Genesis block

Revision as of 10:47, 12 November 2019 by Mike Rae (talk | contribs)

The Genesis Block is the first block in the Bitcoin blockchain. It’s Block Height is zero (very early versions counted it as block 1).

The Genesis Block is the common ancestor of all other blocks. It is hard wired into the Bitcoin node software and cannot be deleted. To check this, see the ChainParams class on the BitcoinSV github - https://github.com/bitcoin-sv/bitcoin-sv/blob/master/src/chainparams.cpp

The hash of the Genesis block is 000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f.

To check this, put the hash value into a block explorer, such as WhatsOnChain.com i.e. https://whatsonchain.com/block/000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f

The block explorer will show that the Genesis block was mined on March 1st 2009 at 18:15:05h UTC.

It also shows the hash of the Next Block. Blocks at a greater height/ later than the Genesis Block also have a hash of the Previous Block shown as well. Clearly there is no previous block to Genesis, since it was first!

Using this information, it is possible to click through all blocks to date (and back again if you so choose) since they are all linked in a chain.

The following code snippet shows a JSON representation of the Genesis Block. It consisted of 1 transaction - the Coinbase transaction. 

   "hash": "000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f",
   "confirmations": 608366,
   "size": 285,
   "height": 0,
   "version": 1,
   "versionHex": "00000001",
   "merkleroot": "4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b",
   "txcount": 1,
   "tx": [
       "4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b"
   ],
   "time": 1231006505,
   "mediantime": 1231006505,
   "nonce": 2083236893,
   "bits": "1d00ffff",
   "difficulty": 1,
   "chainwork": "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000100010001",
   "previousblockhash": "",
   "nextblockhash": "00000000839a8e6886ab5951d76f411475428afc90947ee320161bbf18eb6048",
   "coinbaseTx": {
       "hex": "01000000010000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000ffffffff4d04ffff001d0104455468652054696d65732030332f4a616e2f32303039204368616e63656c6c6f72206f6e206272696e6b206f66207365636f6e64206261696c6f757420666f722062616e6b73ffffffff0100f2052a01000000434104678afdb0fe5548271967f1a67130b7105cd6a828e03909a67962e0ea1f61deb649f6bc3f4cef38c4f35504e51ec112de5c384df7ba0b8d578a4c702b6bf11d5fac00000000",
       "txid": "4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b",
       "hash": "4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b",
       "version": 1,
       "size": 204,
       "locktime": 0,
       "vin": [
           {
               "coinbase": "04ffff001d0104455468652054696d65732030332f4a616e2f32303039204368616e63656c6c6f72206f6e206272696e6b206f66207365636f6e64206261696c6f757420666f722062616e6b73",
               "txid": "",
               "vout": 0,
               "scriptSig": {
                   "asm": "",
                   "hex": ""
               },
               "sequence": 4294967295
           }
       ],
       "vout": [
           {
               "value": 50,
               "n": 0,
               "scriptPubKey": {
                   "asm": "04678afdb0fe5548271967f1a67130b7105cd6a828e03909a67962e0ea1f61deb649f6bc3f4cef38c4f35504e51ec112de5c384df7ba0b8d578a4c702b6bf11d5f OP_CHECKSIG",
                   "hex": "4104678afdb0fe5548271967f1a67130b7105cd6a828e03909a67962e0ea1f61deb649f6bc3f4cef38c4f35504e51ec112de5c384df7ba0b8d578a4c702b6bf11d5fac",
                   "reqSigs": 1,
                   "type": "pubkey",
                   "addresses": [
                       "1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa"
                   ],
                   "opReturn": null
               }
           }
       ],
       "blockhash": "000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f",
       "time": 1231006505,
       "blocktime": 1231006505
   },
   "totalFees": "0",
   "miner": "\u0004ÿÿ\u0000\u001d\u0001\u0004EThe Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks",
   "pages": null,
   "txCount": 1

Coinbase

File:Jonny1000thetimes.png
The Times 03/Jan/2009

The coinbase parameter (seen above in hex) contains, along with the normal data, the following text: Reuters' reference on The Financial Times article (archive.org cached copy)

The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks

This was probably intended as proof that the block was created on or after January 3, 2009, as well as a comment on the instability caused by fractional-reserve banking.

