The coinbase parameter (seen above in hex) contains, along with the normal data, the following text:[2]

 

The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks[1]

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This was probably intended as proof that the block was created on or after January 3, 2009, as well as a comment on the instability caused by fractional-reserve banking. Additionally, it suggests that Satoshi Nakamoto may have lived in the United Kingdom.

 

The original newspaper from which this title was taken has become a collector's item, and very few copies have been identified.

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The first 50 BTC block reward went to address 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa,[1] though this reward can't be spent due to a quirk in the way that the genesis block is expressed in the code. It is not known if this was intentional or an accident.[3][4][5]

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Although the average time between blocks in bitcoin is 10 minutes, the timestamp of the next block is a full 6 days after the genesis block. One interpretation is that Satoshi was working on bitcoin for some time beforehand and The Times front page prompted him to release it to the public. He then mined the genesis block with a timestamp in the past to match the headline.

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