptocurrencies that have been halved include Dogecoin and Litecoin. Dogecoin halving stopped in 2015. The halving was done after every 100k blocks which was roughly about 69 days. It takes a minute to mine Dogecoin, unlike Bitcoin which requires 10 minutes. The reward for mining DOGE is 10k DOGE with the fee total of 2.61499995 excluded.

Litecoin halving occurs after every 840,000 blocks which is about 4 years. The block production time is 2.5 minutes. Like BTC, the block reward for the genesis block of Litecoin was 50 LTC. Since its lunch in October 2011, it has been halved twice. The next Litecoin halving is expected on August 6, 2023. The current reward for mining LTC is 12.5 LTC.

Blockchain networks have nodes that serve as servers of the Blockchain. To agree on the state of truth of the network across all the nodes on the network a mechanism is put in place to ensure that and eliminate third parties from having a centralised authority thus achieving a decentralised network. This is to prevent conflict between the nodes as to what information is true and establish agreed truthful information to be put across the network. These types of mechanisms are what we call consensus mechanisms. They ensure that the blockchain is in agreement and secured.

The first consensus mechanism on Blockchain networks was Proof of Work (PoW). This mechanism involves performing complex calculations. Currently, there are many different types of consensus mechanisms. Some are unique like the proof of History used by the Solana Blockchain and we have others but from others. The well-known ones include POW (Proof of Work), POS (Proof of Stake), DPOS (Delegated Proof of Stake), PBFT (Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance) and DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph).

How do Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Staking differ?

Proof of Work involves performing complex mathematical calculations in order to mine or validate blocks in a blockchain network. Proof of stake on the other hand does not involve complex calculations, rather validations and mining is based on the amount of coins one holds. Proof of stake was the next consensus algorithm after Proof of work, it was provided as an alternative and solution to the problems related to the Proof of Work consensus mechanism. Below are the main differences between the two consensus mechanisms.

• Function
  Proof of work and proof of stake both function to achieve a state of truth and agreement of information across the network. As explained earlier, proof of work involves complex calculations while proof of stake requires users to possess an amount of the network's coins to mine.

• Energy Consumption
  Proof of work requires a lot of energy (electrical) in order to mine, this power consumption is one of the reasons why proof of stake was provided. Proof of stake saves the energy required to mine or validate blocks on the blockchain.

• Equipment cost
  Proof of work requires the use of very expensive hardware such as mining rigs and supercomputers. This is to increase the chance of success for mining. Proof of stake does not require such expensive hardware.

• Attacks (Security)
  There are instances where blockchains can be hacked, this is very difficult to achieve but it is possible when a majority of the miners decide to attack the blockchain. A 51% attack is an example, this happens when a person or a group achieves 51% of the mining power for the blockchain. This can lead to alterations of blocks for the gain of the attacker. With Proof of work, this is easily possible in the case where mining companies come together. With proof of stake, this is quite difficult as the attacker would have to have 51% of the total coins of the blockchain in circulation.

For this task, I'd be using https://blockchain.com.

The has for the latest transaction was:
c0adfe4e000e45954b1d4b64ae11353a42d84421b67707206cfd5773313b6222.

Below are the full details of the transaction.

The received time was: 2021-10-05 00:26. The status of the transaction was unconfirmed at the time I took the screenshot.

Altcoins are other coins aside from Bitcoin. Some people say that they are coins that are not in the top 10 ranks in terms of market Cap. But generally, they are all other coins made after Bitcoin. The performance of Bitcoin and its dominance affects many other coins (Altcoins) the last recent drop in price to 39,787.61 affected many altcoins. In the case where this performance doesn't affect many altcoins, there is a high probability of an altcoin season.

An altcoin season is a period of 90days where 75% of altcoins in the top 50 in terms of ranking outperform Bitcoin.

We are currently not in an altcoin season. This is because less than 75% of the altcoins in the top 50 have outperformed Bitcoin. The last Altcoin season was in February 2018.

The top two altcoins that have outperformed Bitcoin over the past 90 days are Axie Infinity (AXS) and Bitcoin Cash (BCHA). Let's first take a look at BTC's chart and compare it with the charts of AXS and BCHA over the past 90 days.

BTC price movement within 90 days: from 34.21k USD and currently at 49.24k USD.

AXS price movement within 90 days: from 12.9 USD and currently at 137.24 USD.

BCHA price movement within 90 days: from 30.2 USD and currently at 210.78 USD

From the chart, you can see that bitcoin has low performance as compared to that of AXS and BCHA. Bitcoin has a return of 45.9% over the last 90 days which is very low compared to 850.5% of AXS and 591.7% of BCHA. Axie Infinity is a play to earn NFT game. Over the past few months, it has gained a lot of popularity mainly because it is a way to earn while having fun. To partake in the gaming universe of Axie Infinity, users are required to have at least 3 AXS. The increase of participants in the game is what has led to the massive increase this season.

BCHA is one of the successful forks of Bitcoin. Within recent months, its adoption has increased which has led to the rise of the price of BCHA. It is currently accepted as a means of payment on PayPal and by AMC Theaters as a method of payment for online tickets. It has also been registered by Greyscale, a cryptocurrency investment company. This is what has led to the increase in the performance of BCHA this season.

I chose XTZ which is the native token of the Tezos Blockchain. From CoinMarketCap its rank last at the time I took screenshots was #31. Its value was $7.83 and it had a market cap of $6,753,012,316. I later viewed the available markets after making some small research and analysis.

Binance is one of the markets you can purchase XTZ. From CoinmarketXap it has the highest liquidity with XTZ/USDT pair. I logged in to my Binance account to make a purchase.

The image above shows my verified account and purchase of 2 XTZ at $7.694. Under normal circumstances, I would have waited for the price to get below $6 to make a purchase using a limit order, but I performed a market order for this task.

Why Tezos?

Within the past 90 days, Tezos has had a very good performance. This season, it is 9th on the list with a return of 191.1% over the last season. This was at the time I took the screenshot.

Its price movement from $2.6 to $7.83 currently over 3 months. This piqued my interest and since it wasn't part of the top 25 coins I decided to make some research before I made a purchase.

Tezos is a Blockchain that makes use of smart contracts with proof of stake. It offers unlimited upgrades to the network unlike other blockchains. This provides solutions to problems generated with the usage of the network and makes it efficient for users. It has a governance community for stakeholders that makes decisions regarding the network.

Tezos Blockchain was founded by Arthur and Kathleen Breitman. The goal behind Tezos is to provide a platform that is upgradable (an evolving network) to suit the needs of users for building assets and applications.

Tezos price statistics show that its all-time high was recorded just recently, on Oct 04, 2021, with a value of $9.18. Its all-time low was also recorded on Dec 07, 2018, with a value of $0.3146.

Halving is an event that could be taken advantage of to make returns. From my study, the price of assets tends to increase after halving. Altcoin seasons are also good times to invest in altcoins. Currently, Bitcoin's dominance still affects most altcoins. This can be noted with the fall in price of most cryptocurrency assets just recently. With time this might lose effect as the performance of altcoins increases.

One other reason why I chose Tezos is because of a statement they made, "Built to last". XTZ has the potential to increase in price with the increase in adoption and usage of the Tezos Blockchain. A blockchain built to last that provides unlimited upgrades is worth investing in.

I would like to thank @imagen for this lecture, once again I'm grateful to partake in your class.