Steemit Crypto Academy Season 4 Beginners' course - Task 3: The Genesis Block
Hello my fellow steemians, welcome to my blog and learn about cryptocurrencies, cryptography and steem genesis block. This is task 3 of the home beginner's fixed courses, I will be writing the assignment task given by professor @awesononso
Question
What is a Cryptocurrency? What is Cryptography and how does it make cryptocurrencies secure? Explore the Steem Genesis Block and Sign in as proof of completion.
Cryptocurrency
Its no news that cryptocurrency has become the main stay in the digital world and also the well talked about and traded (publicly and privately) currency. The evolution of cryptocurrency started with Bitcoin, 2009 which holds the position as the first ever mined.
Cryptocurrency is a digital currency that can be used to pay for transactions made online through a secure gateway called blockchain. Goods and services traded and bought online are paid for with the use of cryptocurrency specific to an organisation or trading company. Various corporations have their own crypto which they sometimes refer to as tokens unique to the organisation.
Cryptocurrencies are first mined and generates revenue througn ICOs-Initial Coin Offerings. Coinmarketcap.com currently records over 12,000 cryptocurrencies in circulation. that is 12,000 plus coins traded publicly daily with a market cap of over $1.9 trillion.
Pros and Cons of Cryptocurencies
Pros
- Operator independence is important
- Anonymous transactions take place.
- Banking fees are not charged on transactions.
- For international transactions, service charges are cheap.
- The transfers are safe.
Cons
- Durability.
- Concerns about computer hackers.
- Variation in prices.
- There is no underlying worth.
- Government intervention.
What is Cryptography and how does it make cryptocurrencies secure?
The studies of encrypted communications methods and technologies that permits only the transmitter and intended receiver of a document to read its details is known as Cryptography. The phrase "kryptos" originated from the Greek word "kryptos," which meaning "concealed."
It's intrinsically tied to encrypted data, which is the process of altering plain text into ciphertext and afterwards back again when it's received. In contrast, cryptography widely used algorithms such as digital watermarking and combining to obscure data in photographs.
Obelisks have been believed to apply these techniques in complicated hieroglyphics, and that one of the first modern encryption methods is attributed to Reign Of emperor Julius Caesar.
Simply put, Cryptography is the analytical and numerical method of encrypting data. It can be used in a number of ways to make cryptocurrencies secure such as;
- Safeguarding the blockchain's multiple transactions.
- Managing the formation of new monetary units.
- Verifying the transfer and exchange of digital assets and coins.
Cryptography – connects the blocks. Whatever effort to change information breaks the encrypted linkages connecting blocks, and devices in the network can rapidly identify it as false.
Explore the Steem Genesis Block and Sign in as proof of completion.
Here are the specific steps I followed;
- To explore the Steem Genesis Block, I visited Steemworld
- I attached my username to the link @ebubennah to bring out my page
- Clicked on Sign in
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- Then I put in my username and private posting key as the password. Entered OK and it automatically signed me in.
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Proof of sign in.
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Screenshot taken from steemworld.org Clicked on Block Explorer to explore the steem genesis block
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- Clicked OK for Block 2
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- Details of Block 2 is shown in the screenshot below
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Conclusion
In other to successfully transfer cryptocurrencies in the blockchain, users are compelled to use encrypted keys provided bt cryptography that is public and private keys. All transactions are secure and this alone gives room for cryptocurrency popularity.
Thank you for reading, and thank you professor @awesononso for the lecture.