12 years ago, Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto launched the network after revealing the concept of cryptocurrency through the white paper a few months earlier. At approximately 18:15:05 UTC, the network launched its first block, and since then, more than 664,000 bitcoin blocks have been mined. In addition, on the chain’s 12th anniversary coming to life, a large series of 2010 block rewards began to move after more than ten years without use.
The 12th anniversary of the Bitcoin Blockchain
Cryptocurrency proponents are celebrating the invocation of the first computer network to solve the Byzantine flaw dilemma created by the pseudonym inventor Satoshi Nakamoto. The birth of the Bitcoin network (BTC) is quite special and in the past 12 years, the crypto asset has become extremely valuable, peaking today on January 3 at $ 34,800 per unit.
After Satoshi shared his concept of cryptocurrency with some interested individuals online on Halloween 2008, a little more than three months later he launched the coded block reward, also known as ‘zero block’ or ‘genesis block’.
The zero block or the genesis block has the usual 50 bitcoin reward, but those particular bitcoins can never be spent. The genesis block also has two hexadecimal zeros, which was a common feature of the early blocks of the time. In addition, the infamous block zero also contained a message that can be found in the block’s coinbase parameter.
This first blockchain message recorded in Satoshi’s encoded bitcoin block says:
The Times 03 / Jan / 2009 Chancellor on the verge of second bank bailout.
The genesis block today not only has the reward of the 50 bitcoin block that cannot be spent, but people have also sent small bits of bitcoin to the address since it was launched. The address of the genesis block saw approximately 2,722 transactions and there is now an accumulated total of 68.35 idle BTC.
Currently, bitcoin blocks are quite predictable and are processed every 10 minutes or so by miners. But the block (1) that followed the coded genesis block did not occur until seven days later. The first transaction with software developer Hal Finney took place in block 9 or three full days after mining in block 1.
Well-deserved stock of Bitcoin by Satoshi Nakamoto
Now Satoshi Nakamoto also lived with the community, until December 2010. It is well known that the inventor also explored cryptocurrency during the months he spent curating the network with the community.
Interestingly, several academic articles assume that Nakamoto had mined somewhere between 700,000 and 1.1 million BTC during his tenure, starting the network. The inventor supposedly did this with a single Windows-based personal computer. It is also assumed that Nakamoto has not spent coins since they were first withdrawn, and his stock of a million bitcoins has been idle since they were issued.
Many old coins that result from coin-based rewards have not been spent and have remained dormant for more than ten years. For example, Glassnode’s onchain researchers tweeted on December 18, 2020, that “1.78 million bitcoins never left their mining address.”
Interestingly, last year, in 2020, news.Bitcoin.com discovered a miner or old school miners who spent a consecutive number of 2010 block rewards on strings. Each string spent last year has been around 20 to 21 reward blocks since 2010 and those coins have never moved since the day they were issued.
20 Rewards from the 2010 Old Decade of Change Block on January 3, 2021, in Block 664.263
Surprisingly, the mysterious miner or miners spent another big string of ‘sleeping bitcoins’ from the Satoshi era today on the 12th anniversary of the launch of the Bitcoin network. On January 3, 2021, precisely 20 block awards from 2010 were spent at the time of block 664,263. The 2010 old school miner sent the 1,000 bitcoins valued at more than $ 339 million to a BTC address that started with “35grPirp”.
After the initial consolidation, 1,000 BTC was divided into fractions following exactly the same patterns as news.Bitcoin.com found with all the other 2010 block strings. visual of the 2010 block series spent on the “Satoshi Bags Tracker” from theholyroger.com.
Usually, this miner, if he is a single entity, will spend another block of 2010 a little later in the day to count 21 blocks of rewards spent. Spending on ‘Satoshi era’ block rewards is very rare, but has been gaining momentum since 2020.
It is also important to note that the old school miner always spends the corresponding bitcoin cash (BCH) rewards, but not the bitcoinsv (BSV) rewards. The only time the miner spent block rewards in all three chains was on block rewards from 21 2010, passed on March 11, 2020, the day before the infamous ‘Black Thursday’.
Today’s 2010 block spending is quite special, seeing how it was transferred on Bitcoin’s anniversary, while the crypto asset also hit another all-time high.
We don’t really know if these coins were sold or we plan to sell them on the open market. The technical term “spent” simply means that the coins have left the original address from which they come, and it does not necessarily mean that the coins are being sold in exchange. Furthermore, the term “was Satoshi” also does not mean coins derived from Nakamoto, as the term simply means that the inventor was around during that period.
What do you think of the 12th anniversary of the Bitcoin blockchain? Let us know what you think about this in the comments section below.
Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Btcparser.com, Bitcoin.com, Holyroger.com,
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