Steemit Crypto Academy | Season 3 , Week 2 | Homework for @awesononso
Just before I proceed to answer the first question asked by the professor, I would love to explain what a block is because through the cause of this post there will be a lot of emphases laid on the word "block" and in order to avoid confusion I believe it is important for us to clarify and explain the term appropriately.
Cryptocurrency in itself is made up of chains of blocks where every process of transaction is recorded, these blocks are linked to one another as the next block is a continuation of the previous block and this makes it extremely difficult for any process of alteration to be done on the blockchain. These blocks are tightly linked together by the process of cryptography. Now that we understand what a cryptocurrency block is, we can proceed with answering the questions asked for this week’s task.
What is the Genesis Block of a Blockchain?
I have mentioned earlier that blockchain blocks are greatly intertwined but the genesis block of a blockchain refers to the origin of that block.
We must understand that the term Genesis refers to the origin of something, it means that before that item was created or invented there was nothing before it and the same rule applies to the blockchain world. There is always a block that is the first on every blockchain and this block cannot be linked with any other block, this block is referred to as the Genesis Block of a Blockchain.
Most blockchain usually refers to their Genesis Block as block 0 but there are other blockchains that also refer to them as Block 1. All information about a blockchain could be linked and traced back to its Genesis Block, Genesis Blocks are the ones who provide a path for every other block on the blockchain to follow through.
One of the most significant Genesis Block is the Bitcoin Genesis Block, this block remains highly significant because it was the first-ever successful Genesis Block, and every other Genesis Block mining process always follows the guideline and pattern of Bitcoin Genesis Block.
It is important and significant to note that the Genesis Block of a Blockchain does not just happen for no reason, there is always a reason behind its occurrence and an example is the Bitcoin Genesis Block that was mined in the year 2009, it is strongly believed that the Bitcoin mining process was created in order to serve as a financial alternative against the corrupt practices and mismanagement of the traditional financial systems who still get a bailout from the government irrespective of how they manage their funds.
Write on the Bitcoin Genesis Block and its Significance.
Bitcoin Genesis Block is the first and most significant block process that ever exists because it was this successful Bitcoin mining process that opened up the room for a large number of other cryptocurrencies that are existing today. Satoshi Nakamoto (whose identity remains unveiled) was the amazing developer that made possible the Bitcoin Genesis Block (Block 0).
It was in 2008 that a whitepaper on Bitcoin was published, the whitepaper contained the details of what a decentralized digital system could do, on the 3rd of January 2009, the anonymous founder of Bitcoin (Satoshi Nakamoto), presented a mined Bitcoin transaction which led to what we have as the Bitcoin Genesis Block (Block 0). This process opened the door for a lot of other cryptocurrency projects to be unveiled.
Here is the hash for the Bitcoin Genesis Block:
After the coins were hashed, it was sent to a wallet address where it is impossible to be withdrawn. Up till today, Bitcoin miners still send coins to this wallet address and it is believed that this process is usually done in order to appreciate the Bitcoin founder for the great contribution he has done in the lives of so many people.
Here is the wallet address: 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa
The process of Bitcoin mining which will usually take 10 minutes to get mined actually took 6 days before the next mining process was actualized for Genesis Bitcoin Mining, although there is no cogent reason to explain why this happened, there have been several hypotheses to back up this occurrence. No one clearly understands where the coins were mined from, it was as though the mining process came out of nowhere.
There was also a secret message attached to the Coinbase transaction of the block. These are the hash codes that were inscribed: 5468652054696d65732030332f4a616e2f32303039204368616e63656c6c6f72206f6e206272696e6b206f66207365636f6e64206261696c6f757420666f722062616e6b73
Source
With the help of an online text converter, it was interpreted to mean: ‘’The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks’’. This holds great mystery because, on that same day, there was a published news headline with the same topic.
Interesting points to note about the process of mining.
Things are definitely changing and the mining process of blocks was much easier than we have it today, today’s mining process comes with much more complications and the need for higher sophisticated and energy-consuming computers to handle. The reward for mining Genesis block for the first that was ever mined was 50BTC but the reward for mining now has dropped to 6.25BTC (that is a lot of difference).
Initially, the process of mining on the blockchain was very easy, a personal computer can be used to complete the process of mining but as more people got to know about Bitcoin, they also wanted to participate in the mining process and the more users, the more complex the task will get.
Gradually, the processing required for a computer to complete a mining process increased to the point where gaming computers were being used and the growth did not stop there. At the moment, only hardware’s with a strong computing ability that is extremely energy efficient can be used to mine Bitcoin, not forgetting the fact that a strong and stable energy source is also highly required.
The Significance of Bitcoin Genesis Block.
Opened the door for other cryptocurrencies.
Before the successful mining process of the Bitcoin Genesis Block, there have been other trials that were obviously unsuccessful but the success story of the Bitcoin Genesis Block gave room for other cryptocurrency projects to come to light.
A standard for other blockchains to follow.
The Bitcoin Genesis Blockchain signifies a standing method of extreme orderliness and structural balance which other blockchains have been built upon. Every other genesis blockchain that has been created after Bitcoin has abided by the standard on which the Bitcoin Genesis Block was created.
A great income source.
We must admit that blockchain, in general, has served as a good source of income for a lot of people since the successful process of the Bitcoin Genesis Block, asides the process of mining there are other activities that people conveniently earn from on the blockchain.
A message for decentralization.
The strong message that was encoded in the Bitcoin Genesis Block gave a strong message on what the process of blockchain should be about which is Decentralization.
Go to https://steemworld.org/ and locate the Steem Genesis Block (You must provide screenshots and sign in as proof of completion).
In order to view the Steem Genesis block, I visited steemworld.org with the link
I entered the sign-in option.
I imputed my Steemit account name and posting key as requested.
I went ahead to click on the block explorer option.
I inserted 1 and pressed OK since I wanted to view the first block.
The first steem block shows up and it can be found in the screenshot below.
Conclusion.
I was telling my friend about how excited I am about this lecture and attempting the task given, it introduced me to a lot of other interesting knowledge that I cannot put down here since it was not part of the homework task.
The Genesis Block is something that everyone on the blockchain should get familiarized with because it is the origin of everything we are working on. Thanks to @steemitblog for the opportunity and thanks to @awesononso for the great and educating topic