Genesis block
The very first block of the Bitcoin blockchain, created on 3 January 2009. It contains a newspaper headline about bank bailouts – and its reward of 50 BTC can never be spent, for technical reasons.
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The genesis block is block 0, the start of the Bitcoin blockchainGlossaryBlockchainBitcoin’s public ledger: a chain of blocks in which each block refers to its predecessor. Anyone wanting to change an old entry would have to recreate all the blocks that follow it.On the learning path: Stage 1 · Step 3 – How does Bitcoin work? →In the glossary →. All later blocks build on it. It was created by Satoshi NakamotoGlossarySatoshi NakamotoPseudonym of the person or group who invented Bitcoin. Satoshi published the whitepaper in 2008, launched the network in 2009 and withdrew in 2011. Who is behind the name remains unknown to this day.In the glossary →; its timestamp reads 3 January 2009, 18:15:05 (UTC).[1],[2]
The message in the first block
Its data contains a headline from the British newspaper The Times of the same day: ‘Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks’. Because every node has the genesis block built in, the sentence is still in the Bitcoin Core source code today.[2]
“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”These bytes have been stored immutably in the very first Bitcoin block since 3 January 2009. After 8 technical bytes (grey) comes that day’s front-page headline of London’s “The Times”: the Chancellor is on the brink of a second bank bailout.
The headline proves that the block can’t have been created before that day.[1] Many also read it as a comment on the financial crisis; Satoshi is not known to have given a reason.
Special features
- 50 unspendable BTC: the genesis block’s reward cannot be spent, for technical reasons. Whether that was intentional is unknown.[1]
- No predecessor: it is the only block that doesn’t refer to an earlier block.
- Six-day pause: the next block didn’t follow until 9 January 2009. Why is not known for certain.[1]
You can look at the genesis block yourself in any block explorer. What happened next is told in The history of Bitcoin.
Related terms
These terms are closely connected.
- This termGenesis block
- BlockA bundle of transactions added to the blockchain roughly every ten minutes on average. Each block refers to its predecessor by its hash and contains the reward for the miner.
- Satoshi NakamotoPseudonym of the person or group who invented Bitcoin. Satoshi published the whitepaper in 2008, launched the network in 2009 and withdrew in 2011. Who is behind the name remains unknown to this day.
- Block rewardWhat a miner receives for a valid block: newly created bitcoin (the subsidy) plus the fees of all transactions in the block. The subsidy halves every 210,000 blocks; on 20 April 2024 it fell to 3.125 BTC.
- BlockchainBitcoin’s public ledger: a chain of blocks in which each block refers to its predecessor. Anyone wanting to change an old entry would have to recreate all the blocks that follow it.
- Whitepaper (Bitcoin whitepaper)The nine-page founding document in which Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin on 31 October 2008. It explains how payments can work without a bank and how double spending is prevented.
Explained in depth
These articles go into more detail:
- Deep dive · Stage 1HistoryFrom the 2008 whitepaper via Pizza Day, Mt. Gox and the block size war to US spot ETPs and the 2026 split: Bitcoin’s history, concise and sourced.
- Deep dive · Stage 2Bitcoin is freedomWhat censorship resistance means, how activists and people in crisis-hit countries use Bitcoin – and where the limits are. Sourced, without pathos.
More from „Basics“
Sources2 sources · 2 publishers
The superscript numbers in the text refer to these sources.
- Genesis block – Bitcoin Wiki (accessed 28/09/2026)
- Bitcoin Core: src/kernel/chainparams.cpp – Bitcoin Core (GitHub) (accessed 28/09/2026)
This entry is for education only and is not investment, tax or legal advice.