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What is the Genesis Block of a Blockchain.
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Blockchains are chains of recorded transactions, stored in blocks. Each "block" contains transactions. Blocks are added to the blockchain by the miner who finds the nonce (number only used once). This nonce links a new block to the previous block. Every block in the chain is embedded with the hash of the previous block.
The genesis block also referred to as block 1 or block 0 as the name gives away is the first block created in a blockchain, to which other blocks will be linked.
A genesis block is obviously different. It has no previous hash to reference, so the previous has consists of just zeros. eg (0000000000000000000000000). No transactions are recorded on this block as the first tokens are minted.
The genesis of all genesis blocks, Bitcoin's genesis block mined 50btc, but these coins proved unspendable. This has been a source of argument amongst bitcoin enthusiasts, Some people believe he made it unspendable, others believe it was an error. Personally, Satoshi seems to be too intentional in his decisions to have made a mistake in this situation. However, coins like Monero(XMR) have spendable coins from their genesis block.
Bitcoin Genesis Block
"The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks"
The headline on day when Satoshi Nakamoto decided to mine the first block. This was the headline on a report of an attempt by the British government to bail out banks, again. A lot of people have argued the reason that was the encrypted message with the bitcoin's first block. Some belief it to be a cryptic message, but I believe the message is clear as day; He introduced bitcoin as a necessity and a path away from hiccups of traditional finance.
On the 3rd of January 2009, by 19:15 GMT+1, An unknown miner, most probably Satoshi or someone working with him, mined the first block on the bitcoin blockchain. The first block was mined to set the standards for other blocks, but some things were peculiar about this block.
As expected this block had no transactions within, as the first bitcoins were mined through it. The block rewards were 50 BTC.
Another thing was, there was no hash of the previous block. This is because there was no previous block.
The recorded block time was 6 days, unlike the the normal 10 minutes, known to be the blocktime for BTC, it took 6 days to create this block, reasons unknown, but most speculations point towards Satoshi trying to be as meticulous as possible.
Information from the Bitcoin Genesis Block
| Data | Value |
|---|---|
| Hash | 000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f |
| Confirmations | 690,322 |
| Timestamp | 2009-01-03 19:15 |
| Height | 0 |
| Miner | Unknown |
| Number of Transactions | 1 |
| Difficulty | 1.00 |
| Merkle root | 4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b |
| Version | 0x1 |
| Bits | 486,604,799 |
| Weight | 1140 WU |
| Size | 285 bytes |
| Nonce | 2,083,236,893 |
| Transaction Volume | 0.00000000 BTC |
| Block Reward | 50.00000000 BTC |
| Fee Reward | 0.00000000 BTC |
To briefly make some of these clear:
The HASH is like an encrypted abbreviated version of the data contained in a block to serve as an ID. CONFIRMATIONS simply mean the number of blocks that have come after that block, further cementing its place in the blockchain. This value in the Bitcoin blockchain increases by a value of roughly every 10 minutes. The TIMESTAMP is the exact time the block was mined.
HEIGHT and block number are the same thing. Block 1 has a height of one, Zero has a height of zero, etc. The height of a block is practically -1 of its serial number. Height and confirmations at a point matches for a period of 10 minutes when the block becomes the halfway mark for number of blocks mined. The height of the bitcoin genesis block is 0.
MINER is the person who was able to solve the hash and mine the block. The miner for the genesis block is unknown and speculated to be Satoshi. The 50 BTC mined has not been touched, and more people send BTC to this address, maybe as tribute to Satoshi, however we can note that no BTC has left that account.
Number of transactions present in the block is 1, The DIFFICULTY in finding the hash for the block was 1, in contrast to today where its so difficult, it reads in tens of trillions. MERKLE ROOT the merkle root above is like a hash root of all the hashes of the transactions in the block. VERSION this is the version of the blockchain available, at time of mining. this shows room for upgrade. BITS represent the amount of data stored in the block. Weight is measure in proportion to transactions in the block
The NONCE is a number only used once, used to show proof of work. The transaction volume represents the total amount of BTC transacted in the block. The block reward was given to the miner for solving the hash as a reward, 50 btc, although it has greatly reduced now.
Encrypted Message
On the input side of the first block, the miner left a message in HEX;
- 5468652054696d65732030332f4a616e2f32303039204368616e63656c6c6f72206f6e206272696e6b206f66207365636f6e64206261696c6f757420666f722062616e6b73
When converted to Ascii, it translated to:
- The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
While there have been many sides on why Satoshi(via speculation) left that message. I believe the reason has to do with the number one significance of bitcoin; A much needed replacement for orthodox financial systems.
Significance of the Genesis Block
Solving Failing Centralized Financial Institutions
Financial institutions, majorly repesented by banks are failing to meet up with the exponential growth in the world, efficient and technology wise. By highlighting the headlines that exact morning, showing a desperate attempt by the government at finding a temporary fix for a serious problem. The Genesis block was built to say; "Enough is Enough"
Setting the Standards
Coming into an already established sector; the financial sector, and trying to instigate a major shift in the dynamics, the genesis block set the ball rolling for this. This was why it was meticulously done. To set a standard that should be improved by blocks to come, and new cryptocurrencies.
Producing The First Coins
The genesis block was essential in the mining of the first bitcoins to begin the circulation of the first cryptocurrency. 50 bitcoins were mined from the first block.
Laying the Foundation (literally)
The genesis block was the foundation for the over 690,000 blocks now on the blockchain. Its parameters and values had to be well set, so the whole structure doesn't collapse.
The Steem Genesis Block
Logging in to steemworld.org
On the dashbord, you will see a rubik's cube like icon labelled "block explorer"
click on it and input "1" as value.
The information on the first block will appear.
The genesis block for steem was mined 24th of march 2016, by 5:05 pm. It had a block time of 36 seconds, higher than the normal for steem but nowhere in comparison to the gap between the average bitcoin blocktime and that of its genesis block.
Steemit uses a model of the delegated proof of stake involving the creation of blocks by voted witnesses. This means mining of new block is done by witnesses alone, and there are no reward for mining a block, witnesses however get compensated for their hardwork through a setup system I will not be delving into now.
The Hash(Block ID) here is 0000000109833ce528d5bbfb3f6225b39ee10086, the previous block has an ID of 00000000000000 becauseit is inexistent. The merkleroot also has a value of 0 because there are no transactions to find the root hash.
INFORMATION ON THE STEEM GENESIS BLOCK
| DATA | VALUE |
|---|---|
| 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 |
CONCLUSION
From the two studied blockchains, we can see the effect of consensus algorithm and blockchain models on the genesis blocks and by defult, subsequent blocks of a blockchain.
An interesting topic, the genesis block of blockchains should be stuied, to understand the roots of every blockchain. Blockchains like Ethereum have even more intriguing genesis blocks that contain the data and coding upon which the blockchain is run.
Thank You prof for this topic.
See you next class.
Muy buena publicación @alphafx, muy completa, seguro estoy que su calificación sera 10.
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