Steemit Crypto Academy [Beginners’ Level] | Season 3 Week 2 Homework| The Genesis Block: The Beginning of the Beginning

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INTRODUCTION.

It is a new week and this definitely means another opportunity to learn again from the Steemit Crypto Academy program that is designed to impart knowledge and in the same vein reward participants. This week I attended the class presented by professor @awesononso and it was a highly impactful class so I will be answering the questions presented by the intelligent professor.

Question 1: What is the genesis block of a blockchain?

Before I continue, let me emphasize that blocks are the building blocks (makeup) of a blockchain. The term genesis will definitely be likened to the beginning of a thing and this term is also referred to in the term of blockchain "genesis block".

Genesis block in a blockchain refers to the first-ever hashed block of a particular blockchain. It is completely different in terms of data/information from other blocks in the blockchain. Every block mined on the blockchain is always referenced to a block that was before it but the genesis block is the only block that is completely unique and is not referenced to any preceding block. The rewards obtained from a blockchain genesis block are usually not withdrawable. These genesis blocks are usually termed as block 0 and it basically serves as the origin with which every other coin can completely trace its root back to and additional blocks can be built on.

Every created genesis blocks on the blockchain always have some interesting meanings and stories behind them. An example of this can be found in the story of Bitcoin’s genesis block which was presented as a solution for a failing financial condition of the moment and so it came with an encrypted message that was interpreted to mean: ‘’The times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks’’. 1

Question 2: Write on the Bitcoin Genesis Block and its significance.

The Bitcoin Genesis Block happens to be the most significant of all cryptocurrency blocks because it is the foundation on which every other cryptocurrency genesis block can be linked back. The Bitcoin block which is called Block 0 was the first block to be mined after which every other additional block has been added. The genesis block was mined on the day a news article was released with the headline inscription of ‘’Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks’’ which was the same coded words that the Bitcoin founder had encrypted on the Coinbase transaction of the Genesis Block. After the first block of Bitcoin was mined, the next mining process was done after six days and the usual average time for a mining process to take place was 10 minutes. 2

There is a generally conceived hypothesis to explain this occurrence, it is believed that the headlines released in the news prompted Satoshi Nakamoto to make Bitcoin released in public, however the genesis block had been created earlier to this time and he simply altered the timestamp. It is further believed that after this great developer Satoshi Nakamato might have tested his software which was released on the 3rd of January 2009, he deleted the tested blocks and then proceeded to use the genesis block for the launch of the main net. (While there is no proven theorem for this occurrence, it is currently the believed hypothesis for the huge difference in the block mining interval which took days instead of the usual 10 minutes).

The Bitcoin Genesis Block was mined by an unknown developer which till today has kept his identity hidden from the world, the mining process holds a deep mystery because the token was mined out of nowhere and of course the rewards were also made unavailable.

The coded words can be found on the input section of the transaction, the Hash Hex Sigscript word is:
000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f

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When the Bitcoin genesis block was mined, the first mining reward of 50 BTC was received by 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa and the reward can't be spent.

The significance of Bitcoin Genesis Block.

The successful mining of the Bitcoin Genesis Block opened the door for a new level of decentralization. It is because of the successful Bitcoin Genesis Block mining process that the idea of decentralization became widespread.

The creation of Bitcoin Genesis Block opened up the room for other cryptocurrencies to get into existence. The bold step of other cryptocurrency projects coming to play started out with the bold move of one man Satoshi Nakamoto and right now we have more than 10,000 cryptocurrencies in existence.

The Genesis mining process of other cryptocurrency project have followed the systematic arrangement of the Genesis Bitcoin Blockchain and this has made their process of mining appear really organized and neat.

The concept of Bitcoin Genesis Block made it possible for the actualization of use cases of the coin, now Bitcoin can be used to meet different needs and to provide solutions to different problems.

Question 3: Go to https://steemworld.org and locate the Steem Genesis Block (You must provide screenshots and sign in as proof of completion).

• To check for Steem Genesis Block, I visited https://steemworld.org

• After clicking on Steemworld, I click on sign in.

• When the sign in form shows up, you input the stem account name and posting key

• Click on Block explorer

• Since my aim is to view the 1st bock, I will insert 1 and click on "OK"

• The first Steem Block appears.

Conclusion.

This is a detailed topic that has made my knowledge on cryptocurrency more dependent, Bitcoin Genesis Block is definitely the most significant mining process that ever occurs and gladly thousands of other cryptocurrency projects have been developed from there.

I must also say that I have never had any reason to check the Genesis Block of Steemit as much as I love it here, but thankfully as a result of this homework task I was able to check the details of the Genesis Block of Steemit and I am happy I was able to learn. Thanks a lot to professor @awesononso for this insightful topic.