Why did Satoshi Nakamoto name the first block of Bitcoin Genesis Block?

[RainbowKun]

On January 3, 2009 GMT, mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto created, compiled, and packaged the first source code of Bitcoin on a small server in Helsinki, Finland, coining by himself the first block of Bitcoin——Genesis Block, which marked the birth of Bitcoin.


Block #0 was recorded in the public ledger at 6:15 pm of server time on the day, and the mining reward was 50 Bitcoin. It was not until six days later that Block #1, the second block of Bitcoin network, was dug out.


The emergence of Genesis Block represents the prelude to Bit World!


The world was plagued by recession then, to commemorate the coming of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto engraved the headline of the front page of The Times of the day——The Times 03/Jan/2009, Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks on the first block.


Genesis Block is the first and the most important block in Bitcoin network, meaning beginning and origin. Over time, new blocks will continuously be added to the chain, and all subsequent blocks can be traced back to the first one. Without Genesis Block, Bitcoin must have disappeared already, let alone Bitcoin community trusted by tens of millions of people around the world and crypto field spread all over the world.


The boom of Bitcoin network and community witnessed the start and end of thousands of digital currencies. One after another, industry pioneers have been practicing and exploring, encouraging the spiral development of the entire crypto world.


To commemorate Satoshi Nakamoto, the first block of all cryptocurrency projects with independent public chain network will be named Genesis Block like Bitcoin did. The genesis of independent public chains echoes that of Bitcoin, they are shining together.

But, have you ever thought about why did Satoshi Nakamoto pick the name Genesis Block? Is there any other meaning here?


As is known to all, Satoshi Nakamoto is a very meticulous and rigorous person, and every move of him means something. Till now, no one knows exactly who he is, where he is or why he created Bitcoin. Maybe the imprint he left can offer us some hint.


He could have named each block in the form of Arabic number such as Block #0, Block #1, Block #2, Block #3, Block #X to render those blocks appear equal. But he didn't.


Let's think about the original meaning of “genesis” first. In the entire human world, in the human cognitive system, there is only one who truly understands and practices its meaning——God.

At the first beginning, God created heaven and earth.
The earth was of emptiness and chaos. The spirit of God was on the water.
God said let there be light and there was light.

That is the genesis of God, giving birth to the world.


In Bitcoin era, darkness was everywhere. Satoshi Nakamoto wrote down the startup code and said, "Let there be light", then light began to appear and Genesis Block was delivered. A whole new world unveiled.


That is the genesis of Bitcoin!


From 2009 to 2021, 12 years is just a drop in the ocean of civilization history of mankind. Stunningly, the achievement in the 12 years alone has brought about earth-shaking changes in political, economic, and financial patterns and in the whole world and they are changing faster and faster like the acceleration in Moore's Law.


Most of us look at Bitcoin based on current knowledge from today's prospective. But what if from the perspective of the future? What our vision would be in 10 years, 50 years, or even 100 years? Perhaps only when that day comes, can we truly understand the original meaning of Satoshi Nakamoto's naming Block #0 as Genesis Block.


Supposing that we come to the year of 2140 when 21 million Bitcoin are almost mined, looking back at 2009, we may be able to feel the sacred mission of the birth of Genesis Block: a wholly new world was created!


It was a moment of inauguration, of the birth of a new universe, of nirvana and rebirth of human civilization and of the beginning of a new human civilization. I call the civilization Bit Civilization.


Why is this a new beginning? Because in two to five decades, mankind will suddenly discover that they have entered a world of trust and transparency built entirely by blockchain, a brand new civilization with new system and order. There is an essential difference between new civilization and the old one.


The old chronology system is no longer suitable for the development of new civilization. Therefore, mankind decided to adopt a new chronology method. I call it Bit Era System.


For the time being, human civilization employs the Gregorian chronology which starts with the legendary birth year of Jesus Christ and takes this year as the boundary. The time before is called BC, and the time after, AD.


For Bit Era System, 2009, the year Bitcoin was born, will be set as the boundary.


Correspondingly, 2010 is the second after Bitcoin and 2008 is the first year before Bitcoin, and so on. The history of human civilization will be completely rewritten with the birth of Bitcoin.


This is the biggest change that Satoshi Nakamoto's creation of Bitcoin has brought to human civilization. Satoshi Nakamoto is the Creator of Bit Civilization who pioneered and created the world. He dug out the first block of Bitcoin, which marked the genesis of Bit Civilization. That is why he chose that name.

What do you think?

