Bitcoin glossary
Genesis block
Block 0, mined by Satoshi on 3 January 2009 — with a newspaper headline inside.
The genesis block is Bitcoin’s first block, mined by Satoshi Nakamoto on 3 January 2009. Embedded in it is the text “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” — both a timestamp and, most read it, a statement of purpose.
Its 50 BTC subsidy is unspendable by quirk of the code, the first entry in a ledger that has run continuously ever since.