Glossary

Coinbase Transaction

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A coinbase transaction is the first transaction in each block. The coinbase transaction distributes the block subsidy, which is currently 3.125 BTC per block, and also collects the cumulative fees of all transactions in the block.

Since this transaction is creating new bitcoin, the coinbase transaction is valid without any inputs. To see an example, check out this past coinbase transaction in Block #650,000 on Blockstream: there will be no inputs, and the single output will be of the amount 6.25 BTC plus the 0.244131 BTC of fees the miner collected.

Related Terms
Mining
Mining is the process of building the blockchain by adding new blocks one at a time. Most of mining involves finding a valid Proof-of-Work, which is an energy-intensive guessing game.
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Block Reward
The block reward is a combination of the block subsidy (newly minted bitcoin) and all transaction fees paid by transactions in a block. The block reward is collected by miners in the coinbase transaction.
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Block Subsidy
The block subsidy is the amount of new bitcoin minted in each block, and it forms the largest part of the block reward. The block subsidy is cut in half every four years.
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Transaction
A transaction exists as a record of the transfer of bitcoin from one address to another. All transactions are recorded in blocks on the blockchain.
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