[pooya87]

on a small server in Helsinki, Finland,

Where is the proof?

at 6:15 pm of server time

There is no "server time". There is only block times which are in UTC.

was dug out.

The correct term is "mined" .

The world was plagued by recession then, to commemorate the coming of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto engraved the headline of the front page of The Times of the day——The Times 03/Jan/2009, Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks on the first block.

This is mostly a timestamp proving that bitcoin's genesis block did not exist before this date.

Without Genesis Block, Bitcoin must have disappeared already, let alone Bitcoin community trusted by tens of millions of people around the world and crypto field spread all over the world.

This statement makes no sense. For starters a "chain" has to have a beginning but that doesn't make block 0 any more special than others and it makes no sense to say the chain disappears without a start! It can not exist without a start!
Also people don't trust bitcoin because it has genesis block, people trust bitcoin because it is secure, decentralized, censorship resistant, has a capped supply and in short because it works as it promised.

To commemorate Satoshi Nakamoto, the first block of all cryptocurrency projects with independent public chain network will be named Genesis Block like Bitcoin did.

Wrong. Maybe true only for one in a thousand but for the rest are using the name "genesis" for block 0 because they have either copied bitcoin core and the variable name is not changed, or simply because the word "genesis" means "beginning".

But, have you ever thought about why did Satoshi Nakamoto pick the name Genesis Block? Is there any other meaning here?

No. The word literary means beginning or root and that is the literal meaning of the block 0!

He could have named each block in the form of Arabic number such as Block #0, Block #1, Block #2, Block #3, Block #X to render those blocks appear equal. But he didn't.

We do do that too. Each block has an associated number called its "height". For example the current best chain's height is 696,174 and the first block was 0.

[aoluain]

Satoshi as we know gave enormous thought and consideration to everything
surrounding Bitcoin so calling the first block the "Genesis Block" is not surprising.

It couldnt be referred to as Block 0 (eventhough it is actually 0) or called the
Start block, or Launch block. A possible candidate could possibly have been Alpha block
but Genesis is genius.

Other references to the term Genesis are for example in the Old Testament of The Bible,
The Book of Genesis and the first 3 words in the book are "In the beginning...."

[Rainbow-queen]

In theory, the first block of every blockchain project can be called a creation block, the first block mined by Bitcoin is called a creation block, and the first block mined by Ethereum A block is also a genesis block.

Genesis-God used his own ability to create all things, and then he has the present world.

This is of course a mythical story, but later, people continued to use the concept of "Genesis" to describe an unprecedented pioneer.

Then, according to this logic, the meaning of the genesis block refers to the first block in history.

[Lucius]

For the time being, human civilization employs the Gregorian chronology which starts with the legendary birth year of Jesus Christ and takes this year as the boundary. The time before is called BC, and the time after, AD.
For Bit Era System, 2009, the year Bitcoin was born, will be set as the boundary.

To me, this is honestly a bit ridiculous if you go back as far as 2000+ years and go so far as to imply that the period before and after 2009 should be called "before Bitcoin" BB - or "after Bitcoin" AB - like comparing Christianity to Bitcoin, by which you only add fuel to the fire of those who say that Bitcoin is a religion.

This is the biggest change that Satoshi Nakamoto's creation of Bitcoin has brought to human civilization. Satoshi Nakamoto is the Creator of Bit Civilization who pioneered and created the world. He dug out the first block of Bitcoin, which marked the genesis of Bit Civilization. That is why he chose that name.

What do you think?

I think (and I hate to repeat myself) that you have gone too far in a direction that makes very little or no sense at all. It’s hard for me to imagine someone fantasizing about some kind of Bit civilization and wondering why the first block was called Genesis (as if that wasn’t self-explanatory).

Maybe it would be good to start writing some fantasy novels, you have a sense of the subject, and it sells really well.

[20kevin20]

Guess we can take so much of Bitcoin's creation and development and interpret it the same way we think of various texts in school in a thousand ways although we maybe never get to the point the author really tried to underline or .. the author didn't even leave any secret meaning at all, lol. I agree with Lucius, we shouldn't get Bitcoin compared with religion because this'd raise a lot of potential issues and it's pointless really.

It's called Genesis because it's how Bitcoin started. Why do we need to find an explanation for everything? We have it, it's being developed, it's working and it's making our lives better. That's all that matters right now imo.

[ranochigo]

Without Genesis Block, Bitcoin must have disappeared already, let alone Bitcoin community trusted by tens of millions of people around the world and crypto field spread all over the world.

