Steemit Crypto Academy Season 4 Beginners' course - Task 3: The Genesis Block; Home work post for @awesononso

TASKS

• 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.

WHAT IS CRYPTOCURRENCY?

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Cryptocurrency is gotten from the word Cryptography.
Cryptography as a word is a combination of two words Crypto and graph which mean secret that's hidden and write respectively.

Cryptocurrency is a digital currency that uses online ledger with a very strong cryptography to help safeguard the transactions done online when buying goods and services.
Cryptocurrency has gained popularity to the extent that different companies now issue their own currencies(token), which is a form of exchange for the services given from these companies to the outside world. ( You must change your money to their token before you can purchase there goods or service.)

Cryptocurrencies cannot be fully discussed without bringing the word blockchain to the scene.

Now, what's blockchain?
Blockchain is partly a security based cryptocurrency decentralized technology that's spread across different computers for the aim of securing, managing and keeping or recording transactions carried out by a user in the Crypto world.

For better comprehension, let me take us back in time to the genesis of currencies in the world and why it's necessary to use cryptocurrency

In the days of our forefathers, the major means of exchange was the barter system where people exchange there goods with another person's goods.
This system of our forefathers was in play for a long period of time but came crashing down because of the following reasons.

• Before barter system will be successful, there must be an agreement between the two parties which is not always there.

• The goods which were used for exchange isn't flexible; which automatically makes transportation very hard.
  And many other reasons.

Because of the above reasons, the barter system collapsed and for livelihood to continue, men improvised and started using minted currency.
From minted currency, they used paper currency which gained popularity and gave birth to the era of modern currencies like coins, credit cards, and digital wallets etc which are still functional till date.

Now,
The above listed currencies is controlled by a common body calledbank. This bank is not 100% secured and other temporary problems that can inconvenience you can also arise from the bank.

Because of the possible problems,
The idea of cryptocurrency was put into action in the year 2008 when the first cryptocurrency called bitcoin was launched.
The aim of this cryptocurrency is to eradicate all the problem posed by the banking system.

Below are some benefits of cryptocurrency over banking system;

• Transaction cost is very low and sometimes, there is no transaction cost

• You have complete access to your money, without minding the number of transactions you perform in a day.

• it's free for everyone's usage.

• Transaction done internationally are way faster than that of the banking system.

With the above explained reasons, we can now tell why it's necessary to use cryptocurrency.

WHAT IS CRYPTOGRAPHY AND HOW DOES IT MAKE CRYPTOCURRENCIES SECURE?

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Cryptography is seen as the science or method of securing Crypto-based information by changing it forms which can only be comprehended by the owner to something very impossible for outside body to understand. cryptography changes plaintext into a ciphertext through the use of algorithm.

Now, let me use a very simple scenario to explain cryptography.

Ederra and bobby are brothers but bobby leaves far away from ederra because of death threat on his life, because of this, all means of communication between ederra and bobby is being monitored by the assassins making it very hard for ederra to pass information to his brother bobby.

After so many years, something very important happened and bobby's consent must be consulted before the important thing will be approved.
So ederra decided to write to bobby in a pattern they both practiced when they were kids which can only be understood by them.
That strange pattern ederra used in writing to bobby is termed cryptography.

With the above explanation, I believe cryptography is well understood.
Now let me explain how cryptography secures cryptocurrency.

When computing, there are some terms that are used which are plaintext (unencrypted data), ciphertext (encrypted data), encryption algorithms (formulas that helps during encoding and decoding), and a key.
During encryption, the key is what makes the output which is the ciphertext very hard to be accessed by others.

Firstly, when encryption process is about to commense, the sender must first make a decision on the cipher (symmetric or asymmetric cipher) suitable for the message and also the key needed to make the message he's about to encrypt unique.

Symmetric ciphers are ciphers that uses a single key for encryption whereas asymmetric ciphers uses two keys for encryption.

During encryption, keys and encryption algorithms are used together to change a plaintext to a ciphertext.

_{A diagramatical representation of how cryptography uses algorithm and keys to encrypt a message.}

EXPLORE THE STEEM GENESIS BLOCK AND SIGN IN AS A PROOF OF COMPLETION

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Steem genesis block is found in steemworld.com which was built by @steemchiller.
The genesis blocks will be explored using screenshots from my phone and outlined steps.

• step 1; login to steemworld.com
  

• Step 2 ; click on block explorer.

• step 3; put 1 in the option and click on ok.
  _{Note: put one because one is the genesis block.}

Step 4; the details of the genesis block will display.

Step 5; click on sign in at the top right corner.

Step 6; input your username and your private posting key.

That's how to check the steem genesis block and also sign in to your account.

CONCLUSION

All appluades should be given to @awesononso for a beautiful job done in lecturing about cryptocurrency and cryptography, His teaching was a really good stump removal on my way when answering the above questions.
And I also want to use this medium to thank all of you that'll devote your time and read.
The effort is highly appreciated.

Note :All answers are given according to the task required.

Cc:
@steemitblog