𝗗𝗶𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝟱𝟬 𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘁?

𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘚𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘴𝘩𝘪 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮, 𝘪𝘧 𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬.

Few understand this. But here’s why👇

Whenever a miner finds a block, they receive the subsidy of new bitcoin as a reward, along with transaction fees. Originally, this subsidy was 50 bitcoin. After a few halvings, it is now 6.25 bitcoin.

The very first block, the Genesis Block, awarded Satoshi Nakamoto with the first 50 bitcoin, but 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲. The reason for this lies in a rule that all miners must follow.

When a block is found, the bitcoin from the subsidy is not immediately spendable. It must wait at least 𝟭𝟬𝟬 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝘀 to “mature”, before the miner can spend it. This coinbase maturity does not apply to the transaction fees, however.

The way these blocks are counted, maturity is measured starting from the block before they were mined. So if you found block 800000, the count of 100 blocks would begin on that block, by referencing block 799999 as “block 0” in that count.

The Genesis Block had no block before it, so without a reference point, Bitcoin’s protocol will never be able to count 100 blocks for those first 50 bitcoin to mature. For this reason, 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗨𝗧𝗫𝗢 𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿.

This is another way that Bitcoin’s earliest days contrast with that of many altcoins. Not only did Satoshi not mine in secret, or have premine to give himself and his friends new coins without doing any work, 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 50 𝘤𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬.

Did you already know that? Imagine *you* had 50 bitcoin, but they could never be spent.😳

Give this a 𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲🤙 and a 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲🔄 so others can learn about this, too.