Block

You can click on this link to view the appearance of blocks and the type of information they contain: https://bitaps.com/

Here is an explanation of a specific block.

https://bitaps.com/816581

ViaBTC, a cryptocurrency mining pool, successfully mined Bitcoin block 816581 at 09:10:30 UTC on November 13, 2023. It contains 4,597 transactions and is 1,806,240 bytes in size.

The block header contains the following information:

Block Hash

000000000000000000021ea196ac59b40496da39bea7d81ac7a7d8aff378881d

A block hash is a unique identifier for each block in a blockchain. It is created by applying a cryptographic hash function to the block's header data. The block hash is a fixed-length string of characters that acts as a digital fingerprint for the block.

When a new block is created, the miner collects all of the transactions that are waiting to be processed and adds them to the block. The miner then adds some other information to the block header, such as the previous block hash, the timestamp, and the Merkle root. The miner then applies a cryptographic hash function to the block header data. This creates the block hash.

Previous block hash

000000000000000000007e886ed5de2545cd7666149e969369249ad0943e4008 

The hash of the previous block in the blockchain links the blocks together in a chronological chain. This linkage makes it highly challenging to tamper with the blockchain data, as any alterations to a block would render the hash of the subsequent block invalid.

Merkle root

8d2888c3d970687f04143beeaca207c84a37cb32b9714818b383726f4637e29a

A hash of all the transaction hashes in the block. This allows for efficient verification of transactions without having to access the full block data. When a node wants to verify a transaction, it only needs to download the block header and the Merkle branch for that transaction. The node can then verify the transaction by hashing the transaction data and comparing it to the hash in the Merkle branch.

Timestamp

The time at which the block was mined. This is important for ordering the blocks in the blockchain and for calculating the block reward.

Nonce

0xda216db8 

A random number that is used to mine the block. Miners try different nonce values until they find one that creates a block hash that is below the target difficulty. The target difficulty is adjusted every 2016 (roughly two weeks) block to ensure that blocks are mined at a consistent rate.

Block reward

The amount of Bitcoin that is rewarded to the miner who mines the block. The block reward is currently 6.25 BTC and is halved every 210,000 blocks (approximately every four years).

Fee reward

0.59634501BTC

The total amount of Bitcoin transaction fees that are included in the block. This is rewarded to the miner who mines the block.

Block size

The size of the block in bytes. The block size is limited to 4 MB to prevent the blockchain from growing too large.

Stripped size

The size of the block without the witness data. The witness data is a newer part of the Bitcoin protocol that allows for more efficient signatures.

Weight

The weight of the block is calculated by taking the block size and multiplying it by a factor that depends on the version of the Bitcoin protocol that the block was created with. The weight is used to calculate the block reward and the fee reward.

Next block

The hash of the next block in the blockchain. This is used by nodes to validate new blocks.

Block difficulty

The difficulty of mining the next block. This is adjusted every 2016 blocks to ensure that blocks are mined at a consistent rate.

Network difficulty

The total difficulty of the Bitcoin network. This is used to calculate the block difficulty.

Coinbase hex

The hexadecimal representation of the coinbase transaction. The coinbase transaction is a special transaction that is created by the miner who mines the block. It contains the block reward and the fee reward.