Steemit Crypto Academy [Beginners’ Level Assignment] | Season 3 Week 2| The Genesis Block: The Beginning of the Beginning
What is the Genesis Block of a Blockchain.
Unlike other blocks in the blockchain which have the hash of their previous block embedded in them, the Genesis block has no previous hash to it, which means that no data was stored prior to this block. The Genesis Block serves as a starting Block of a blockchain thereby giving miners a good insight into the history of the chain thereby building trust for the blockchain1.
Write on the Bitcoin Genesis Block and its significance.
Bitcoin started in 2009 and as a Blockchain, it would have a Genesis Block. There are several Blockchains currently but these Blockchains reference the Bitcoin Blockchain since it was the first of its kind with such technology. Bitcoin Blockchain was created on the 3rd of January 2009, at 7:15 PM (GMT+1) by Satoshi Nakamoto. The Block was mined with a reward of 50BTC (not withdrawable) for mining.
The Block Mining occurred on the same day when The Times [London] published a headline about the Chancellor on the brick of a second bailout for banks. This headline was imputed as a Coinbase transaction in the genesis block of Bitcoin thus “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” 2 [For Understanding, A Coinbase transaction is the first transaction in a block and it can be created by a miner. read more]
Other Information:
Genesis Miner Wallet: 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa view here
Genesis Hash: 000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f view here
Markle root: 4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b
Difficulty: 1.00
Nounce: 2,083,236,893
Bitcoin Genesis Block Significance
- A beginning point for Bitcoin mining and other Blockchain mining
Mining without knowing its origin will not set a clear understanding of why and how t mine the block. With Bitcoin genesis mining, miners are able to achieve consensus and it serves as a foundation for other Blockchain genesis blocks.
- Build Trust for Miners
If there was no origin, it would be difficult to trust the blockchain or the technology as being immutable and uneditable. Also, miners could doubt if there were no pre-mined coins but with the Genesis block, miners trust its validity.
- Awareness of a decentralized technology
The genesis block came with a message in the Coinbase transaction which was decentralized, visible to all, and was immutable. At the point when the block was mined, people lost faith in the centralized financial ledger the financial institutions were running and wanted a change, and the first block was the change.
Go to https://steemworld.org and locate the Steem Genesis Block (You must provide screenshots and sign in as proof of completion).
Steem genesis block was mined on the 24th of March 2016 at 17:05:00 by @initminer. In other to view the genesis block of the Steem Blockchain, you go through the following steps;
- Visit https://steemworld.org
- Sign in to SteemWorld
- Insert username and posting key into the login form
- Once the account has been signed in, click on Block Explorer
- Once the Block explorer opens, Insert 1 in the Block Number
- The Steem Genesis Block appears on the page, it contains the Block ID, the miner/witness, the previous Block ID, Markle Root, Witness Signature, Timestamp, and so on.
Conclusion
The importance of Bitcoin, the Bitcoin Blockchain, and its genesis Block cannot be overemphasized in the development of other Blockchains and in the history of cryptocurrency. Satoshi Nakamoto cannot be forgotten in history for such a technology that shook the financial institution and has brought about decentralizing everything possible. It is of great importance to learn about the origin of cryptocurrency of which the Bitcoin Genesis Block is an integral part, in other to understand the tech behind cryptocurrency.