This reference to "second bailout for banks" could suggest that Satoshi was irritated by the fact a supposedly liberal and capitalist system required the banks to be rescued again.

Timestamp

Although the average time between Bitcoin blocks is 10 minutes, the timestamp of the next block is a full 6 days after the genesis block. One interpretation is that Satoshi was working on bitcoin for some time beforehand and the The Times front page prompted him to release it to the public. He then mined the genesis block with a timestamp in the past to match the headline. It is also possible that, since the block's hash is so low, he may have spent 6 days mining it with the same timestamp before proceeding to block 1. The prenet hypothesis suggests that the genesis block was solved on January 3, but the software was tested by Satoshi Nakamoto using that genesis block until January 9, when all the test blocks were deleted and the genesis block was reused for the main network.

Raw block data

The raw hex version of the Genesis block looks like: 

00000000   01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
00000010   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
00000020   00 00 00 00 3B A3 ED FD  7A 7B 12 B2 7A C7 2C 3E   ....;£íýz{.²zÇ,>
00000030   67 76 8F 61 7F C8 1B C3  88 8A 51 32 3A 9F B8 AA   gv.a.È.ÈŠQ2:Ÿ¸ª
00000040   4B 1E 5E 4A 29 AB 5F 49  FF FF 00 1D 1D AC 2B 7C   K.^J)«_Iÿÿ...¬+|
00000050   01 01 00 00 00 01 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
00000060   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
00000070   00 00 00 00 00 00 FF FF  FF FF 4D 04 FF FF 00 1D   ......ÿÿÿÿM.ÿÿ..
00000080   01 04 45 54 68 65 20 54  69 6D 65 73 20 30 33 2F   ..EThe Times 03/
00000090   4A 61 6E 2F 32 30 30 39  20 43 68 61 6E 63 65 6C   Jan/2009 Chancel
000000A0   6C 6F 72 20 6F 6E 20 62  72 69 6E 6B 20 6F 66 20   lor on brink of 
000000B0   73 65 63 6F 6E 64 20 62  61 69 6C 6F 75 74 20 66   second bailout f
000000C0   6F 72 20 62 61 6E 6B 73  FF FF FF FF 01 00 F2 05   or banksÿÿÿÿ..ò.
000000D0   2A 01 00 00 00 43 41 04  67 8A FD B0 FE 55 48 27   *....CA.gŠý°þUH'
000000E0   19 67 F1 A6 71 30 B7 10  5C D6 A8 28 E0 39 09 A6   .gñ¦q0·.\Ö¨(à9.¦
000000F0   79 62 E0 EA 1F 61 DE B6  49 F6 BC 3F 4C EF 38 C4   ybàê.aÞ¶Iö¼?Lï8Ä
00000100   F3 55 04 E5 1E C1 12 DE  5C 38 4D F7 BA 0B 8D 57   óU.å.Á.Þ\8M÷º..W
00000110   8A 4C 70 2B 6B F1 1D 5F  AC 00 00 00 00            ŠLp+kñ._¬....

Broken down it looks like this: 

01000000 - version
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 - prev block
3BA3EDFD7A7B12B27AC72C3E67768F617FC81BC3888A51323A9FB8AA4B1E5E4A - merkle root
29AB5F49 - timestamp
FFFF001D - bits
1DAC2B7C - nonce
01 - number of transactions
01000000 - version
01 - input
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000FFFFFFFF - prev output
4D - script length
04FFFF001D0104455468652054696D65732030332F4A616E2F32303039204368616E63656C6C6F72206F6E206272696E6B206F66207365636F6E64206261696C6F757420666F722062616E6B73 - scriptsig
FFFFFFFF - sequence
01 - outputs
00F2052A01000000 - 50 BTC
43 - pk_script length
4104678AFDB0FE5548271967F1A67130B7105CD6A828E03909A67962E0EA1F61DEB649F6BC3F4CEF38C4F35504E51EC112DE5C384DF7BA0B8D578A4C702B6BF11D5FAC - pk_script
00000000 - lock time

References

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