No... It's not that. Genesis block is just a fancy name for the first block of a blockchain. If it doesn't exist, then that means you never had a blockchain in the first place.

To commemorate Satoshi Nakamoto, the first block of all cryptocurrency projects with independent public chain network will be named Genesis Block like Bitcoin did. The genesis of independent public chains echoes that of Bitcoin, they are shining together.

Look at the definition of genesis. It doesn't commemorate Satoshi at all.

As is known to all, Satoshi Nakamoto is a very meticulous and rigorous person, and every move of him means something.

Wrong.

God.

Ah yes, of course religion always appear somewhere.

I'm not sure what is the point of the threads that you've started. Bitcoin isn't a cult. Bitcoin isn't perfect, Satoshi isn't a god, you really don't have to create a new thread to worship them everyday.

[mckinleeanael07]

this is a pretty interesting share actually since joining this crypto market I only know about BTC and blockchain as well as the creator of BTC is satoshi Nakamoto, but don't know much about what you shared the first block of all crypto projects with an independent public chain network that will be named Genesis Block just like Bitcoin did.

[hatshepsut93]

Why is this a new beginning? Because in two to five decades, mankind will suddenly discover that they have entered a world of trust and transparency built entirely by blockchain, a brand new civilization with new system and order. There is an essential difference between new civilization and the old one.


The old chronology system is no longer suitable for the development of new civilization. Therefore, mankind decided to adopt a new chronology method. I call it Bit Era System.

You're often making such big claims, yet you never show any evidence to support them. Have you heard the phrase "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"? This is definitely the case here.
Without data to support your claims, it's nothing more than just personal opinions, beliefs and hopes. Someone can just as easily believe that Bitcoin is useless and will go to zero.

[RainbowKun]

on a small server in Helsinki, Finland,

Where is the proof?

at 6:15 pm of server time

There is no "server time". There is only block times which are in UTC.

~~

Thanks to pooya87 for raising these questions accurately and making the whole discussion more rigorous. Regarding the issue of Helsinki's server, this discussion is the public information of Bitcoin-related articles in our country. I have not questioned it before. I searched it on Google just now and there are similar English articles mentioning this. However, there is no clear evidence on how to prove this point.

Regarding why Satoshi Nakamoto named the first block of Bitcoin the "Genesis Block", we are not Satoshi Nakamoto himself, and no one is sure whether he named this block has a specific meaning. In my opinion, the word creation has a very sacred meaning, so I wrote this article and put forward this point for everyone to discuss. In response to my in-depth thinking on Bitcoin in the past few years, I proposed the concept of "Bit Civilization". Therefore, I recently wrote an article saying that the creation here is not only the creation of Bitcoin, but also the creation of a new civilization. I believe that in another 10 or 20 years, when the entire bit civilization takes shape, we can truly understand the meaning of the genesis block.

For the time being, human civilization employs the Gregorian chronology which starts with the legendary birth year of Jesus Christ and takes this year as the boundary. The time before is called BC, and the time after, AD.
For Bit Era System, 2009, the year Bitcoin was born, will be set as the boundary.

To me, this is honestly a bit ridiculous if you go back as far as 2000+ years and go so far as to imply that the period before and after 2009 should be called "before Bitcoin" BB - or "after Bitcoin" AB - like comparing Christianity to Bitcoin, by which you only add fuel to the fire of those who say that Bitcoin is a religion.

This is the biggest change that Satoshi Nakamoto's creation of Bitcoin has brought to human civilization. Satoshi Nakamoto is the Creator of Bit Civilization who pioneered and created the world. He dug out the first block of Bitcoin, which marked the genesis of Bit Civilization. That is why he chose that name.

What do you think?

I think (and I hate to repeat myself) that you have gone too far in a direction that makes very little or no sense at all. It’s hard for me to imagine someone fantasizing about some kind of Bit civilization and wondering why the first block was called Genesis (as if that wasn’t self-explanatory).

Maybe it would be good to start writing some fantasy novels, you have a sense of the subject, and it sells really well.

