CL
ChainLens
protocol·January 3, 2009

Bitcoin Genesis Block Mined

The first Bitcoin block is mined, containing the famous message: 'The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks'.

Block #0 contained no transactions and 50 BTC reward. The embedded Times headline from that day's front page is both timestamp proof and political statement: the chain was launched explicitly as a response to the 2008 financial crisis. The genesis block's 50 BTC are unspendable by protocol rule.