Redstone is the main power source in Minecraft and can be used for blood decoration on halloween or to make contraptions. Redstone can be obtained by mining it with an iron pickaxe or better. Redstone was added in alpha v 1.0.1 originally named "red ore dust" but then in alpha v 1.0.4 it was renamed "redstone". In full v 1.3.1 redstone is obtainable by trading. When witches were added in full v 1.4.2 they could be killed to obtain redstone dust. Then lastly in full v 1.5 you can create redstone blocks and a dropper.