2

I was aware that the Genesis block's reward was unspendable, and that there was no UTXO for it in the UTXO Set. I thought that this was due to the Genesis block being hardcoded and the actual synchronization beginning with block #1. I have heard people in the past referring to the unspendability of the reward as a quirk or bug. Midmagic mentions that it's a hardcoded exception that made the Genesis Block coinbase unspendable.

Can someone elaborate in detail what makes Genesis block coinbase unspendable?

Improve this question
5
  • 2
    I think the existing questions are a bit outdated, so here goes: Both. Originally it was indeed due to either an oversight or intentionally that when the database was initialized, it would not include the genesis block. As that code was rewritten, it was replaced with an explicit exception to maintain compatibility.
    – Pieter Wuille
    Commented Apr 20, 2019 at 19:12
  • @PieterWuille I've reopened the question so you can answer it instead of commenting. :)
    – Murch ♦
    Commented Apr 20, 2019 at 19:23
  • Or maybe rather, you could post an up-to-date answer on the duplicate target?
    – Murch ♦
    Commented Apr 20, 2019 at 19:25
  • In this post, @JBaczuk explains how it can be made spendable. Perhaps this contains some relevant pointers?
    – Mason Ticehurst
    Commented Apr 20, 2019 at 22:59
  • Yeah, I had closed it as a duplicate of bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/10009/5406 previously, but then Pieter wrote a great comment here. I guess closing as a duplicate is still correct, but I'd love for Pieter's comment to become an answer on the duplicate target.
    – Murch ♦
    Commented Apr 21, 2019 at 2:19

0

Reset to default

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.