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Note that the genesis block is block _#0_, not block #1 When Bitcoin was publicly released, only the genesis block existed, so every block after that point cou

Note that the genesis block is block _#0_, not block #1 When Bitcoin was publicly released, only the genesis block existed, so every block after that point could have been mined by anyone.

zymhan 10y ago
Block #0 has a timestamp of 2009-01-03 18:15:05 Block #1 has a timestamp of 2009-01-09 02:54:25 So, does this mean there were 6 days separating the first block in the chain and the first block to be mined? https://blockchain.info/block/000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f https://blockchain.info/block/000000000019d6689c085ae165831e... https://blockchain.info/block/00000000839a8e6886ab5951d76f411475428afc90947ee320161bbf18eb6048 https://blockchain.info/block/00000000839a8e6886ab5951d76f41...
- petertodd 10y ago
  Yes! Since the genesis block is hardcoded in the software, what likely happened is Satoshi generated it in advance, added it to the code, and then did a few more days of final testing prior to release. Block #1 on the other hand was mined after the initial announcement on the cryptography mailing list: http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2009-January/014994.html http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2009-January/... (about seven or eight hours after if I got my timezone conversions correct)
  - Andrew_Quentin 10y ago
    So Wright is Hal Finney? Or, who else mined bitcoins seven or eight hours after it went live?
  - meowface 10y ago
    >As an amusing thought experiment, imagine that Bitcoin is successful and >becomes the dominant payment system in use throughout >the world. Then the >total value of the currency should be equal to the total value of all >the wealth in the world. Current estimates of total worldwide household >wealth that I have found range from $100 trillion to $300 trillion. With >20 million coins, that gives each coin a value of about $10 million. >So the possibility of generating coins today with a few cents of compute >time may be quite a good bet, with a payoff of something like 100 million >to 1! Even if the odds of Bitcoin succeeding to this degree are slim, >are they really 100 million to one against? Something to think about... First ever reply to Satoshi. Finney was a smart guy.

Note that the genesis block is block _#0_, not block #1 When Bitcoin was publicly released, only the genesis block existed, so every block after that point could have been mined by anyone.

zymhan 10y ago

Block #0 has a timestamp of 2009-01-03 18:15:05 Block #1 has a timestamp of 2009-01-09 02:54:25 So, does this mean there were 6 days separating the first block in the chain and the first block to be mined? https://blockchain.info/block/000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f https://blockchain.info/block/000000000019d6689c085ae165831e... https://blockchain.info/block/00000000839a8e6886ab5951d76f411475428afc90947ee320161bbf18eb6048 https://blockchain.info/block/00000000839a8e6886ab5951d76f41...

petertodd 10y ago
Yes! Since the genesis block is hardcoded in the software, what likely happened is Satoshi generated it in advance, added it to the code, and then did a few more days of final testing prior to release. Block #1 on the other hand was mined after the initial announcement on the cryptography mailing list: http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2009-January/014994.html http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2009-January/... (about seven or eight hours after if I got my timezone conversions correct)
- Andrew_Quentin 10y ago
  So Wright is Hal Finney? Or, who else mined bitcoins seven or eight hours after it went live?
- meowface 10y ago
  >As an amusing thought experiment, imagine that Bitcoin is successful and >becomes the dominant payment system in use throughout >the world. Then the >total value of the currency should be equal to the total value of all >the wealth in the world. Current estimates of total worldwide household >wealth that I have found range from $100 trillion to $300 trillion. With >20 million coins, that gives each coin a value of about $10 million. >So the possibility of generating coins today with a few cents of compute >time may be quite a good bet, with a payoff of something like 100 million >to 1! Even if the odds of Bitcoin succeeding to this degree are slim, >are they really 100 million to one against? Something to think about... First ever reply to Satoshi. Finney was a smart guy.