Why the coinbase transaction, comming from the genesis block, don't have confirmations?
All the others coinbase transactions have confirmations, but not in the Genesis block.
1 Answer
Transaction confirmation is an external concept which tells you how difficult it is (in terms of probability) to remove that transaction from the block that contains it due to reorganization of the blockchain.
Genesis block transaction is a special one as it is hardcoded in the source code and the entire Bitcoin blockchain is built on top of the Genesis block. Confirmation concept does not apply because you cannot remove this transaction from the Genesis block, as you will be building a completely different chain if you do so.
As a side note, the coinbase transaction is also not spendable.
answered May 25, 2019 at 9:13
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Thanks! Understood. Curious the "not spendable" fact. So there are 21 million bitcoins, but spensable there are 21million - 50btc :D Commented May 25, 2019 at 10:20
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There are two good answers on this forum on that which you can search. If you don't find it, I'll post it later when I am in front of computer Commented May 25, 2019 at 10:30
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@user1710825 Check the embedded link in my edited post to see why the coinbase transaction is not spendable. As to your question about how many bitcoins will be outstanding, read bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/38994/… Commented May 25, 2019 at 13:13