Steemit Crypto Academy Season 4 Beginners' course - Task 3: The Genesis Block lecture by awesononso | Homework by @hdnakum
Hey Steemians,
Good afternoon to everyone,
Greeting to #steemitcrytoacademy -The most engaged and most popular community on the steemit platform so far.
I'm @hdnakum. I would like to thank @awesononso for producing a very good lecture for the beginner to understand what is blockchain genesis. Today, after publishing two homework posts @sapwood, I have come up with one more homework lectured by @awesononso about Blockchain genesis. In this homework, there are three different questions asked by the professor and gave us an option to attend any one. I tried my best to write the answer third question.
MAIN QUESTION:
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.
Question 1
What is a Cryptocurrency
A cryptocurrency is a virtual digital currency that is highly secured by public-key cryptography (a branch of mathematics). The use of cryptography in cryptocurrency is making counterfeit or double-spend out of question entirely. Most of the cryptocurrencies are based on decentralized blockchain technology. This decentralisation of cryptocurrencies will put the centralized party out of business. In short, Cryptocurrency is protected and encrypted using special cryptographic algorithms (encryption and decryption).
Question 2
What is Cryptography and how does it make cryptocurrencies secure??
Cryptography, One of the branches of mathematics is the underlying technology behind cryptocurrency. In fact, blockchain technology does exist just because of the most secure branch of mathematics called cryptography. Cryptography is a lot more now than only sending a secret message between spies. When you visit any website with https, (s means secure) it implies that the website uses cryptography to guarantee that the data between you and the website is encrypted and is highly secure.
Public key cryptography is used in blockchain technology for hashing and digital signature. if you want to understand more about cryptography, bear with me for a while. In short, there are two mathematically linked keys one is Private and the other is the public key. you can share your public key with anyone to receive messages (cryptocurrency) from anyone. The sender will use your public key to encrypt the message (secret) for you and send it to you. Now you will only be capable to decrypt the message if you have a private key that is mathematically linked to your public key. Both the keys are mathematically linked in such a way that you can convert the private key into your public key by using ECDSA but you can't work backwards.
This how asymmetric cryptography works using different keys for encryption and decryption Source
Why blockchain transactions are difficult to heck and are ultra-secure?
I. A digital signature that is derived from your private key is used in blockchain transactions to confirm the transaction from your side. It is almost difficult to steal your assets provided someone has your private key stored.
II. The blockchain transaction is stored and processed in a universal distributor ledger running on thousand of nodes simultaneously. One can't heck all the nodes at a time. Transactions are approved by all the active nodes/miners. Any bugs in the single node will automatically be ignored by the network for the confirmation of the transaction.
III. Bunch of Transactions are bundled along with other transactions into a valid block and the block is passed around the network, the transaction is said to be one confirmation. A new block is only added to the chain if it has a valid hash of the previous block. As each block is chained with its previous block's hash, it is almost difficult to heck the blockchain network.
This is how each transaction over blockchian works securely Source
Question 3
Explore the Steem Genesis Block and Sign in as proof of completion.
To explore the Genesis block of Steem, same as Bitcoin and ethereum, you need to visit thier respective blockscan app. In the case of Steem, you need to visit Steemworld.com. I will write down how to find the genesis block of the steem blockchain in a stepwise manner as below.
Step 1 Visit Steemworld.com and sign in
Step 2 Scroll down to the Tool menu and click on Block Explorer Steemworld.com.
Step 3 By clicking on Block Explorer, It will Ask which block you want to explore about? Steemworld.com.
Step 4 Details of the Steem Genesis Block Steemworld.com.
The details of the Genesis block is also given in the following table, Have a look at it.
| Detail | STEEM |
|---|---|
| Block Number | 1 (Genesis Block) |
| Date and Time | 24.03.2016, 21:35:00 |
| Block Id | 0000000109833ce528d5bbfb3f6225b39ee10086 |
| Previous Id | 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 |
| Witness | @initminer |
| Transactions | 0 |
Conclusion
That's all folks, I wish you have read it thoroughly and enjoyed it too. I thank @awesononso for introducing me with Genesis block of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Steem Blockchain in his lecture. I have learned a lot today.
