A Genesis block is the first block of a block chain
Introduction
In 2009, on January 3, to be more exact, an unknown man with the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto, I present to the whole world, the Genesis block, history was made that day when the first block of 50 bitcoins was undermined, in Sourceforge. The origin of the Genesis block is as mysterious as Nakamoto himself.
A genesis block is the first block of a block chain. The modern versions of Bitcoin numerate it as block 0, although the first versions counted the Genesis block as block 1. This is almost always permanently integrated into the software of applications that use your blockchain. It is a special case, since the Genesis block does not refer to a previous block and generates an unusable subsidy for Bitcoin and almost all its derivatives.
Developing
The Genesis Block, also known as Block 0, is the ancestor to which all other bitcoin blocks can track their ancestry, since each bitcoin dates back to a previous one. Nakamoto extracted the original block on a CPU (in contrast to the specialized graphics cards that miners now need) without competition, since no one knew that it existed then and anyway nothing was worth, at least on paper.
At that time, Bitcoin was more an experiment than anything else, and it would happen about a year before Bitcoin became popular. It would be incredibly easy for today’s miners to solve these blocks that were established in the difficulty.
The following block, known as Block 1, was not extracted up to six days later, on January 9, 2009. This seems strange because the average space of time brands between the blocks is 10 minutes. There are some theories about the delay, such as Nakamoto had been testing the bitcoin system meanwhile to ensure that it was stable (then the time brand receded). The Genesis Block has become Nakamoto synonymous and exists as the backbone of the entire project and as a kind of sanctuary so that Nakamoto fans throw their bitcoins into a kind of well of desires.
Genesis Block remains the key for many bitcoin followers to identify Nakamoto. This means that only Satoshi Nakamoto can use the private keys associated with that first block and the other initial blocks to sign a message. If someone could sign messages using the private keys of the original blocks, that would be a solid proof that it was Nakamoto.
Genesis Block Ethereum
Even with Ethereum, each blockchain has to start somewhere: with the Genesis block. This is the first block in which Ethereum creators were told: The following accounts have all of my cryptocurrencies. Each transfer from Ether to the block chain comes from one of these first accounts (or mining). Every time Ethereum starts we create this genesis block from scratch. The synchronization of the block chain with the peers does not begin to block 1.
The Genesis Block is created using the Genesis State or Genesis file.Json in Geth. This file contains all the necessary data to generate block 0, including who begins with the amount of ether. The genesis configuration structure.Json has to do with establishing configuration variables for Ethereum and nothing to do with what is in block 0. However, these values are important because they must also coincide with the configuration information of any other node with which users want to interact.
There are three resources that are relevant here:
- The structure itself in the implementation of Ethereums Go
- How the configuration is really initialized when Ethereum is used in the main network
- Where the variables of Mainnet initialization are defined
conclusion
Nakamoto projects a long shadow on its creation and, as Bitcoin continues to ascend to the mainstream, more and more attention is paid to the clues he left in the Genesis block. The first block is not only something special with Bitcoin, but also with other cryptocurrencies that build everything in this first block.
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