How the genesis block triggered

[r1s2g3]

I was wondering how the bitcoin network started. I understood that genesis block is first block, but from where the first bitcoin created to mine that first block.
(Means even for mining that first block we should have a bitcoin and couple of address to do the transaction, so how this first bicoin come into existence.)

[1715197175]

1715197175

[Xynerise]

Means even for mining that first block we should have a bitcoin and couple of address to do the transaction, so how this first bicoin come into existence.)

It doesn't work that way

For mining ANY block you don't need any bitcoins-- mining itself creates Bitcoins.

Also, addresses are just hashes of public keys. You can make as many as you want, you don't need to mine or to be connected to the internet or blockchain.

The only difference between the genesis block and any subsequently mined block is that the genesis block doesn't have a previous block header hash because well it was

[r1s2g3]

Means even for mining that first block we should have a bitcoin and couple of address to do the transaction, so how this first bicoin come into existence.)

It doesn't work that way

For mining ANY block you don't need any bitcoins-- mining itself creates Bitcoins.

So is it correct that even if nobody  do any transaction (for assumption) and miners are mining then they still find/create a block.

[Xynerise]

So is it correct that even if nobody  do any transaction (for assumption) and miners are mining then they still find/create a block.

Exactly, yes

As long as the miner includes the Coinbase transaction (the one paying the block reward), the block is valid and can be published.
They are called "empty blocks"
An example is this one

[hushan]

Besides the answers, you can actually mine your own genesis block, by the same way you mine non-genesis blocks, when you mined your own genesis block, you are essentially creating a new coin and blockchain.
You can refer to https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=181981.0 for a simple program on how to mine genesis blocks.

[BitcoinNewbie15]

Besides the answers, you can actually mine your own genesis block, by the same way you mine non-genesis blocks, when you mined your own genesis block, you are essentially creating a new coin and blockchain.
You can refer to https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=181981.0 for a simple program on how to mine genesis blocks.

Interesting. I'm trying to learn more about the technical side of Bitcoin. So does this mean Satoshi mined the Genesis block? Meaning, did he actually use computing power to mine the Block? Or was the genesis block instamined when the network went live?

[Xynerise]

So does this mean Satoshi mined the Genesis block? Meaning, did he actually use computing power to mine the Block? Or was the genesis block instamined when the network went live?

It was mined, along with subsequent blocks.
There was no premine at all in bitcoin.
The difficulty was actually very low so it was very easy to mine.

[J-N]

Interesting. I'm trying to learn more about the technical side of Bitcoin. So does this mean Satoshi mined the Genesis block? Meaning, did he actually use computing power to mine the Block? Or was the genesis block instamined when the network went live?

Satoshi Nakamoto mined the genesis block and many blocks of Bitcoin. Yes, he used the computing power of his PC (most probably Windows 32-bit) and got about 1 million BTC deposited on the different Bitcoin-adresses.

Let's calculate, how many blocks Satoshi mined.

If the reward for creating 1 block is 50 BTC, the miner is able to get approximately 50 BTC * 6 = 300 BTC during one hour (because the interval between blocks is about 10 minutes). In this case, the miner is able to get 300 BTC * 24 = 7200 BTC during one day.

As a conclusion, Satoshi Nakamoto mined during 1,000,000 BTC / 7200 BTC = 138 days = about half year. Actually, he mined during much longer time, because not every block was mined by him.

The genesis block of Bitcoin was mined at 3 January 2009, but the blockchain mining was started after 6 days at 9 January 2009.

[andrew1carlssin]

I was wondering how the bitcoin network started. I understood that genesis block is first block, but from where the first bitcoin created to mine that first block.
(Means even for mining that first block we should have a bitcoin and couple of address to do the transaction, so how this first bicoin come into existence.)

Since the Genesis Block was mentioned ... Can I take this boat and ask (without being unintentionally involved in an "off topic" ego religious war)

How did he coded the message

Code:

