Steemit Crypto Academy Season 4 Beginners' course - Homework Post for Task 3: [Genesis Block]

drqaisarbashir (56)Beginner[3,4,5,6,7,10]in SteemitCryptoAcademy • 3 years ago

Hello lovely people around glob, hope you are all doing well. Today I am submitting my homework task for beginner level, introductory course task 3 , set by @awesononso which about Genesis block.

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?

Source
Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies having no central or regulatory authority that run through distributed ledger technology (DLT). So to understand cryptocurrencies, I have used three terms in the definition that need to be elaborated and the three terms are digital currency , regulatory authority and distributed ledger technology.

We know that our traditional financial system issues the the fiat currencies that have physical existence. We can hold fiat currencies in our wallets , we keep them in banks and draw them from ATMs. Cryptocurrencies or digital currencies have no physical existence. Iilt means that we cannot hold cryptocurrencies in our wallets or draw them from ATMs nor can we store them in banks. They are just stored on digital wallet in the form of numerical data.

Traditional financial systems based fiat currencies have a central regulatory authority , that is responsible for controlling all the parameters of the currency like in India we have Reserve Bank of India that control the regulation of Indian rupee. In case of digital currencies there is no Central authority that's why they are known as decentralized currencies. There is no one to control the supply/demand , inflation or deflation of the cryptocurrencies. All these features are governed by market parameters.

As for record keeping of the cryptocurrencies is concerned, they are maintained on decentralised public ledger system known as blockchain. It represents a network of computers linked to each other and programmed to secure and store the cryptocurrencies.

What is Cryptography and how does it make cryptocurrencies secure?

Source
Cryptography is a technique of securing the data or information shared between two parties by converting it from readable form to ciphered or encrypted text. It intends to preclude the access of malicious third parties to the private communication of any nature going between two parties. Cryptography is not actually an alien science but it is convergence of multiple disciplines like computer science , engineering, communication , mathematics , physics etc that work collectively to ensure data Intergrity, security, authenticity etc.

Cryptography secures the cryptocurrencies with the help of keys. Two types of keys are involved in cryptography and they are public key and private key . These keys are alphanumeric combinations that are intended to perform different functions. Public key or address is shared with the sender of the data or transaction . Private keys are meant to remain confidential and they are used to decrypt the information received or sign the financial transactions. Sender of cryptocurrency sends transactions to the public address of receiver and sign the transaction with the help of private key.

The data of transactions is maintained on Blockchain which make use of cryptography to prevent online web based attacks like double spending. The data of cryptocurrencies is stored in the form of blocks . Each block is connected to its previous block with the hash of that block untill genesis block is reached. Hash is a mathematical function that connects blocks to each other and are cryptographically generated.

Explore the Steem Genesis Block and Sign in as proof of completion.

Genesis means "origin" and genesis block means the "first or zeroth or parent block " . We know that the cryptocurrency records are maintained on the blockchain.

Blockchain as the name implies is the chain of blocks and each block is the storage unit of transaction details linked to its previous block with the help of transaction hash until the first block or genesis block of the transaction is rigid.

Genesis block marks the foundation stone of particular cryptocurrency. Steem genesis block would therefore mark the birth of Steem. It therefore marks the first successful step that steem took to prove its viability. All steem based projects therefore have their foundation in this block.

The Steem Genesis Block can be found on https://steemworld.org.