BLOCK creation only containing 1 transaction. Generation 50 BTC

[zimmer4mp]

Hi Folks,
 Yes I'm a Newbie here at BitCoin, Newbie to Forums in general, so if I do something impolite or dumb , Sorry , let me know.
Found BitCoin from Security Now on the TWIT network podcast last week and find the BTC concept interesting.

So my question to the developers is:
If generating BTC's and paying myself for doing work, (processing transactions), why do I see Blocks , [ http://blockexplorer.com/ ] , being generated with just the one transaction for 50 BTC.
I think every Block should contain at least 2 transactions.

Any thoughts ?

[1714793949]

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[genjix]

Actually adding transactions is optional. Some miners don't add them.

[theymos]

Even a block with just a generation transaction makes it more difficult for previous blocks to be reversed.

[theymos]

The single transaction is the generation transaction that pays to the generator. All blocks must have at least this one transaction.

There just weren't any new transactions at that time, probably. There are tens of thousands of blocks like these. Blocks are created regardless of the number of transactions, and the hashing scheme is set up in such a way that adding transactions doesn't slow down hashing at all.

[G-Nugget]

Since generating blocks only hashes the fixed length header, there isn't a disadvantage to having more transactions in a block.  The fees on transactions are an incentive for users to include transactions in blocks, as the generator of the block gets the fees as well.