Before #Bitcoin ran like clockwork, it waited six days for its second block. Block 1 is one of the most studied moments in Bitcoin history, surpassed only by the #genesisblock itself. Artwork by MLOdotArt (@MLOdotArt On X).
Block 1 arrived on January 9 2009. It contained no hidden message from #Satoshi, yet in every practical sense it marked the moment Bitcoin became a functioning network. The mystery is the six day gap. Bitcoin targets a block roughly every 10 minutes, so why did the second block take almost a week?
Some believe Satoshi simply rested after months of intense work. Others have suggested a playful nod to the seven day creation story in Genesis. The more grounded explanation is that Satoshi did not want to pre mine a large number of coins before others could join. There is evidence that the early Bitcoin client may not have mined until it connected to at least one other node.
Block 1 appeared around seven hours after Satoshi shared the source code on the #Cypherpunk Mailing List. This timing suggests that a second user, likely Hal Finney, had to begin running the software before the network would continue producing blocks.
Many theories surround what happened during the gap. One idea is that Satoshi may have run a private test network for several days after mining the genesis block. He could have mined additional test blocks to verify stability, then discarded them before the public release on January 9.
What is certain is that Satoshi wanted Bitcoin’s first public steps to be solid. He understood that only a few cryptographers were willing to try it, and if the software did not work immediately, they might not return.
Block 1 was worth the wait. It contained the first spendable coins. While the 50 BTC in the genesis block cannot be spent, the 50 BTC reward in block 1 is fully transferable. For this reason, some consider January 9 to be Bitcoin’s true birthday. Until that moment, Bitcoin existed only as an idea. With block 1, it became a living #peertopeer network.
Read the full article:
https://www.historyofbitcoin.io/timeline/bitcoins-slowest-ever-block
Artwork: Bitcoin’s Slowest Ever Block by MLOdotArt (@MLOdotArt over on X).
Appears in the History of Bitcoin Collector’s Book and interactive timeline.