Thanks to Lucius for these questions, you may feel that my views are meaningless or absurd, but in my opinion, they are valuable. These views of mine are not just what I say casually, but are formed step by step on the basis of years of in-depth reading and in-depth thinking. In the past 4 years, I have read books with millions of words covering all aspects of human politics, economy, history, religion, philosophy, and science. I continue to think about Bitcoin from the perspective of the evolution of human civilization. The final conclusion is that the birth of Bitcoin is the most breakthrough thing in the past 2000 years. Just like the birth of Christianity 2000 years ago, it has epoch-making significance. Therefore, I summarized the concept of "bit civilization" and predicted that human beings will evolve to a higher level of civilization. From a physical civilization to a digital civilization, from a carbon-based civilization to a silicon-based civilization, and from an earth civilization to a cosmic civilization. More than a dozen of my recent articles are all based on this point of view. These views of mine are more based on predictions about the future. At the same time, I will follow the directions of my predictions to build the "bit civilization" in my mind, just like Plato's The Republic and Mor's Utopia.

Without Genesis Block, Bitcoin must have disappeared already, let alone Bitcoin community trusted by tens of millions of people around the world and crypto field spread all over the world.

No... It's not that. Genesis block is just a fancy name for the first block of a blockchain. If it doesn't exist, then that means you never had a blockchain in the first place.

To commemorate Satoshi Nakamoto, the first block of all cryptocurrency projects with independent public chain network will be named Genesis Block like Bitcoin did. The genesis of independent public chains echoes that of Bitcoin, they are shining together.

Look at the definition of genesis. It doesn't commemorate Satoshi at all.

As is known to all, Satoshi Nakamoto is a very meticulous and rigorous person, and every move of him means something.

Wrong.

God.

Ah yes, of course religion always appear somewhere.

I'm not sure what is the point of the threads that you've started. Bitcoin isn't a cult. Bitcoin isn't perfect, Satoshi isn't a god, you really don't have to create a new thread to worship them everyday.

Thanks ranochigo, I understand what you mean. I write these articles now more of my philosophical thinking, explaining Bitcoin from different dimensions. I think these are valuable. In my opinion, Bitcoin is not only the technology it represents, but more importantly, the ideas and culture behind Bitcoin. Decentralization, equality, freedom, openness, and harmony. I know that many people are very sensitive to religion, but we cannot stop discussing it from this aspect because of religious sensitivity. Bitcoin does not belong to us alone, but to all mankind. I now try to use some simple words to explore the countless possibilities of Bitcoin.

Why is this a new beginning? Because in two to five decades, mankind will suddenly discover that they have entered a world of trust and transparency built entirely by blockchain, a brand new civilization with new system and order. There is an essential difference between new civilization and the old one.

The old chronology system is no longer suitable for the development of new civilization. Therefore, mankind decided to adopt a new chronology method. I call it Bit Era System.

You're often making such big claims, yet you never show any evidence to support them. Have you heard the phrase "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"? This is definitely the case here.
Without data to support your claims, it's nothing more than just personal opinions, beliefs and hopes. Someone can just as easily believe that Bitcoin is useless and will go to zero.

Thank you hatshepsut93 for this question, thank you very much. Here I also express my opinion again. Yes, I made a lot of extraordinary claims, but there is not enough evidence to prove them. These are my personal opinions, beliefs and hopes. Here, I put forward more of my philosophical thinking rather than scientific conclusions. Philosophy and science are two completely different disciplines. Science requires strict evidence, inferences and conclusions. Philosophy is relatively more open. There is no unified answer and no right or wrong judgments. But I think these thoughts are still very valuable. I have always believed that Bitcoin is not only important to Bitcoin's technology, but more importantly, the ideas and culture behind Bitcoin. As I said earlier, decentralized thinking, equal and free thinking. I write these views more of an exploration of these ideas. Of course, someone must believe these ideas, someone must say that this is a fallacy, this is a joke. Each of us has our own cognitive system and judgment standards. We have also heard a famous saying: Every time human civilization progresses, it is the result of thought. These propositions that I put forward now are not only applicable to today, but also predictions for the development of human civilization in the next fifty years. I believe they will still be applicable fifty years later. I hope that in the next ten years, more and more people will reach a consensus on these views, and then build a bit civilization step by step.

[hatshepsut93]

Thank you hatshepsut93 for this question, thank you very much. Here I also express my opinion again. Yes, I made a lot of extraordinary claims, but there is not enough evidence to prove them. These are my personal opinions, beliefs and hopes. Here, I put forward more of my philosophical thinking rather than scientific conclusions. Philosophy and science are two completely different disciplines. Science requires strict evidence, inferences and conclusions. Philosophy is relatively more open. There is no unified answer and no right or wrong judgments. But I think these thoughts are still very valuable. I have always believed that Bitcoin is not only important to Bitcoin's technology, but more importantly, the ideas and culture behind Bitcoin. As I said earlier, decentralized thinking, equal and free thinking. I write these views more of an exploration of these ideas. Of course, someone must believe these ideas, someone must say that this is a fallacy, this is a joke. Each of us has our own cognitive system and judgment standards. We have also heard a famous saying: Every time human civilization progresses, it is the result of thought. These propositions that I put forward now are not only applicable to today, but also predictions for the development of human civilization in the next fifty years. I believe they will still be applicable fifty years later. I hope that in the next ten years, more and more people will reach a consensus on these views, and then build a bit civilization step by step.

