Glossary

Genesis Block

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The Genesis block is the first block in the Bitcoin blockchain. Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, mined the Genesis block on January 3, 2009 and included that day’s Financial Times headline, “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” in the block as a statement of Bitcoin’s purpose: avoiding the inequity and corruption inherent in the fiat monetary system.

The Genesis block is special in a few ways. Firstly, its previous hash, the part of the block which references the previous block, is empty. This is because there is no previous block to be referenced. Secondly, the first 50 BTC, created in the coinbase transaction of the Genesis block, is unspendable.

Related Terms
Block
A block is a collection of transactions that occur on the Bitcoin network. Blocks are linked together chronologically to form a blockchain.
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Coinbase Transaction
The first transaction in each block is the coinbase transaction. This transaction mints new bitcoin and pays it, along with the cumulative transaction fees, to the miner of the block. The coinbase transaction is the only type of transaction which includes no inputs.
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Satoshi Nakamoto
Satoshi Nakamoto is the anonymous creator(s) of Bitcoin. After developing Bitcoin and mining for two years, Satoshi disappeared in order to ensure the project would remain decentralized.
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Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the world’s first decentralized digital currency that operates without a central authority and has a scarce supply. Bitcoin uses a peer-to-peer network, meaning no permission or middle man is required to send, store, or receive bitcoin.
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