00000000   01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
00000010   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
00000020   00 00 00 00 3B A3 ED FD  7A 7B 12 B2 7A C7 2C 3E   ....;£íýz{.²zÇ,>
00000030   67 76 8F 61 7F C8 1B C3  88 8A 51 32 3A 9F B8 AA   gv.a.È.ÈŠQ2:Ÿ¸ª
00000040   4B 1E 5E 4A 29 AB 5F 49  FF FF 00 1D 1D AC 2B 7C   K.^J)«_Iÿÿ...¬+|
00000050   01 01 00 00 00 01 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
00000060   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
00000070   00 00 00 00 00 00 FF FF  FF FF 4D 04 FF FF 00 1D   ......ÿÿÿÿM.ÿÿ..
00000080   01 04 45 54 68 65 20 54  69 6D 65 73 20 30 33 2F   ..EThe Times 03/
00000090   4A 61 6E 2F 32 30 30 39  20 43 68 61 6E 63 65 6C   Jan/2009 Chancel
000000A0   6C 6F 72 20 6F 6E 20 62  72 69 6E 6B 20 6F 66 20   lor on brink of 
000000B0   73 65 63 6F 6E 64 20 62  61 69 6C 6F 75 74 20 66   second bailout f
000000C0   6F 72 20 62 61 6E 6B 73  FF FF FF FF 01 00 F2 05   or banksÿÿÿÿ..ò.
000000D0   2A 01 00 00 00 43 41 04  67 8A FD B0 FE 55 48 27   *....CA.gŠý°þUH'
000000E0   19 67 F1 A6 71 30 B7 10  5C D6 A8 28 E0 39 09 A6   .gñ¦q0·.\Ö¨(à9.¦
000000F0   79 62 E0 EA 1F 61 DE B6  49 F6 BC 3F 4C EF 38 C4   ybàê.aÞ¶Iö¼?Lï8Ä
00000100   F3 55 04 E5 1E C1 12 DE  5C 38 4D F7 BA 0B 8D 57   óU.å.Á.Þ\8M÷º..W
00000110   8A 4C 70 2B 6B F1 1D 5F  AC 00 00 00 00            ŠLp+kñ._¬....

 

[franky1]

if you are thinking of making you own coin. you can set your own rules
EG
make a file(block) with the contents:
my name is bob
00000

the 00000 is a nonce/salt of a block. luckily it produced a hash at 00000 (first try)
the hash of that is: 03DFAF10BE8125AFB277EE34C63BEB52B03BCB69F6D9F047C9B11D0BC9CFEE6A
now thats your block 0

now you can code your client to start checking for rules (as of block 1)
screw it. you can set your code to start validating rules as of any block number you like. but lets stick with block1
EG (in laymans terms)
from block ONE(not block0) to current block height
if Prev blockhash begins 0=valid
if janice creates 50=valid

now to create block1 contents
Prev blockhash=03DFAF10BE8125AFB277EE34C63BEB52B03BCB69F6D9F047C9B11D0BC9CFEE6A
janice=janice+50
00021

now after 22 tries block1 has a hash of: 0DECF5A46665ADFD0C82187293CD92C81866A0A7B985AA14141D512854442FD3

the good thing about blockchain technology is that you can do whatever you want. you dont have to copy satoshi's code
you can set your own contents of a block and set your own rules to decide if such content is valid or not.

later you can set new rules, as you progress
from block ONE(not block0) to 209,999
if Prev blockhash begins 0=valid
if janice creates 50=valid
from block 210,000 to current block height
if Prev blockhash begins 000=valid
if janice creates 25=valid

now you have just set it so that at block 210,000 its requires more attempts to get a hash that fits the rule and you also made the reward decrease

again you can set the rules and block format however you like

some devs are making blockchains that concentrate on hashing an updated UTXO set (list of unspent funds) where the transaction
ledger(history) can just be thrown away after 6 months because their nodes dont validate transaction history part beyond 6 months
because it would have been thought that after 6 months. and thousands of blockhashes later. theres no reason to check old/out of date data

[andrew1carlssin]

if you are thinking of making you own coin. you can set your own rules
EG
make a file(block) with the contents:
my name is bob
00000

the 00000 is a nonce/salt of a block. luckily it produced a hash at 00000 (first try)
the hash of that is: 03DFAF10BE8125AFB277EE34C63BEB52B03BCB69F6D9F047C9B11D0BC9CFEE6A
now thats your block 0

now you can code your client to start checking for rules (as of block 1)
screw it. you can set your code to start validating rules as of any block number you like. but lets stick with block1
EG (in laymans terms)
from block ONE(not block0) to current block height
if Prev blockhash begins 0=valid
if janice creates 50=valid

now to create block1 contents
Prev blockhash=03DFAF10BE8125AFB277EE34C63BEB52B03BCB69F6D9F047C9B11D0BC9CFEE6A
janice=janice+50
00021

now after 22 tries block1 has a hash of: 0DECF5A46665ADFD0C82187293CD92C81866A0A7B985AA14141D512854442FD3

the good thing about blockchain technology is that you can do whatever you want. you dont have to copy satoshi's code
you can set your own contents of a block and set your own rules to decide if such content is valid or not.

