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1a) What is the Genesis block?

Crypto currency and blockchain is now a normal term used all over the world. It wasn't always the case, just looking 13 years back very few people knew about the above terminologies.

In January 2009 a group of persons or person known as Satoshi Nakamoto launched the first Blockchain technology, the Genesis block. This was the beginning of great things to come. We are here to talk about what happened on the 03-01-2009. So What is Genesis block.

With reference from the Bible, Genesis means Beginning or Start. So the Genesis Block also known as Block 0 can be referred to as the first block that was ever created. Block 0 is like the main ancestor of every other Bitcoin block and every block on the Bitcoin Blockchain can be traced back to this block. As we have mentioned already, this coin was minted by the founder of the Blockchain technology, Satoshi Nakamoto. It is unclear to the world who Satoshi Nakamoto is and if it's a group of persons or just a single person.

Features of the Genesis block .

As we already know, the Genesis block was the first of its kind and had unique features. Below I will discuss some of these features.

1. The Message on the Genesis.
   One unique feature or attribute of the genesis block was the message left on the block itself. The message read,

"The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks".

This same message was featured on the headline of London Times article with the date 03/01/2009. The article gave details of how banks being bailed out by British Government. There is no other Explanation linking Satoshi to the article but it is assumed that the creation of Bitcoin was to cut of corrupt middle man in financial transactions by the central government.

1. Amount of BTC mined.(50 Bitcoin)
   The first amount of coin that was mined by Satoshi was 50Bitcoin. At the time of creation, Bitcoin was worth nothing atleast in fiat currency and the coins where transferred to an address immediately after mining them. However, Nakamoto created a code that has made this 50 Bitcoin untouchable by anyone. It is not know if it was his intention or it was a malfunction of the code. The totality of these coin is still found on the Block.

2. Time to mine the Next Block, Block 1.
   It is known fact all over the world that to mine one bitcoin takes 10 minutes. However, after the mining of the first block, the second block (Block 1) stayed 6 days before it was mine. Some people claim it was a way to see if the technology was stable.
   It is unclear why it took that long for the Block 1 to be mined.

3. Tributes.
   It has been noticed that Bitcoin miners from time to time send some quantities of Bitcoin to the address of Block 0. It is being looked upon as a way by which miners are paying/granting tributes to Satoshi Nakamoto for the innovation.

b) What are the significances of the Genesis Block?

1. Dawn of a new era in Finance and the worlds economy.
   The creation of Bitcoin in January 2009 meant a new era in the Finance world. The Genesis block showered in a new beginning, an era where financial transaction would not necessarily required middle man. Genesis block was a cut off from the corrupt banking centralized systems.

2. Creation of new currency/medium of exchange
   Ever since the successful creation of Bitcoin in 2009, they have been numerous crypto currency that have been created. Over 10,000 crypto currencies are in existence as of now. The Genesis block showed the world there was a new way with digital currency taking over the world.

3. Reference Block for other blocks
   The Genesis block is like a reference Block, a role model for other blocks in the Blockchain technology. The organization and structure of the block is like a source of reference to other blocks.

4. Awakening of Blockchain technology
   Back in the 1990s, Stuart Haber and Scott Stornetta spoked about the Blockchain technology in a research. Also, Hal Finney a crypto enthusiasm once accused to be Satoshi Nakamoto introduced a prototype for digital cash system called Reusable proof of Work. As you can see the idea of Blockchain technology dated right back to the 90s. However, these ideas had slowed down. it only with the success of the Genesis block that the whole talk on Blockchain was reawakened.

c) Explore the Bitcoin Genesis block and indicate how many transactions so far and the number of bitcoins.

To explore the Genesis block of Bitcoin, we paste the address : 000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f in the search bar of the Blockchain explorer official website (https://www.blockchain.com/explorer).

I am using a phone to explore this Block so my interface is a little different from the PC interface.
When the paste the above and click ok search, the Genesis block will display. It is denoted Block 0.

When I opened the Block 0, the first message was a brief description about the Block,the day and time it was mined, and exactly how much was mined which is 50BTC.
The page also gives me the USD Net worth of the 50 BTC in relation to the market value of BTC today which is $2,309,513.50.

When I scrolled down, I can see the

• Hash address = 000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f
• Number of confirmation which stands at 699,626
• The time and date of the minted block= 2009-01-03 19:15,
• The height of the block which = 0,
  Number of transaction = 1. Because it is known that the 50BTC that was mined was transferred to an untouchable address.

Block Transaction:

• The hash of the transfer that was made = 4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b.
• The Wallet address where the coins where sent =1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa

To view the WALLET address where the first BTC was sent, click on the address 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa
The address has a Total number of 3,030 transactions and a total of 68.52177051 BTC amounting to $3,173,106.15 USD as at the time of this post.

As can be seen from the image below, the last transaction that was sent to this block was yesterday the 2021-09-07 at 11: 47 and 0.00018824 BTC was sent.

These transactions are done by miners as a form of tribute to Satoshi Nakamoto.

Conclusion

It can be seen from the lecture that the Genesis Bitcoin block which is denoted Block 0 is a great milestone in the technological world. This block gave light to a revolutionary technology that is used around the world. Although the founder of this technology is unknown, miners still pU tribute to the block.

Thank you professor @awesononso for the knowledge impacted. It's really great reading from you from time to time.

CC. Professor@awesononso.