The inventor of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, started the network 12 years ago after revealing the cryptocurrency concept via the white paper a few months earlier. The network started its first block at around 18:15:05 UTC and since then over 664,000 Bitcoin blocks have been mined. In addition, on the 12th anniversary of the network’s inception, after more than ten years of idling, a large number of 2010 block rewards began.
The 12th anniversary of the Bitcoin blockchain
Proponents of the cryptocurrency celebrate the call for the first computer network to solve the Byzantine error dilemma created by pseudonymous inventor Satoshi Nakamoto. The birth of the Bitcoin (BTC) network is very special. Over the past 12 years, the crypto asset has become extremely valuable, peaking today on January 3rd at $ 34,800 per unit.
After Satoshi had informed some interested people online about his cryptocurrency concept on Halloween 2008, he started the hard-coded block reward, also known as “Block Zero” or “Genesis Block”, just over three months later.
Block Zero or the Genesis Block has the usual reward of 50 bitcoins, but these special bitcoins can never be spent. The Genesis block also has two leading hexadecimal zeros, which was a common trait for early blocks at the time. In addition, the infamous Block Zero also contained a message that can be found in the Coinbase parameter of the block.
This first blockchain message, engraved on Satoshi’s hard-coded bitcoin block, reads:
The Times 03 / Jan / 2009 Chancellor on the verge of a second bailout for banks.
Today’s Genesis block not only has the reward of 50 Bitcoin blocks that cannot be spent, but people have sent small fractions of Bitcoin to the address since its inception. The Genesis block address has seen approximately 2,722 transactions and there is now a total of 68.35 BTC idle.
Nowadays, Bitcoin blocks are pretty predictable and are processed by miners about every 10 minutes. However, the block (1) that followed the hard-coded Genesis block did not occur until seven days later. The first transaction with software programmer Hal Finney took place in Block 9 or three days after Block 1 was dismantled.
Satoshi Nakamoto’s well-earned bitcoin stash
Now Satoshi Nakamoto also spent time with the community until December 2010. The inventor is known to have mined the crypto asset in the months he was curating the network with the community.
Interestingly, various academic papers believe that Nakamoto mined between 700,000 and 1.1 million BTC during his tenure to jump-start the network. The inventor allegedly did this with a single Windows-based personal computer. It is also believed that Nakamoto has not issued any coins since it was first mined and its stash of one million bitcoin has been idle since its issue.
Many ancient coins that come from coin-based rewards have not been issued and have been dormant for more than ten years. For example, on December 18, 2020, Glassnode’s onchain researchers tweeted that “1.78 million bitcoins never left their miner address”.
Interestingly, last year in 2020, news.Bitcoin.com discovered a miner or old school miners who issued a consecutive number of 2010 block rewards in strings. Each string issued last year has received around 20 to 21 block rewards since 2010, and those coins haven’t moved a single time since the day they were issued.
20 Decade-old Block Rewards from 2010 Moved January 3, 2021 to Block 664,263
Surprisingly, today, on the 12th anniversary of the start of the Bitcoin network, the mystery miner or miners issued another large series of “sleeping bitcoins” from the Satoshi era. On January 3, 2021, exactly 20 block rewards from 2010 were issued at block height 664,263. The old school miner from 2010 sent the 1,000+ bitcoins valued at over $ 339 million to a BTC address that began with “35grPirp”.
After the initial consolidation, the 1,000 BTC were broken into fractions according to the exact same patterns. Newcoin.Bitcoin.com was discovered with all of the other 2010 block strings. Today’s 20 block issues were captured by Btcparser.com and a visual perspective of the series of 2010 blocks issued for the “Satoshi Bags Tracker” by theholyroger.com.
This morning (EST), on the 12th anniversary of the Bitcoin blockchain, Btcparser.com received 20 old-school block rewards from the 2010 Satoshi-era transfer.
Usually, if it’s a single entity, that miner spends another 2010 block a little later in the day to spend the total of 21 block rewards. Decades of ‘Satoshi-era’ block reward spends are pretty rare, but they’ve been picking up speed since 2020.
It’s also worth noting that the old school miner always gives out the corresponding BCH (Bitcoin Cash) block rewards, but not the BSV (Bitcoinsv) rewards. The only time the miner gave out block rewards on all three chains was the 21 block rewards from 2010, which were given out on March 11, 2020, the day before the infamous “Black Thursday”.
Today’s 2010 block editions are very special as they carried over on Bitcoin’s birthday while the crypto asset also hit another all-time high.
We really don’t know whether these coins were sold or are meant to be sold on the open market. The technical term “issued” simply means that the coins left the original address from which they came, and does not necessarily mean that the coins will be sold on exchanges. In addition, the term “Satoshi era” does not mean the coins derived from Nakamoto either, as the term simply means that the inventor was there during that time.
What do you think of the 12th anniversary of the Bitcoin blockchain? Let us know what you think on this matter in the comments section below.
Tags in this story
1000 BTC, 12 years, 12th anniversary, 20 blocks, 2010 block reward, Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin 12, start of the Bitcoin network, Bitcoin’s Inventor, Bitcoins, Block Zero, cryptocurrency, Genesis Block, Hal Finney, Satoshi Nakamoto, sleeping Bitcoins, white paper
Photo credit: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Btcparser.com, Bitcoin.com, Holyroger.com,
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