The Genesis Block - Steemit Crypto Academy Season 4 - Homework Post for Task 3
Hello wonderful people of the crypto academy, its a pleasure to be here again and this time I'll be talking about the genesis a familiar word 'Cryptocurrency' and some related terms. This is a part of the task given by prof @awesononso who also gave a wonderful tutorial and explained in depth about the subject.
Here are the questions:
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.
Cryptocurrency
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When i first came across this word, a few years back, i had no idea what it was. My friends talked abouth it and simply told me it was a form of online money. I thought it didn't make sense because it wasn't physical, like it could not be touched. I was wrong though.
Having gained some experience by making research and actually investing in some cryptos like steem and binace coin etc, I have come to realize some things;
- It's virtual. It can't be held in the hands and spent like the usual currency notes we have now.
- It has value in real life. Just like the Normal currency notes has value and can be used to buy/pay for stuffs, you can also use cryptos. So many cryptos are even worth more than the normal currency notes. Its value is unanimous.
- The valuation fluctuates. Yes, the value is not fixed as thus mostly depends on the supply and demand activities of consumers as with any other asset in the world. Greater supply equals lesser value and greater demand results in increase of value.
- An alternative source of income. You can earn by actively trading them of simply hodl. Although you are advised to do some research and practice makes perfect.
- They are the future of currencies. The world is gradually turning its attention to Cryptos and soon enough there might be no need for printed paper notes again.
- They are decentralized. There's ni need for a third party during transactions.
- Security and anonymousity. Ome can be sure of performing transactions without having to reveal his/her identity as well as be rest assure of the security of their assets so long as their keys are kept safe.
So from all these, I'll simply define a crypto currency as a decentralized, digital(online) currency, with some real life value where transactions are stored on a ledger. It functions on a blockchain with cryptography concept, which involves a series of complex mathematical calculations processed by computers. They are futuristic in nature.
Cryptography
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In my humble opinion, this is the spine of crypto currency. This concept gave birth to the idea of Cryptos.
I'll be very honest, I just came across this word for the first time during the tutorial but I've gone on to do some more research. In my research, i found out that this concept was first used during the second world war, by the German Generals. These generals split across different locations needed a secure way of communicating amongst themselves without the US understanding, even when they managed to intercept the piece of information it was useless to them. The Germans used an Analogue device called the Enigma machine to encrypt and decrypt information which was broadcasted and could only be decrypted by the other generals with the device. Although this didn't take long before it was detected by the UN which reverse engineered the device.
Looking closely at the word 'Crytography', we can see that it's made of two words, crypt- which means hidden and graphy- which means written. So one can simply say it is hidden texts. It is a means of sending hidden (encrypted) information from a location to another which only the intended individual can understand (decrypt). This usually makes use of some password/passphrase (keys). Theres the public keys used for encryption and private keys used for decryption
Talking of encryption, there are two types
- Symmetrical Encryption
- Asymmetrical Encryption
Symmetrical Encryption
This was the kind of encryption model used by the German Generals in the second world war. The generals used the Enigma device to encrypt information which which can only be decrypted by other generals with the device. This way, the Enigma device effectively functioned as both the public and private keys. There was a defect though, the private key(Enigma device) had to be given to all other parties in order to decrypt information. This was not the best as an external party who happens to get the device.
Asymmetrical Encryption
This is similar to the symmetrical Encryption but different in the sense that everyone has a personalized private key. This private key can now be used to generate a public key, (more like your wallet address) that can be used to encrypt information while only the individual with the private key to the wallet can decrypt the info.
For instance, think of your mailbox. Anyone with youe mail box address (public key) can send you mails( encrypted information) into your mailbox. Whenever you need to access the information you simply open the mailbox with the key(private key) and read the mails (decrypt).
This has proved to be more effective in sending messages that one can be sure will get to and be understood by the receiver.
Steem Genesis Blockchain
From the tutorial, I've come to learn that the genesis block is the first created block of the Blockchain of any crypto. As with all other cryptos, steem has its genesis block which I'll be exploring now.
To explore the genesis block of steem, simply go to https://steemworld.org.
- while on the site, select the block explorer icon
- The system then asks you which block you wish to explore, although it's set to explore the block 1 by default, so simply click on ok.
- This will lead to another page which will give you all the necessary information about the first block of the steem Blockchain. These includes the time stamp, block id, previous id( thia is 000000 because there's no other block before it. ), Witness, witness signature, signing key, and transaction Merkel.
- you can also login you Steemit account on this site by simply clicking on the login icon on the top right corner of your screen and the enter you usename and private posting key.
Conclusion
Well this was an amazing ride and it has finally come to a pause until the next lessons task. So far I've been able to broaden my knowledge on the history of Cryptos and therefore answer the set questions.
Thanks for visiting.
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