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Satoshi Gazette
Glossary

Block subsidy

The new bitcoin a block may create for its miner, set by height alone: 50 BTC at first, halving every 210,000 blocks; 3.125 BTC for blocks 840,000 to 1,049,999.

Mining

Definition dated

also subsidy · new-coin subsidy

The subsidy is the part of a miner's reward that did not exist before the block. Bitcoin Core computes it from the height alone: 50 BTC, halved once for every 210,000 blocks already mined, in whole satoshis. Every node applies the same function, so a block whose coinbase pays out more than the subsidy plus the block's fees is invalid everywhere.

Because it depends only on height, the subsidy of any block, past or future, can be worked out without asking anyone. It fell to 3.125 BTC at block 840,000 and falls to 1.5625 BTC at block 1,050,000.

The Mining tab shows how much of the last 144 blocks' reward came from the subsidy and how much from fees.

Common misreadings3

  • People say

    The block reward is the subsidy

    Precisely

    The reward a miner may claim is the subsidy plus the block's fees. The subsidy is only the newly created part.

  • People say

    Miners always take the full subsidy

    Precisely

    A coinbase may pay out less than it is allowed to, and what it leaves unclaimed is gone for good. gettxoutsetinfo itemises it as unclaimed rewards.

  • People say

    The subsidy ends in 2140

    Precisely

    It ends by height, not by date: integer division takes it to zero at block 6,930,000. The year depends on how fast blocks arrive.