Talking about influence of Bitcoin is not just philosophy, it's more of a social science so there's a burden of proving your claims in some way instead of just declaring them. Even in philosophy scholars try to make some logical arguments for their statements. You are simply postulating your opinions as facts and want us to accept them without questioning it. Meanwhile Satoshi said "don't trust, verify" and it can easily be used as Bitcoin's core value.

[RainbowKun]

Thank you hatshepsut93 for this question, thank you very much. Here I also express my opinion again. Yes, I made a lot of extraordinary claims, but there is not enough evidence to prove them. These are my personal opinions, beliefs and hopes. Here, I put forward more of my philosophical thinking rather than scientific conclusions. Philosophy and science are two completely different disciplines. Science requires strict evidence, inferences and conclusions. Philosophy is relatively more open. There is no unified answer and no right or wrong judgments. But I think these thoughts are still very valuable. I have always believed that Bitcoin is not only important to Bitcoin's technology, but more importantly, the ideas and culture behind Bitcoin. As I said earlier, decentralized thinking, equal and free thinking. I write these views more of an exploration of these ideas. Of course, someone must believe these ideas, someone must say that this is a fallacy, this is a joke. Each of us has our own cognitive system and judgment standards. We have also heard a famous saying: Every time human civilization progresses, it is the result of thought. These propositions that I put forward now are not only applicable to today, but also predictions for the development of human civilization in the next fifty years. I believe they will still be applicable fifty years later. I hope that in the next ten years, more and more people will reach a consensus on these views, and then build a bit civilization step by step.

Talking about influence of Bitcoin is not just philosophy, it's more of a social science so there's a burden of proving your claims in some way instead of just declaring them. Even in philosophy scholars try to make some logical arguments for their statements. You are simply postulating your opinions as facts and want us to accept them without questioning it. Meanwhile Satoshi said "don't trust, verify" and it can easily be used as Bitcoin's core value.

Yes, your summary is very good. Bitcoin is not only a philosophy, but also a social science. We must not only declare our claims, but also prove our claims in some way. I very much agree with this view of yours. I am also following this direction as you said. I have now written dozens of articles to explain my views. These are my in-depth thinking on Bitcoin and some of my predictions for the future of human civilization. This is the first step of my action. After I have published all the articles and opinions, I will start my second step. I will start an independent blockchain project to also verify these claims. I will build a whole set of ecosystems, to promote Bitcoin, and build a series of ecology around the idea of ​​bit civilization. And hope that through continuous actions to promote the concept of Bitcoin, more and more people can reach a consensus on these concepts. In this way, it is really possible for us to build a new human civilization centered on Bitcoin thought. I don't want everyone to accept these views without questioning. I hope to improve these views with more friends in constant exchanges and collisions.

[RainbowKun]

The first Bitcoin block mined by Satoshi Nakamoto is called the genesis block. The uniqueness of the genesis block is that it does not contain any data from the previous block, and it can also establish all the necessary variables required to create a subsequent block chain. Its mining also marked the beginning of the Bitcoin blockchain.

The birth of Bitcoin includes Satoshi Nakamoto's beautiful vision for a borderless non-sovereign currency, as well as forward-looking thinking and ideas for the future financial system. The existence and development of Bitcoin for more than ten years has demonstrated its value and position in the financial and economic market, and has shown the world the most potential development space since its begin in a unique way.

Yes, Satoshi Nakamoto named the first block of Bitcoin the genesis block, so why did Satoshi Nakamoto name it that way? Is it really a random name? I don't think so. In my opinion, Satoshi Nakamoto must have realized that when the first block of Bitcoin was born, it was also the beginning of a new era. To sum it up in my words, it is a brand new human civilization. Maybe today we still can't fully realize this, after all, Bitcoin has only been born 12 years ago. However, in another 50 or 100 years, we will see the tremendous changes that Bitcoin brings to the human world, and we will be able to truly realize why the birth of Bitcoin is called the creation of the world.