Steemit Crypto Academy Contest / S11W5 -: Steem blockchain age

In this week's crypto engagement challenge, We will be learning about how old the Steem Blockchain is and how we can easily check it out. I will be using the contest tips to give more explanation on this topic.

What is the Genesis blockchain? Explain its meaning. Show screenshot of the Genesis block of the Steem blockchain.

The steem Blockchain is a Blockchain with the capacity of storing information, this time social information while rewarding its users with tokens. It has one of its main features as the ability to produce a block every 3 seconds using delegated proof of stake protocol.

Just like any blockchain, steem started with the first Block known as Genesis block. The name given to it really fits it. This is the first or initial block of the steem Blockchain to which all other blocks are attached to.

The Genesis block is very important in any blockchain. It sets the pace for the Blockchain, determining what and what can be done on it with less stress. Some of the things which is clearly stated in the Genesis blocks includes but not limited to

• Ability to create other coins on the blockchain

• implementing effective decentralization

• Determining how information is stored

• Clearly stating the kind of security the Blockchain has

Now, I am going to explore the steem genesis block and see information which can be seen there.

• To access the steem genesis block, we type www.steemworld.org address on the menu bar of our browser and click enter.

• Then select block Explorer,

It brings us to the page below.

This page comes with a dialogue box asking for the block number we are looking for. In steem Blockchain, the 1st block is the number one block. So when you type in '1' on the dialogue box and click ok, it brings out the details of the Genesis block.

On some blockchains, their Genesis can be 0 or 1. Let us now see the information we have on the Genesis block.

The time on the Genesis block is 5:05 pm and it was formed on the 24th of March 2016. To further prove that it is the Genesis block, the transaction count was 0, the transaction Merkle tree position was also 00000, previous transaction Id was also 00000. All these are clear proofs that it is the Genesis block.

It also has other information like the signing key, the name of the witness that signed off on the block for processing and the witness signature.

What is the last block produced? Determine the total time of the Steem blockchain, use the production date of the Genesis block and the production date of the last block.

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As at the time of this write up. The last block produced was block number #77517169 which was around 10:04pm (GMT + 1) local time.

To calculate the age of the steem Blockchain using the time of the Genesis block and the last block produced,

We are going to use the date and time stamp of the Genesis block and the date and time stamp of the last block as at the time of writing this post.

The formulae for doing so is

A = T - T1 where

A is the age of the chain which can be represented in seconds or any other unit.

T is the time stamp of the latest block and

T1 is the time stamp of the Genesis block.

So applying this , we will have

A = 2023/08/23 21:04:15 - 2016/03/24 16:05:00

I had to use a spreadsheet to format and calculate this to make it easier.

This is the formular I used to calculate the difference in years,

=DATEDIF(A5,B5,"y")

Formular for calculating difference In months

=DATEDIF(A5,B5,"ym")

Formular for calculating difference in days

=B5-(DATE(YEAR(B5),MONTH(B5),1))

With these formulas, I was able to find out the age of steem chain in years month and days.

So with this, it can be very easy to convert the age to days, hours, minutes and seconds with our knowledge of time conversion.

Days	hours	minutes	seconds
2707	64,968	3,898,080	233,884,800

The slight difference are due to approximation figures which is allowable in mathematical computations.

Explain the downtime of a blockchain - why can it occur?

Downtimes in a blockchain refers to times within the Blockchain when it is not running at its optimal capacity or not running at all. Sometimes, we may experience delay in execution of transactions, it could also be in the form of a glitch in the system. It could be that the browser cannot even open, giving a person error messages. Sometimes too, wallet balances may not be shown or extracted from the database. All of these are various facets of downtime of a Blockchain.

There are several causes of downtimes in a blockchain.

Application of Hardfork - this occurs when the development team is enhancing or introducing a new program into the Blockchain. They can shut it down to avoid being interrupted as they apply the Hardfork (additional software programs for enhancing the Blockchain or creating a new coin, etc)

Absence of a validator - this occurs when a validator is not available to sign off or authorize transactions. It causes an unnecessary delay in transactions and can be regarded as a downtime.

Hardware failure - when there is hardware failure, it can cause major downtime in the Blockchain since most operations come to a standstill.

Fraud Alert - when there are security issues within the Blockchain or there are malware attacks which exposes users wallet to being hacked, the blockchain could.be shut down to rectify the problem, to protect users assets.

Warehousing issues - we know that the hardwares of these Blockchain are kept in a remote warehouse. if there is any issue of theft, flooding in the area it is housed, or affected by any other form of disaster, it will definitely lead to a downtime.

Has the Steem blockchain experienced downtime? If it has presented downtime, explain, mentioning the cases.

Yes, the steem Blockchain has experienced downtime sometimes. One notable moment was in March 2020, because of DDOS attack on the blockchain as some people decided to freeze some accounts and hack them. This led to a public outage, and it was noted by many users that steemit was having a technical issue.

Many users were unable to log into the site. Some felt that their investments in steemit were lost. But thankfully, the problem wass rectified and investors money were protected.

Further information on this can be gotten from this link link

Conclusion

This contest has inspired me to make more research on the steem blockchain, how to calculate the chains age. The contest is just an eye opener and trust me, I have further things to read on this topic.

I appreciate the organizers so much for helping me to gradually have everything about steem Blockchain age. I will like @drhira @abdullahw2 and @dove11 to join in this contest

Good luck to everyone taking part!