Network Stories · Early Blocks
The Genesis Block
- Written by
- The Bitcoin Data Guide editorial team
- Reviewed by
- Protocol review desk
- Dates
- Published 2026-09-21 · Last reviewed 2026-09-21
Fact
Block 0 was mined on 3 January 2009 and its coinbase transaction contains the text of a newspaper headline.
Forecast
What the headline was intended to signal is an interpretation of the author's intent, not a property of the block.
What the record shows
The genesis block is block height zero. It has no previous block hash, and the protocol treats it as a special case: its coinbase reward is not spendable and is not counted in the unspent-output set that nodes maintain. Every other block in the chain links back to it through the chain of header hashes.
The block's coinbase transaction carries a short piece of text in its input script. That text is the headline of a front page from 3 January 2009. Because the block header's timestamp is also 3 January 2009, the two agree, and the message is the only editorial content the chain itself contains at height zero.
The block was mined at a difficulty of one, the minimum the protocol allows, because there was no prior block time to retarget against. The first difficulty adjustment could not occur until 2,016 blocks had been mined, so the earliest blocks were produced under the initial rule rather than a measured one.
Timeline
- 3 January 2009Block 0 is mined and the chain begins. Its coinbase transaction carries a newspaper headline from that day.
- 9 January 2009Block 1 is mined, linking the first ordinary block to the genesis block by its header hash.
- LaterThe genesis coinbase reward is confirmed unspendable by the protocol, so the 50 bitcoin it nominally awards never enter circulation.
What the record does not settle
The headline is a fact of the block. What it was meant to communicate is not: the chain records the text, not the reason for it. Any account of the author's intent is an interpretation, and this page keeps it in that category rather than presenting it as part of the record.
The milestones timeline places the genesis block in the wider sequence of dated events, and the halvings reference covers the issuance schedule the block began.
Sources
- Bitcoin block explorer — block 0
- The genesis block header, its timestamp and the coinbase transaction it contains.
- Bitcoin Core source — chainparams.cpp
- The hard-coded genesis block hash and the coinbase message the reference client embeds.