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RE: I Finally Understand What a Blockchain Is!!!! Watch This Video And You Will Too!
One of the many things that differentiates Steem from Bitcoin is that we don't mine the blocks. Steem does not require that block IDs start with any number of leading 0's. This allows us to create blocks quickly and have a more reactive blockchain that is needed for real time social interactions.
Check out the first block ever created on Steem and it will look pretty familiar to those shown in the video. https://steemd.com/b/1 (click 'show raw block data')
So then it's true that the Steem blockchain first was born on march 24, 2016 right?
Correct!
oh, very cool! thank you. I thought that people still mined Steem though?
They do, but it isn't directly for block production. It uses a similar technique of increasing a nonce to create a number with a certain number of leading 0s. However, instead of producing a block with the result of mining, it places you in a queue to produce a block at some point in the future.
That way we leverage the benefits of mining along with the shorter block interval that comes with scheduled block production.
and so the mining of steem is not related to the blocks that are produced by witnesses? They are on separate chains or something?
Mining is done as an operation on the Steem blockchain. The data section can contain whatever the developer wants it to. Steem has its own format of how people can take actions.
Let's say you want to transfer some STEEM to Ned.
There is a specific format of a message that essentially says, "stellabelle transfers 1.000 STEEM to ned". The result of the message is that 1 STEEM is removed from your balance and added to Ned's.
Likewise there is a message that says, "Alice mined block X with nonce Y". The result of this message is that Alice gets placed in the queue to produce a block.