January 3, 2009, is marked in the history of cryptocurrencies as the day the genesis block of the Bitcoin network was created. This date signifies the official beginning of blockchain operations.
It was at this time that an anonymous individual under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto successfully generated what is known as the zero block. This block contained only a single transaction, and as a reward for processing it, Nakamoto received 50 BTC.
As of the writing of this article, the Bitcoin exchange rate is approximately $96,400, making the theoretical value of this reward around $4.8 million. However, these 50 BTC remain inaccessible for use: any attempt to transfer them is blocked by the network. Whether this was a deliberate action or a technical limitation has not yet been determined.
The reward for mining the genesis block was sent to the address 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa. It is believed that other transactions to this address could be spent if Satoshi Nakamoto possesses the private key to it.