The Genesis Block - Steemit Crypto Academy Beginners' course - Task 3 by @small-ville
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Questions
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.
Question (a)
What is a Cryptocurrency?
Before I explain what cryptocurrency is I would like to throw light on what Currency is. Currency is simply a legal tender that is used in the exchange of goods and services, this means that it is widely accepted by the public or government. Currencies can also be called money because it has value.
So what is a cryptocurrency, this is a digital currency of a digital form of money that is decentralized and built on Blockchain technology, this means that every user has autonomy over the currency they own without the interference of a third party.
Cryptography simply means a coded message, this means that cryptocurrencies are secured using a series of complex alphanumeric coded messages, these encryptions also help to safeguard the cryptocurrency networks.
The first cryptocurrency that was ever minted was Bitcoin which was founded in 2009 by a pseudopodium named Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin was created to solve the economic crisis and also to enhance the scalability of the financial system. Bitcoin is known as the Mother of all coins because it was the Genesis of Cryptocurrencies. To a novice the Bitcoin may be the only coin there is but in truth there are other coins that have been created over the years, they are called Altcoins and there are over 8000 of them, and more are still been produced daily.
These Cryptocurrencies were not created to be run or handled by banks that is why Decentralized wallets and exchanges were created to help facilitate transfers without interference from governments or other financial corporations. These transactions are protected with Keys which include Private and Public Keys. also to prevent hackers and maintain the integrity of the Blockchain of these Cryptocurrency a consensus Mechanism is used which may be a POW(proof of work), POS (proof of stake), POH ( proof of History), POB (proof of Brain), etc.
The success of Bitcoin and other leading Altcoins has increased the popularity of cryptocurrency thereby attracting huge investors so much that the cryptocurrency market capitalization grew over $2.6 Trillion as of October 2021.
Question (b)
What is Cryptography and how does it make cryptocurrencies secure?
Cryptography is simply the study of encrypting and decrypting encoded messages which could be a combination of alphanumeric characters or other combinations to restrict unauthorized access.
Cryptograph is an encrypted message that can be sent to a receiver who knows how to decrypt the encrypted message, this is done to prevent hackers or other third parties from interfering or disrupting the details of the message.
- Cryptograph and cryptocurrencies
Cryptography is the backbone of all the Blockchains and Crypto networks because the sole essence of cryptocurrency is to maintain Autonomy and Anonymity.
Cryptocurrencies make use of both the Public and Private Keys to facilitate their transaction to make sure that they cannot tamper.
A Public Key is Cryptographic encryption which is used by an individual to receive cryptocurrency from another user, this means that it acts as an address where a coin can be sent to, it can be made public to other users because it cannot be used to access a users wallet.
A Private key is a combination of encrypted alphanumeric characters that is used to access a wallet and also transfer and verify funds that are transferred to a receiver. This key should not be made public because if a hacker or another user gets it they can have access to your funds.
The POW (proof of work mechanism) also makes use of cryptography to carry out its operations, because miners have to solve complex algorithmic mathematic when verifying transactions in the Blockchain to prevent hackers or double-spending. these encryptions help safeguard the Blockchain.
Question (c)
Explore the Steem Genesis Block and Sign in as proof of completion.
- Step 1, is to visit the steemworld website
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- Step 2, is to scroll down and click on Block Explorer
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- Step 3, is to click okay on the information bar which has a Block number of 1
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- After clicking okay the first block of the STEEM blockchain will appear in detail.
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| Block details | info |
|---|---|
| Timestamp | 2016-03-24, 17:05:00 |
| Block Id | 0000000109833ce528d5bbfb3f6225b39ee10086 |
| Previous Id | 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 |
| Signing Key | STM8GC13uCZbP44HzMLV6zPZGwVQ8Nt4Kji8PapsPiNq1BK153XTX |
| Witness | initminer25 |
| Witness Signature | 204f8ad56a8f5cf722a02b035a61b500aa59b9519b2c33c77a80c0a714680a5a5a7a340d909d19996613c5e4ae92146b9add8a7a663eef37d837ef881477313043 |
| Transaction Merkle Root | 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 |
| Extensions | [] |
- Below is where you click to see the virtual operations
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- To sign in into the steem world, click on sign in
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- A pop-up box will appear which will require you to put in your username and private posting key.
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- After clicking OK you will automatically be signed into the steemworld.
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Conclusion
Cryptocurrency as stated above is a decentralized digital form of exchange that is based on a blockchain. Bitcoin is the parent of all coins and has huge controlling market dominance over all other coins. Cryptograph is an encrypted message of information that can be sent to a receiver who can decode it, this is to prevent the message or information begin influenced by a third party.
Cryptocurrency is the future of finance in the modern world, with countries like El Salvador accepting it as a legal tender its popularity is growing day by day. With the help of cryptography, Blockchains can maintain their scalability in terms of security anonymity and integrity.
Thank you professor @awesononso for this amazing lecture
