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3a) 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.

INTRODUCTION

Cryptocurrency is an online decentralised currency used to pay for goods and services online, cryptocurrency have bridged the gap between the third party (government and final institution) interference in transaction then making transactions faster and easier. Many countries and companies have adopted cryptocurrency as a certified form of payment.

Cryptocurrency is secured by cryptography which is the protocol that makes it difficult for hackers to penetrate through. Cryptography consists of encryption and decryption of data which is a way of securing private information from an authorized user.

What is a Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual decentralized currency that is secured by cryptography which makes it not possible to double spend or counterfeit, it is also a form of currency that is used as a form of payment in exchange for goods and services online.
Using an arcade game as an example, when you go to a cashier you give the cashier certain amount of money and the cashier gives you certain number of token games that will be used to play the arcade games, this is how cryptocurrency works, you exchange real currency to cryptocurrency that you can use to buy and sell things online.

In many parts of the world cryptocurrency is popular for a number of reasons because cryptocurrency is a decentralized network that runs from peer-to-peer meaning that typical or traditional financial institutions like central Banks normal banks and even government are not involved in the cryptocurrency transactions between one person to another monitoring cryptocurrency transaction meaning that those transactions are faster since they are not going through government or banks also meaning that those transactions are cheaper since they are not paying fees at different point to different financial institutions when you transact cryptocurrency.

Finally, cryptocurrency is popular because they have been known to grow exponentially in value for recent years according to the coincapmarket.com, they are over 6,700 popularly traded in the world.

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WHY PEOPLE INVEST IN CRYPTOCURRENCY
Lots of people see cryptocurrency as a hot new investment because of how much value cryptocurrency have gained in recent years forgetting that cryptocurrency have lost a lot of value in that same time, that's the nature of cryptocurrenc it fluctuate up and down making it a bit volatile and unstable investments.

Using Bitcoin as an example, the fluctuations that occurred in Bitcoin in recent years (between 2017-2020) is seen in the table below.

Date	Quantity of BTC	Price of BTC
17-Dec-2017	1	$19,783
7-Dec-2018	1	$3,300
3-Nov-2020	1	$13,734.

Why people invest in cryptocurrency is that a lot of people feel that since cryptocurrency fluctuates so much, they can buy some cryptocurrency when it's price is low and sell at a future day when its price is high and make a decent profit, a lot of people also invest in cryptocurrency for a long time, they feel that cryptocurrency will become more universally accepted in the world over and will gradually phase out conventional traditional money that we have today.

What is Cryptography and how does it make cryptocurrencies secure?

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Cryptography is a compound word, made up of "Crypto" meaning "Secret" or "Hidden" and "Graph" which means to Write. Cryptography is a practice of developing protocols that prevent third parties from viewing private data, this includes converting data into a particular form that only those for whom it is intended can read and process it, the unconverted data is unreadable for an unauthorised users.

Cryptography consists of;
✒ Encryption of data - means to convert a readable data into an unreadable data

✒ Decryption of data - means to convert an unreadable data into an unreadable data by an authorized users.

The reason why cryptocurrency are called cryptocurrency is because they are secured by Cryptography
Cryptography secure the blockchain, the Blockchain is made up of blocks which contain records of transactions. Example one of the major currencies like the bitcoin uses blockchain, the blockchain is just like a secure type of ledger and the way of organising it into blocks, so every time you make a transaction using Bitcoin this transaction is recorded as blocks. Each block contains a transaction data like who was paid, how much a harsh which is unique identifier and the harsh of the previous block in the sequence or the last transaction that was recorded, so if something in a block is changed then that block harsh will change. Each block contains the data of previous block, if the harsh of the previous blog changes then the next block will no longer have a matching harsh with it and so every subsequent block ofter that will becomes invalid, this makes it very hard for hackers to penetrate through.

TYPES OF CRYPTOGRAPHY
Basically there are two types of cryptography which are;

✒ Single key encryption algorithm - create a fixed length of bits called block codes, this block codes has a secret key the creator or the sender uses to encrypt and the receiver can use to read it.

✒ Public key encryption - this uses a pair of keys one is a public key associated with the creator or sender to encrypt data and is the private key that only the data originator knows for decrypting information. A procedure or protocol that needs all the standard is known as crypto system.

Cryptography offers various aspect of security in cryptocurrency such as;

✒ Integrity - no one can change the information while it is in storage without the change being detected.

✒ Authentication - the sender and receiver can both see each others identity as well as a place or point the information is aimed at.

✒ Confidentiality only the intended receiver can understand the information that is encrypt and can decrypt the information

✒ Non-repudiation - the sender can never reject the validity of or deny their intention in the information creation.

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

Steem Genesis block is the first block in the Steem Blockchain that was mined. To sign in as proof of completion, the following Steps were followed;

✒ Step 1 - visit the Steem Genesis block address https://steemworld.org/

✒Step 2 click on the Block explorer.

✒ Step 3 - click OK for Block 1

✒ Step 4 - the list of details is displayed

✒ Step 5 - click on the Sign-in status displayed and input your correct details which are Steemit username and private posting key.

✒ Step 6 - click on Ok and you will get logged in with the display of your photo at the right corner of your mobile phone as a proof of completion.

^{The above screenshots in step 2-6 showing Steem genesis block and sign in as proof of completion were taken in coinmarketcap.com}

CONCLUSION

From the knowledge acquired in the lecture by @awesononso, cryptocurrency is neither gold, silver nor paper, it's only just the transfer of digital asset to pay for goods and services online. The use of cryptocurrency has brought Revolution to distribution of finance to any part of the world unlike before where the variation in currency and value of currency in financial institution and government policy that stood as a barrier for easy transaction.

Cryptocurrency is secured by protocol that prevents third parties from viewing private data known as Cryptography. Blockchain make use of cryptography in multiple different ways - for wallet, transaction, security and for privacy-preserving protocol.

Special thanks to Professor @awesononso for impacting knowledge, it's really great learning from you.

Cc;
@awesonons