What is Genesis Block?
Last updated
Last updated
Genesis Block is the name given to the first block on the Bitcoin Blockchain, also known as the “primitive block”. The Genesis Block was found at 18:15:05 UTC on January 3, 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto.
The Genesis Block contains a decrypted secret message saying "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks".
This could be Satoshi's message with two sides to mark the date the first block was found and to say that governments have pumped a bailout to combat the collapse of the banking system.
The Genesis Block contains a 50 BTC reward for miners. Since it was found, the Genesis Block received 1,073 transactions and 16.5 BTC from curious people about the block. No one could explain why the Genesis Block created unusable BTC and no explanation was found in the source code of the Satoshi 0.1 version.
You can check here:
https://blockchain.info/address/1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa
Satoshi explained that if the design of Bitcoin were static then the rules such as supply, mining difficulty, and reward would not be changed. To this day, the design of Bitcoin remains the same because it is the foundation of this entire Blockchain.
In addition, Genesis Block also contains many other mysteries that no one can explain such as:
Where in the world is the computer that mined the Genesis Block?
How many computers did Satoshi Nakamoto use to mine Genesis Block?
Why does it take 6 days to mine and Satoshi rests 1 day after that?