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Number 1

How many times has Bitcoin been Halved?

Let me start by telling us what Bitcoin halving is. It is a process where the rewards for mining Bitcoin are halved (divided into 2) after a set of 210,000 blocks are mined.
So far, Bitcoin have been halved 3 times since it started.
It all started in 2009, where the reward for solving a Bitcoin block was 50 Bitcoins.

[Source](The Bitcoin Halving: What It Means and Why It Matters
moneymorning.com)

• 2009 - 2012 = block reward was 50 BTC.
• 28th of November, 2012 - 2016 = block reward was 25 BTC.
• 9th of My November, 2016 - 2020 = block reward was 12.5 BTC.
• 11th of May 2020 - 2024 = block reward is 6.25 BTC.

When is the next expected?

Nakamoto put into the protocol a rule where every 210,000 blocks results to the reduction of rewards by 50%. This means that almost every 4 years, the reward will be cut in half.
The most recent Bitcoin Halving happened on the 11th of May, 2020 where the block reward was set at 6.25 BTC per block, meaning the next Halving is expected to happen in 2024 where the block reward will be set at 3.125 BTC per block.

Out of the 21 million Bitcoins that has been set to circulate the crypto world, only about 2 million Bitcoins are left for mining, meaning about 19 million Bitcoins have been mined already. With the progress so far, mining has become more and more difficult, which means that the last of the 21 million Bitcoins is predicted to be mined only I'm 2140.

What is the current amount that Bitcoin miners receive?

When Bitcoin was created back then in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, he designed a way for new Bitcoins to be distributed without a person or group of persons deciding who should get them. This idea is called Bitcoin Mining, where people are rewarded with new Bitcoins for Verifying new transactions into new blocks through computational work. Nakamoto equally set the maximum number of Bitcoin to 21 million, so that it will be limited in supply.
When Bitcoin started, the reward was set at 50 BTC per block, because the value of the coin was worth less than 50 cents. But as of now, the current reward remains at 6.25 BTC per block.

Mention at least 2 cryptocurrencies that are or have halved

• Litecoin Halving: In the case of Litecoin, the block reward is halved after every **840,000 blocks are mined. Exactly like Bitcoin, Litecoin Halving occurs every 4 years, and block reward started from 50 LTC.
  So far, they have been 2 halving events, as the current block reward is at 12.5 LTC. And the next LTC Halving event is scheduled to occur in August 2023, as the block reward will drop to 6.25 LTC.

• Ethereum Triple Halving: As the halving implies (triple), Ethereum are planning to partake in an equivalent of 3 Halving event, which is more likely to hold early next 2022.

Number 2

What is Consensus Mechanism?

Consensus Mechanism is basically a system that is mathematically setup to help various networks come together in agreement about the state of the network. It plays a major role in the addition of a new block, as well as validation of blocks in a blockchain.
There are various consensus mechanisms, but they all serve the same purpose which is to ensure records are true and honest. The differences here is in the way the consensus is reached, either through Proof-of-Work, Proof-of-Authority, Proof-of-Stake, and Delegated-Proof-of-Stake. So below, I will be giving the differences between Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake.

How does Proof-of-Work differ from Proof-of-Staking?

Like I said earlier, some consensus mechanism differs due to various factors like decentralization, security and so on. Let me go through what is Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake, as well as their differences.

Proof-of-Work (PoW): This is the first consensus algorithm, and the idea behind it is that computers are racing to to solve a particular puzzle, or to come up with a hash that works. It's a very straight forward process but must be done repeatedly. So you have to guess more and more until someone in the network gets it right, and they have the right to add the next block. The nature of this consensus mechanism is that it's very hard to solve but easy to check.

Proof-of-Work (PoW): This is the second most famous consensus mechanism, and the idea behind this is that you would have to Stake coins in order to have a chance to be the one to add the next block to the chain. Your chances of adding the next block is proportional to the amount of coin you are staking.

