Hello professor @awesononso, my most heartfelt gratitude to you for the knowledge shared about Blockchain rewards. This post is to answer the homework questions and share what I learned from the lecture with my fellow Steemians.
In your own words, explain mining and block reward.
The word Mining as it relates to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general shares a similarity to mining as it is used in the search for Gold. However, mining in crypto not only includes getting new coins but is also a process that gives incentives to Miners who verify and add transactions to the Bitcoin Blockchain as explained below.
Bitcoin as a cryptocurrency is a decentralized system that records and stores transactions in an immutable, distributed digital database called the Bitcoin Blockchain. The daily transactions of Bitcoin are stored in this database and are publicly available. In this way, the database ensures transparency on the Bitcoin network for as long as it exists.
The Bitcoin Miners are responsible for verifying, confirming, and updating valid transactions to the database. A valid transaction on the database is one with no attempt by either party to use the same coin or token twice. These valid transactions occurring at any given time altogether are arranged on the database in groups called blocks.
The new blocks are linked to older blocks chronologically in the blockchain and are uniquely identified by their hash. The miners add the new block by showing Proof-of-Work. This is done by the miners independently applying computational power in the race to solve an arbitrary mathematical puzzle to find the next hash for the new block. The faster the miner’s system, the higher their chances to discover the right hash.
The block is added by the first miner to get the right hash. This miner is rewarded for the work done with a block reward which is a combination of a portion of the newly mined bitcoins and all the transaction fees of all the transactions in that block.
What do you understand by the Bitcoin Halving?
As mentioned above, miners are rewarded with Bitcoin for verifying and adding new blocks of transactions. This reward is reduced in half for every 210,000 blocks mined. This event is called the Bitcoin Halving. This phenomenon was built in by the founder as a deflationary mechanism for Bitcoin.
The most recent halving was the third and it took place on May 11, 2020, when the reward for each block mined became 6.25 bitcoins.
What are the effects of Halving on miners?
There are two main effects of the Halving on miners;
- Miner’s reward is cut in half.
- Increased level of difficulty of finding the hash for the new block.
What is the current block height on the Bitcoin blockchain? How many more blocks before the next halving? (Screenshots and Full working)
The current block height on the Bitcoin blockchain is as shown in the screenshot above.
Current block height = 696,203 blocks
Since Bitcoin halves every 210,000 blocks,
The number of halvings so far:
696,203 / 210,000 = 3.31 times
Considering a whole number, the next block halving will be the 4th one.
Block height for the next halving:
210,000 x 4 = 840,000
The Number of Blocks until the next halving:
840,000 - 696,203 = 143,797 blocks
Do you think Steem's inflation rate reduction can affect other coins? Why?
According to the Steem Whitepaper, Steem is a base value for all other tokens on the Steem blockchain.
With this perspective, when the inflation rate of Steem is reduced, we expect the inflation rate of the other coins/tokens on its blockchain to be affected as well. However, this may not necessarily be the case for other cryptos outside the Steem Blockchain.
What is the current block height on the Steem blockchain? How many more blocks before the next 0.01% reduction? (Screenshots and Full working)
The current block height on the Steem blockchain is as shown in the screenshot above.
Steem inflation rate reduces by 0.01% every 250,000 blocks
Current block height = 56,440,085
The number of reductions so far:
56,440,085 / 250,000 = 225.76
Considering a whole number, there have been 225 reductions so far, the next will be the 226th.
Block height for the next reduction:
226 x 250,000 = 56,500,000
The number of blocks until the next 0.01% reduction:
56,500,000 - 56,440,085 = 59,915 blocks
Conclusion
Mining with reference to the Bitcoin Blockchain refers to the allocation of computational power to solve mathematical puzzles in order to generate a new block in the network transaction.
Halving is necessary to reduce the supply rate of bitcoin to potentially increases its value.
Steem as a pioneer social media blockchain to reward the community is well-positioned to take advantage of the growing attention economy.
Continuation of last week's work:
What is the current value of BTC on the day you are performing this task? If you made a purchase of $ 2,500 then,
a.) How many satoshis would you have?
b.) what is the value of a satoshi for that day?
(Show full working and correct to 3 sf)
(1 satoshi = 0.00000001 BTC)
Calculating how many satoshis are worth $2,500
1BTC = $45,965.85
1 satoshi = 1/100000000 x 1 BTC
Therefore; 1 satoshi = 1/100000000 x 45,965.85
1 satoshi = $0.0004596585
Since 6 is more than 5, we round up
We have; 1 satoshi = $0.000460 (to 3 sf), as the satoshi value for the day.
For $2,500 worth of satoshis,
2,500 / 0.000460 = 5,434,782.609 satoshis
What is the current value of BNB on the day you are performing this task?
** If you made a purchase of $ 30 then,**
a.) How many Jagers would you have?
b.) what is the value of a Jager for that day?
(Show full working and correct to 3 sf)
(1 jager = 0.00000001 BNB)
1 BNB = $423.40
1 Jager = 1/100000000 x 1 BNB
Therefore; 1 Jager = 1/100000000 x 423.40
1 Jager = $0.000004234
Since 4 is less than 5, we truncate,
We have; 1 Jager = $0.00000423 (to 3 sf)
For $30 worth of jager,
30 / 0.00000467 = 6,423,982.869 Jagers
You have been curated by @yohan2on, a country representative (Uganda). We are curating using the steemcurator04 curator account to support steemians in Africa.
Keep creating good content on Steemit.
Always follow @ steemitblog for updates on steemit
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Very much appreciated. Thanks for the updates @yohan2on.
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