later you can set new rules, as you progress
from block ONE(not block0) to 209,999
if Prev blockhash begins 0=valid
if janice creates 50=valid
from block 210,000 to current block height
if Prev blockhash begins 000=valid
if janice creates 25=valid

now you have just set it so that at block 210,000 its requires more attempts to get a hash that fits the rule and you also made the reward decrease

again you can set the rules and block format however you like

some devs are making blockchains that concentrate on hashing an updated UTXO set (list of unspent funds) where the transaction
ledger(history) can just be thrown away after 6 months because their nodes dont validate transaction history part beyond 6 months
because it would have been thought that after 6 months. and thousands of blockhashes later. theres no reason to check old/out of date data

Hi Frank,

Thanks for reply ...

when you say

/*my name is bob
00000*/
can I ask why you need a 5 bit space ?

ok, I will try to explain my spot ..

00000000   01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................

the first column is a 8 satoshi bit long ( base 2 )

ps-> ed; I know it sounds kind silly ... but for engineering field they will show on their oscilloscope screen how my code can be awful.. 

[CryptoCCknow]

 ;)Yes, actually. The miner can mine what they need, and also need to consider the transaction issue.
https://citicoins.com/ripple/

[andrew1carlssin]

Sorry my lack of skills to properly expose my question  , so fellows I beg for patience  ...

My question has todo with a mix of physics, computing and engineering. so I expend some time looking for somebody else that could explain my question in a better way.

Regards the genesis and also the end of bitcoin  ..A long time ago a member of this forum asked how the very last bitcoin will be mined .. (lot of people made funny jokes such as .. I'll be dead so it is not my problem  ) but then came to my mind the initial machine state, in cryptography this is indeed a very important topic .. but regards to mining I was wondering about "The Fredkin gate" (is a circuit or device with three inputs and three outputs that transmits the first bit unchanged and swaps the last two bits if, and only if, the first bit is 1.)

This video below physicist professor Phil Moriarty talks about the hard limits of computing .. maybe he can explain better the point I am trying to get .. it is a short video total of 15 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv2H9fp9dT8   

[franky1]

Hi Frank,

Thanks for reply ...

when you say

/*my name is bob
00000*/
can I ask why you need a 5 bit space ?

ok, I will try to explain my spot ..

00000000   01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................

the first column is a 8 satoshi bit long ( base 2 )

ps-> ed; I know it sounds kind silly ... but for engineering field they will show on their oscilloscope screen how my code can be awful..  

8 "satoshi" bit long...

im not sure what satoshi's has to do with my nonce example. im just taking it as you being humourous to just add the word satoshi into the conversation..
but lets address the nonce example then ill talk about satoshis, the block reward and the end of bitcoin fresh coin production
....
i prefer to dumb things down into laymans ELI-5 speak whenever possible. so that anyone/everyone can understand the basics without having to test peoples knowledge/skill level before giving them advice.

so my example of
my name is bob
00000

that is just me deciding out of the randomness of human decision to press the return key on my keyboard after bob, to put a integer nonce on the second line, yes that nonce is integer (normal human numerics, not binary) just for the sake of human readible demo. so in my demo the nonce would be 5 bytes (40bits)
but like i said i try not to over complicate things

but as my whole post was expressing, that if you are creating your own blocckhain from scratch. you have the freedom to make your own rules and set things up however you like.

if you are interested more in bitcoins function rather than setting up your own blockchain. the white paper and the very first bitcoin client (satoshi-qt0.1 would help you understand the original basics. then once you get the original basics. you can skip passed a few later releases and then look at the latest version to see all the new rules that were added over the years and the new methods of data store and calculating things

...

one thing i will say about binary vs long vs double
although the front end GUI of a program displays funds of peoples public keys as bitcoin
EG
1.05btc

at code level and data storage level. it is all measured in satoshi's
EG
105,000,000 sats

for instance. front end(gui) level says there will be 21m btc eventually.
but at coding level its
5,000,000,000 sats every block(50btc) for 210,000 blocks then it halves(to 2,500,000,000 sats)(25btc).. then every 210,000 blocks it halves again and again until it cant halv any more (in about the year 2140~)
so that eventually there will be around(but not specifically) 2,100,000,000,000,000 satoshis
GUI: 21mill btc
code: 2.1quadrillion sats

[r1s2g3]

So does this mean Satoshi mined the Genesis block? Meaning, did he actually use computing power to mine the Block? Or was the genesis block instamined when the network went live?

This Satoshi's 1m instamine will  be good read.

And below is the quote from the Danny Hamilton on that topic:

No.  Bitcoin did not have any mining prior to announcement.  Bitcoin did not have any instamine.