Steemit Crypto Academy | Season 4 | Beginners' course - Task 3: The Genesis Block | Cryptocurrency And cryptography | By @syedmraza01

Hello everyone,

I hope you all are doing great in your life and learning from @cryptoacademy. It's a great platform for the growth of beginners. I am honored to be a part of this platform. Before I proceed with the task, I want to thank the professor @awesononso for their efforts to make us learn a lot.

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• What is Cryptocurrency?
• What is Cryptography and how does it make cryptocurrencies secure?
• Explore the Steem Genesis Block and Sign in as proof of completion.

WHAT IS CRYPTOCURRENCY?

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Cryptocurrency: It is derived from the word "Cryptography". Cryptography is the combination of two words ‘Crypto’ which means hidden and secret while "Graphy" means “Graph”. So, It can define the meaning of Cryptography as something hidden and written accordingly.

It is a digital currency. Through which an individual can buy goods and services online and can do transactions easily. However, It does not exist physically but has decentralized control resistance by the central bank. It has very strong cryptography to secure online transactions. It allows every individual to send or receive transactions as it is not anticipated by the bank. It is a peer-to-peer-based system.

Cryptocurrency is operated on a blockchain network, Blockchain is a list of records that is called Blocks. It is secured and linked as I have told you earlier by cryptography. Each block contains the point which is connected to the previous block. It is collectively managed by a peer-to-peer network. Once a block is stored any information can not be altered until unless to change the information of all the connected blocks.

The first cryptocurrency which was ever created was Bitcoin. Other than Bitcoins, they are called Altcoins.

Benefits of Cryptocurrency:

• It is based on the peer-to-peer network.
• It does not require any transaction fee.
• You have complete ownership of your money.
• You can easily transfer your money from one account to another without the involvement of any third party.
• You can send or receive money online without any access to the traditional banking system.

WHAT IS CRYPTOGRAPHY AND HOW DOES IT MAKE CRYPTOCURRENCIES SECURE?

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Cryptography is defined as the structure conducting to secure information. Which only allowed visibility to the sender and receiver of that encrypted information. The message is encrypted with codings such as letters that are replaced with some special characters. To check the message a receiver has to decode that encrypted content through some tables.

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In our standard of living, We use ATMs for cash withdrawal, We use Web Browsers and Paying bills by the process of Cryptography which provides security services. These are great examples of Cryptography in everyday life.

Types of Cryptography:

Symmetric Cryptography: In symmetric cryptography for encrypted and decrypted electronic messages only one secret key is used. Or a cryptographic algorithm used a similar key for both encrypt and decrypt messages known as Symmetric Cryptography.

Examples:AES-128, AES-192, and AES-256 e.t.c.

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Asymmetric Cryptography: It is unsimilar to Symmetric cryptography in which two secret keys are used for encrypting and decrypt electronic information. Such as Public key and Private Key.

Examples: Rivest Shamir Adleman (RSA), Elliptical Curve Cryptography (ECC). e.t.c.

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EXPLORE THE STEAM GENESIS BLOCK AND SIGN IN AS PROOF OF COMPLETION.

Find below the Steps of Exploration of Steem Genesis And Signing in screenshots.

• Step 1: Firstly You have to go with steemworld.com

• Step 2:Then you have to click on the block explorer.

• Step 3: After that, you need to put 1 in the option then click on ok.
  _{Note: put one because one is the genesis block.}

• Step 4 Afterwards you will see all the details of the genesis block.

• Step 5: Next you have to click on sign in as shown in the picture below.

• Step 6: Now at last you just need to put your username and your private posting key accordingly.

This is how you can explore the Steem Genesis Block and sign in to your account.

CONCLUSION
Cryptocurrency is a digital currency secured by the cryptographic algorithm which operates on a blockchain network. It is a P2P-based system without third-party involvement. Moreover, I have learned about how to explore the genesis blocks. And I want to thank @awesononso for all the informative lectures and his efforts regarding the lecture and presentation are highly appreciated.