January 3rd, 2009: “Genesis Day” – Happy Birthday Bitcoin!

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Bitcoin’s Birthday is celebrated on January 3rd, marking the date when the first block of the blockchain, known as the genesis block, was mined by its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, in 2009.

This event officially launched the Bitcoin network. While the Bitcoin white paper was published on October 31, 2008, the network’s practical inception is recognized as January 3, 2009.

The genesis block contained a message referencing a financial crisis headline, symbolizing Bitcoin’s origin in response to the 2008 financial turmoil. This date is also known as “Genesis Day” and is commemorated annually by the crypto community.

Key facts:

50 BTC reward was sent to the Genesis address, though it’s believed these coins cannot be spent due to a hardcoded restriction.
The block contains a coded message: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”, referencing a newspaper headline and, highlighting Bitcoin’s purpose as an alternative to fragile traditional finance.
January 3rd is celebrated annually by the crypto community as Bitcoin’s Birthday, and a symbol of financial sovereignty.
Proof of Keys Day: Held annually on January 3rd, this event encourages Bitcoin holders to withdraw their coins from exchanges to emphasize self-custody, directly tied to the Genesis Block’s anniversary.

Additional Facts About Bitcoin’s Genesis Day

Timestamp: The Bitcoin Genesis Block was mined on January 3, 2009, at 18:15:05 UTC (Unix timestamp: 1231006505).
Unspendable Reward: The 50 BTC block reward is permanently unspendable due to a non-standard coinbase transaction script, making it a symbolic rather than functional payout.
Hardcoded into Nodes: The Genesis Block is hardcoded into every Bitcoin client, serving as the root-of-trust for the entire blockchain. Any chain not starting with this block is rejected.
No Previous Block: Its previous block hash is all zeros, as it is the first block in the chain.
Low Difficulty: It was mined at the minimum difficulty level (1), with nonce 2083236893.
Only One Transaction: The block contains just the coinbase transaction—no regular transactions existed yet.
Second Block: Mined six days later (January 9, 2009), marking the start of regular block production.