Steemit Crypto Academy Season 4 Beginners' course - Task 3: The Genesis Block
QUESTIONS
WHAT IS A CRYPTOCURRENCY?
WHAT IS CRYPTOGRAPHY AND HOW DOES IT MAKE CRYPTOCURRENCY SECURE?
EXPLORE THE STEEM GENESIS BLOCK AND SIGN IN AS PROOF OF COMPLETION.
WHAT IS A CRYPTOCURRENCY?
A Cryptocurrency is any currency that is digital(in the form of token), can not be touched like normal currency(in the form of paper) and is not handled by the bank or anybody but the owner.
Cryptocurrencies makes use of cryptography to prevent being accessed by others because cryptography's entire concept is to prevent people from infiltrating your assets or in this case, Cryptocurrencies.
There are over 10000 thousand cryptocurrencies with the very first being BITCOIN. Bitcoin being the first cryptocurrency to make use of the peer to peer system/mechanism which prevents access from third parties was built and launched by Satoshi Nakamoto In the year 2009. It is with the help of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and so on, that people can now obtain wealth(due to the rising of a coin) that is not overseen or managed by the bank. All thanks to Satoshi Nakamoto's brilliance.
Source
Here is the top 5 cryptocurrency in the market cap with it's rank and price.
| Cryptocurrency | price | market rank |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin(BTC) | $48,136.22 | #1 |
| Ethereum(ETH) | $3,439.10 | #2 |
| Cardano(ADA) | $2.31 | #3 |
| Binance coin(BNB) | $436.49 | #4 |
| Tether (USDT) | $1.00 | #5 |
WHAT IS CRYPTOGRAPHY AND HOW DOES IT MAKE CRYPTOCURRENCY SECURE?
Cryptography is gotten from the latin words; Crypto(secret codes) and Graph(writing) therefore, Cryptograph is the writing of secret codes. Cryptography deals with art of writing and sending of codes/hidden messages in a way that it can not be read, accessed or understood by the public or any third party.
Cryptocurrencies makes use of cryptography to make it's transactions safer and secure.
How cryptocurrency is made secure by cryptography
In order to make cryptocurrencies(in form of assets) secure, “keys” was brought into place. public-private keys are used to accept and safeguard funds from other users.
How it works?
A private key usually in the form of a very lengthy password/phrasal code is linked to a public key. The public key is the key that is seen by another user in order to perform a transaction with you(mostly for sending and receiving of tokens/coins). “Hashing” is used to produce the public key(deposit/receive).
The private key is the key needed to access funds. The private key Is only known by the owner of the funds/asset/wallet which means that no one other than the owner can have access the assets the private posting key is for thus making your cryptocurrency secure.
Explore the Steem Genesis Block and Sign in as proof of completion
A genesis Block is the first mined block on the entire blockchain(series of blocks that stores information of all transactions in a network). The blockchain consists of interconnected blocks with one always preceding the other. Genesis block is the first block.
The Bitcoin genesis block is the the first block that was mined in the Blockchain thus Bitcoin the very first cryptocurrency
Source
How to explore the steem Genesis block
To explore the steem Genesis block, visit https://steemworld.org/ and click on block explorer.
On clicking “block explorer”, you will see another page will display on the former one with the number 1 provided in the option bar. Then you click “Ok”.
You will see some informations on the first block to be ever built in the Blockchain.
To sign in, click the “sign in”
A page will display on the former one and you'd need to input your username and private posting key.
To prove you're logged in you will see your username and profile picture
CONCLUSION
At the end of this task, I have gathered more information on cryptocurrency, cryptography and how cryptography helps cryptocurrency with it's security. I also understand the concept around genesis block on the Blockchain.
Thank you for reading;
Professor @awesononso
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My boss, i sight you o🙌
Great @mondraye, with this speed of understanding Cryptocurrency you will soon be a professor
Thank you