Some Major Differences Between PoW and PoS includes:

DIFFERENCES
Proof-of-Work	Proof-of-Stake
PoW uses computers to solve equations	PoS uses owners of that cryptocurrency locking up their coins to validate the transactions
PoW performs what is called mining, where computers solve complex cryptographic equations	PoS performs what is called Staking where coin holders put some coins at stake, so as to validate transactions
PoW uses lots of energy consumption, because mining of all those super-computers requires lots of electricity	PoS uses less electricity because we just basically have coins locked-up in our wallet as we are connected to the internet, which makes it easier to run.
Some popular coins that uses the Proof-of-Work mechanism includes Bitcoin, Litecoin, Monero, Bitcoin Cash and so on..	Some popular coins that uses the Proof-of-Stake mechanism includes Solana, Cardano, Polkadot, Binance coin and so on..

Number 3

Enter the Bitcoin explorer and indicate the hash corresponding to the last transaction.

Link

Firstly, I went to the Bitcoin explorer website, to check out the latest transactions.

Link
As you can see on the screenshot above, the hash corresponding to the last transaction is [7b885d499a0e8bf43be1de333f723fe02c42d054fa289018ccc9adafafff694b]

Below are the details of the latest transaction corresponding as if the time of writing this

Link

Number 4

What is meant by Altcoin Season?

• Altcoin: This is simply an alternative currency to Bitcoin, meaning other cryptocurrencies apart from Bitcoin are regarded as Altcoins.
• Altcoin Season This refers to a range of 90 days (3 months) dominance of the top 50 Altcoins in the crypto market.

Are we currently in Altcoin Season?

We are not really in an Altcoin season yet, but an Alt coin season is clearly coming very soon.

When was the last Altcoin Season?

The last Altcoin season was from April 2016 - January 2018 where Bitcoin grew up to 3800%, but some major Altcoins like Litecoin and XRP grew up to 8800% and 64,500% respectively.

Source

Mention and show 2 charts of Altcoins followed by their growth in the most recent Season.

Source

Source

As you can see on the screenshots above, those are two different charts that shows the dominace of Altcoin over Bitcoin with significant growth levels, and that's what Altcoin season is all about.

Number 5

Make a purchase from your verified account of the exchange of your choice of at least 15 USD in a currency that is not in the top 25 of Coinmarket

First things first, I went to the Coinmarketcap website, and I selected the number 42 coin which is "Pancakeswap" (CAKE).

Source
Now I logged in to my Verified KuCoin exchange account to make the purchase.

• As you can see on the screenshot below, I have **$18.98 worth of USDT which I would use to purchase my CAKE token.
  

• I placed a Buy Market order on my CAKE/USDT pair.
  

• And the purchase was successful.
  

Why did you choose this coin?

I choose Pancakeswap (CAKE) because it's really a great token built on the Binance Smart Chain, and it uses liquidity pools for token swap. Alot of people have regarded Pancakeswap as the crown Jowel👑 of the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem. It can be used for yield farming, and it provides initial farm offerings to it's users.

What is the goal or purpose behind this project? Who are its founders / developers?

The founders / developers of Pancakeswap are unknown. We only know that the project uses Binance Smart Chain technology.
The purpose behind the Pancakeswap project is to have a coin that performs much more better than Uniswap in DeFi industry.
So far, Pancakeswap has grown really big as it can be used to swap tokens very fast and cheaper than Uniswap. The Pancakeswap coin has a token called CAKE that can be used for yield farming, staking, swaps and many more.

Indicate the currency's ATH and its current price.

Link
As you can see on the screenshot above, the current price of the token is $19.81 and it's ATH is at $20.19.

Conclusion

Bitcoin Halving is important because it helps miners see and know the value of the coin which gets limited as the day passes by. Bitcoin uses a Proof-of-Work algorithm to Validate blocks. Apart from Bitcoin, All other coins are regarded as Altcoins and they have their seasons as might be.
So far, I have learnt alot from your lecture Prof. @imagen and I am grateful to you for bringing this topic to us this week.

Thanks for your time.