Hello, dear steemians. I am very glad to participate in this homework task 3 which is about The Genesis Block by professor @awesononso . Let's start.

QUESTIONS - 3

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Index	Question
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.

➽ Q₁: What is a Cryptocurrency?

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A digital currency that is designed for use over the internet is called Cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency exists only in digital platforms, there is no physical coin or bill associated with cryptocurrency. We can use cryptocurrencies for many online payments if they accept crypto payment systems. We can also hold an amount of cryptocurrency as an investment. If it increases, you will get profit from your hold amount. This is the plus point of cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency doesn’t depend on central banks or any third parties because of verifying transactions. Instead of banks or other parties, it uses cryptography to confirm transactions on the blockchain. And it enables direct peer-to-peer payments for a very low fee.

We can purchase cryptocurrencies with a digital wallet where we can also keep our purchased amount. As a digital wallet, we can create an account on an exchange platform such as Coinbase, Bittrex, Binance, Poloniex, etc. There we can buy real money with cryptocurrencies. Or, we can buy cryptocurrencies with real money. We can also earn cryptocurrency through mining.

The value of a cryptocurrency is not stable. This value can rise and fall irregularly even in a short time. At present, there are more than five to six thousand different cryptocurrencies in the whole world. Each of them has a different value. The most popular cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin, Ether, Tether, Steem, Tron, etc.

Advantages Of Cryptocurrencies	Disadvantages Of Cryptocurrencies
Potential for high returns	Potential for large losses
Protection From Payment	Fraud or Black market activity
Easy international Transactions	Cyber hacking or money laundering

➽ Q₂: What is Cryptography and how does it make cryptocurrencies secure?

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Cryptography

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We can break the word Cryptography into two parts that are crypto & graphy. Crypto means Concealed or Secret and Graphy means to denote.

Cryptography is a protected method or system by which information is transformed and anonymously communicated in the form of codes that unintended recipients will not understand. It is associated with encryption and used for user authentication so that only those for whom the information is meant can read or process it.

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How does Cryptography make Cryptocurrencies secure

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Cryptocurrencies can be secured by cryptography when they encrypt the information. If anybody wants to read the information, he/she should have the secret keys to decrypt it. Otherwise, they can not get access to the information.

There are two major keys that are used to transact any amount of cryptocurrencies. They are Public Key and Private Key.

Public Key: It is a shareable key with different users on the blockchain for the identification of transactions. It consists of a unique alphanumeric character. It represents the address of the wallet to which funds are being transferred.

Private key: It is not shareable with anyone. Cause, it is used to make the transaction successful. It consists of alphanumeric characters with symbols. The private key is generated during the creation of the wallet.

So, nobody can steal others coins without the Private Key. Keep your Private Key secure, it will keep your assets secure.

➽ Q₃: Explore the Steem Genesis Block and Sign in as proof of completion.

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Steem Genesis Block

Genesis means Inception. In the blockchain, when the first block is mined for a coin is called the Genesis Block of that coin. The first Steem genesis block was mined on 24th March 2016.

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Exploring the Steem Genesis Block

• At first, we have to visit STEEM WORLD to explore the steem genesis block.

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Step1: Open browser & type (https://steemworld.org) then press enter.

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Step2: Click on the Sign In button located in the top right corner to log in.

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Step3: Input your username & private posting key. Then click OK

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Step4: After signing in, click on Block Explorer

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Step5: For the details of the Genesis Block, click ok for Block 1

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Step6: The details of the steem genesis block will be shown here.

The basic details of steem genesis block:

• Timestamp: 2016-03-24, 22:05:00
• Block Id: 0000000109833ce528d5bbfb3f6225b39ee10086
• Previous Id: This is the details of first block. So, there is no previous block ID.
• Signing Key: STM8GC13uCZbP44HzMLV6zPZGwVQ8Nt4Kji8PapsPiNq1BK153XTX
• Witness: initminer
• Witness Signature: 204f8ad56a8f5cf722a02b035a61b500aa59b9519b2c33c77a80c0a714680a5a5a7a340d909d19996613c5e4ae92146b9add8a7a663eef37d837ef881477313043
• Transaction Merkle Root: 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Conclusion

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I have explained all the questions. I want to thank professor @awesononso for arranging this informative homework task of The Genesis Block. I have learned a lot from the lecture given. Thanks to all my steem friends.