Hola steemians..

You're all welcome to my blog, feel free to go through the questions asked by Prof. @awesononso..👇

a) 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.

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You're about to go through my answers.

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Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency is a digital payment system - digital money, that can serve as a payment source which does not need transaction permission from any central body or verification of transaction from a local bank before a successful completion of transaction.

Since this pattern of payment or finance system doesn't rely on any central body for permission of transaction verification, it's said to be a decentralized system. Unlike the traditional bank that do need permission from the bank management to complete a transaction.

The transactions made in this system are arranged in a digital ledger called Blockchain. The Blockchain is visible to all the connected nodes in contact with the system but can't be tampered by any. These transparent and immutable features makes it more unique and trustworthy.

So the Cryptocurrency in general is being secured using Cryptographic encryptions, making all the transactions to be encoded and more secure with the help of public and private keys.

The first and famous Cryptocurrency is the Bitcoin which leads the Crypto Market today. Since it's creation many Alt Coins now exists as a product of the Bitcoin fork.

Cryptography

The Cryptography in it's simpliest term is a process of encoding or encrypting an information or data and decrypting of same data when received by the recipient/receiver.

It's a computational and algorithmical process of encoding/encrypting and decoding/decrypting of data.

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The term Crypto was derived from a Greek word "Kryptos" which means hidden. So this process makes sure that the data to be sent is not visible to the public but only to the two parties involved in the transaction.

How Cryptography makes Cryptocurrencies secure

Since it's function is unique in the real world, the Cryptocurrencies have to copy the process in running it's transaction. The Cryptocurrency can now make a transaction that's secured and can't be interrupted by a third party.

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This is made possible when the sender is about to release the coin or payment, the block chain system encrypts the transaction unique details using a Hash system that gives out an encrypted codes for that transaction, once this coin or cryptocurrency is being received by the recipient or receiver the system automatically decodes the transaction. This safe transaction is made possible by the use of public keys from the receiver for receiving the coin and private keys for decrypting the encrypted transaction. In the main sense all this process is termed as Cryptography.

The Steem Genesis Block

Genesis block is actually the first block in a block chain which means there's no hash attached to it, because it has no preceeding block. It's called Block 0 in most cryptocurrency block chain but in our case of study, the Steem Genesis Block, it's first block is termed as block 1.

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This coin was actually launched on March 24th, 2016. Since then it has been doing well in its distribution through a social platform called Steemit.

The Steem Genesis Block can be accessed using https://steemworld.org/.

• Once accessed, login your account by clicking the "sign in"

• Then insert the required details; Username and Posting Key.

• After signing in, click the "Block Explorer"

• Just click okay, leaving the "1" there;

• Voila! Here's it

So the above lecture gives a clear answer to the question asked by @awesononso. Am @prolee. Thanks for going through.

Regards to;

@awesononso