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I looked up Block 200 at https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/blocks/btc/200 and found out that coinbase transaction was made and sent 50 BTC to 1HwmP33SaknLYShXfjVU8KmVThU3JiuVgH.

But if I check utxos that 1HwmP33SaknLYShXfjVU8KmVThU3JiuVgH has by using scantxoutset from my bitcoin node, there is no such 50 BTC at its result.

{
  "success": true,
  "txouts": 111958375,
  "height": 800185,
  "bestblock": "000000000000000000025a01c53bd3a6842321e50345373a2bcf7975b02a8d59",
  "unspents": [
    {
      "txid": "cc66c9303cdf1f6bf52549918fd2b2de776edb220e796ef1b72dec1fae37a447",
      "vout": 160,
      "scriptPubKey": "76a914b9dd855e0ea21b3ed1c13c896682475e0c05416788ac",
      "desc": "addr(1HwmP33SaknLYShXfjVU8KmVThU3JiuVgH)#t4jlhv9w",
      "amount": 0.00000547,
      "height": 665222
    },
    {
      "txid": "cdb8076b0f120959f310b3f2def52378843a2a213feb4bdb007827b3f672dd53",
      "vout": 340,
      "scriptPubKey": "76a914b9dd855e0ea21b3ed1c13c896682475e0c05416788ac",
      "desc": "addr(1HwmP33SaknLYShXfjVU8KmVThU3JiuVgH)#t4jlhv9w",
      "amount": 0.00000547,
      "height": 643265
    },
    {
      "txid": "1d2362fba0bd11cabdae3e080dad5f0f4db43799052ccaedfe1823baf3b702da",
      "vout": 273,
      "scriptPubKey": "76a914b9dd855e0ea21b3ed1c13c896682475e0c05416788ac",
      "desc": "addr(1HwmP33SaknLYShXfjVU8KmVThU3JiuVgH)#t4jlhv9w",
      "amount": 0.00000547,
      "height": 670662
    }
  ],
  "total_amount": 0.00001641
}

I knew that the reward of the genesis block is unspendable.
Is it true for other old blocks or is there any special rule for this?

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  • 1
    Did you use an addr(ADDRESS) descriptor to scan? My guess is that if you use combo(PUBKEY) instead, you will see it. Also, if you look on more modern block explorers (like blockstream.info, or mempool.space) you will also not see it. If so, the difference is due to the fact that in modern interpretation 1... addresses are exclusively for P2PKH outputs, while this block's coinbase output is P2PK. Historically, some software used to "reinterpret" these as having the corresponding P2PKH address, but this is very confusing.
    – Pieter Wuille
    Jul 25 at 12:19

1 Answer 1

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You appear to have searched for a Pay to Public Key Hash (P2PKH) address, but the output on the coinbase transaction of block 200 is a Pay to Public Key () output.

There is no address standard for P2PK outputs, but in the past P2PK and P2PKH were considered more closely associated than today. For these historic reasons some older block explorers still show the corresponding P2PKH address for P2PK outputs. Block explorers that are being more actively developed, e.g. mempool.space or blockstream.info will show correctly that the transaction has a P2PK output:

enter image description here via mempool.space

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