The first block in Bitcoin blockchain is named as Genesis Block by the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Satoshi Nakamoto created the first blockchain by inventing the Bitcoin, so we use whatever he termed them as. However, he didn't name the blockchain. He just called it a 'time-stamped chain of blocks' in the bitcoin whitepaper, later it was named as blockchain by the bitcoin community.
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Genesis Block
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Satoshi Nakamoto, we don't even know who the person is, but the Bitcoin has gained such a trust as a global currency and it is worth $10,000 with a market capitalization of 184 billion dollars(at the time of writing this article). It all started when the domain 'bitcoin.org' created on 18 August 2008. Bitcoin whitepaper was posted to a cryptography mailing list on 31 October 2008. On January 3rd, 2009 Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first block and bitcoin network was created.
Data of every block exists on the blockchain forever. So, here are the few details that we can know about the Genesis block.
Timestamp - It is the time and date on which the block is created. The genesis block was created on 03-01-2009 at 11:45 PM.
Block Height - It is the position of a block in the blockchain, the block height of Genesis block is 0(Zero). Hence, it is also called as Block zero.
Block hash - Every block has a unique id known as block hash. It is a 64 digit alphanumeric string. Miners solve complex cryptographic puzzles to generate a block hash. Block Hash of the Genesis block is ''000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f''
Nonce - Miners have to guess a random number called Nonce to generate a valid block hash. Nonce of Genesis block is "2,083,236,893"
Transactions that are not added in the previous block in the blockchain are added to the upcoming block and that's how all the transactions are recorded on a blockchain. There are no transactions in the Genesis block as there are no bitcoins that existed to transact before the creation of the genesis block. The size of a block in bitcoin blockchain is 1 MB. A block can carry 1,048,576 bytes of transaction data. Since there are no transactions in the block, the block size of Genesis block was 285 bytes.
However, there will be a transaction in every block, it is also the first transaction of the block. It is known as Coinbase transaction. In Coinbase transaction, a miner sends a block reward to himself(his own bitcoin address) and generates a block hash. If he generates a valid block hash, his transaction will be valid and hence he gets the block reward. Block reward is the only way new bitcoins are created. The block reward for mining the Genesis block is 50 bitcoins. The bitcoin address which received the first bitcoins is "1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa".
These 50 bitcoins are cannot be spent or transferred to another bitcoin address. It was hardcoded in the bitcoin code that coins from the Genesis block could not be spent. As a token of gratitude, many people have sent bitcoins to the genesis block address. The current balance stands at 68.32254737 BTC i.e., over 18 bitcoins have been sent to that address over the course of time.
There is also a secret message contained in the Genesis block which was also a hardcoded text and it was written in backwards and many speculate it as the reason behind the creation of Bitcoin. It reads as
The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
However, Satoshi didn't explain why he included this in the Genesis block but 'Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks' was the main headline in 'The Times' newspaper dated 03/01/2009. The 2008 economic crisis led the Federal Reserve, the central bank of U.S.A to assist banks across the country by printing more money and revive the economy. But the increase in the supply of currency leads to inflation(decrease in purchasing power of the currency) which can be observed in a prolonged period of time. The item worth $2 in the 1980s is now worth about $100. The value of U.S.D has been depreciated over time. But bitcoin is designed to be a deflationary currency. There will only be 21 Million bitcoins forever and the supply of bitcoin will keep on decreasing every four years until all the bitcoins are mined.
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| Source: The Times Newspaper |
Coming back to the Genesis block, the next block i.e., the block number 1 was mined on January 09, 2009 and nobody except Satoshi knows the reason why there are six days in between zeroth block and first block. Satoshi Nakamoto mined more than 1 Million bitcoins until he disappeared in 2011. Disappeared in the sense, the last email he sent to someone was in 2011. The bitcoins he mined are not moved until this day and nobody heard from Satoshi since then. His holdings are now worth about 10 billion dollars. The only bitcoin he moved was from the Block 9, it's the first transaction in which Satoshi sent 10 Bitcoins to Hal Finney. Hal Finney was a computer scientist, he communicated with Satoshi through email about the bugs in the bitcoin software and had them fixed.
Satoshi's last email was to Gavin Andresen on April 26, 2011 reads like this:
I wish you wouldn’t keep talking about me as a mysterious shadowy figure, the press just turns that into a pirate currency angle. Maybe instead make it about the open source project and give more credit to your dev contributors; it helps motivate them.
And it's a mystery why Satoshi Nakamoto left everything since then. What do you think?
Let us know in the comments.
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