1/ THE BLOCK REWARD FOR THE GENESIS BLOCK IS UNSPENDABLE
Every time a #Bitcoin block is found, new bitcoins are issued to the miner who solves the puzzle. This was not the case with the Genesis Block.
Bitcoin's creator Satoshi Nakamoto received no BTC for hard-coding it into the software.
2/ THE #BITCOIN SOFTWARE WASN’T LIVE ON JAN. 3rd.
From 1/3/09 to 1/8/09 you couldn’t run Bitcoin on a computer.
It would be a full six days from the Genesis Block to the point where Satoshi released the software to the public.
3/ THE TIMES ARTICLE IS A TIME STAMP
Satoshi added the quote: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink.." to the genesis block as a way to show his dissatisfaction with fiat money.
It was also a technical necessity. This is how we know it was mined after this point in time.
4/ SATOSHI DID NOT ‘PRE-MINE’ #BITCOIN
A pre-mine is when a cryptocurrency sets coins aside to reward its creators for their work.
Satoshi reserved no special #bitcoin for himself in code. He mined Bitcoin, but had to spend money on computing power like all other users.
5/ SATOSHI HAD TO MINE THE GENESIS BLOCK HIMSELF
If Satoshi had just released the code, it would have been possible for anyone to launch their own #Bitcoin software.
This could have resulted in multiple genesis blocks and multiple bitcoins, leading to an impractical launch.
6/ BLOCK 9 IS THE 1st #BITCOIN BLOCK WE KNOW SATOSHI MINED
Coins from this block reward were sent by Satoshi to Hal Finney in the first Bitcoin transaction. It's probable Satoshi mined earlier blocks, though the evidence is inconclusive.
7/ THE GENESIS BLOCK HASH IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHER BLOCK HASHES
Specifically, it has 2 extra zeroes in its hash. Satoshi initially set a higher level of difficulty for the Genesis Block (40 bits v 32 bits). This resulted in more zeroes than required by the final setting.
8/ THE GENESIS BLOCK WAS MINED AT A SPECIFIC TIME
The GMT timestamp for the Bitcoin Genesis block is 1231006505 which translates to January 3, 2009, at 18:15:05 UTC. Most block explorers display it as Block 0 in the blockchain.
9/ THE GENESIS BLOCK IS THE TEMPLATE FOR ALL BLOCKS TO FOLLOW
It established the format for block data and structure, as its header includes a version, timestamp, target difficulty, Merkle root hash, and nonce.
All future blocks in the chain refer back to the Genesis block.
10/ BITCOIN HAD NO VALUE AT THE TIME OF LAUNCH
The Genesis Block did not instantly give Bitcoin value. It didn't trade for any price at this time.
It took 9 months from the launch for users to price and trade Bitcoin, at which point it became "money."
The price of #Bitcoin on its birthday 🚀
16 years: $96,000
15 years: $45,000
14 years: $18,400
13 years: $44,000
12 years: $33,400
11 years: $7,319
10 years: $3,783
9 years: $14,764
8 years: $1,084
7 years: $432
6 years: $275
5 years: $816
4 years: $13
3 years: $5
2 years: $0.25
1 year: $0.01