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Satoshi Gazette
The recordDefinitions

Glossary

The terms the Gazette uses, each defined in one sentence and then explained, with how it is measured, the primary record it comes from and the piece it was first used in. Where a piece first uses a term, the word carries this definition.

Terms on file

47

Last updated ·

B1

  1. Block subsidyalso subsidy · new-coin subsidyThe 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.

C1

  1. Coinbase transactionalso generation transactionThe first transaction in every block, with no real input, through which the miner claims the subsidy and the block's fees. The exchange called Coinbase took its name from it.

D2

  1. Difficulty adjustmentalso retargetBitcoin's automatic recalibration, every 2,016 blocks, of how hard a block is to find, so blocks keep arriving about every ten minutes whatever the hashrate does.
  2. Difficulty epochalso retarget period · difficulty periodA run of 2,016 blocks sharing one difficulty, from a height divisible by 2,016 to the block before the next; at its end the difficulty is retargeted from how long it took.

E1

  1. Empty blockalso coinbase-only blockA valid block holding no transaction but its own coinbase: it pays its miner the subsidy and no fees, and confirms nothing for anyone else.

F1

  1. Fee share of rewardalso fee shareThe part of miners' reward that came from transaction fees rather than new coins, over a stated window of blocks: fees ÷ (subsidy + fees). It counts fees paid on chain only.

H3

  1. Halvingalso halvening · subsidy halvingThe block, every 210,000, at which the block subsidy is cut in half: heights 210,000, 420,000, 630,000 and 840,000 so far, the next at 1,050,000. Fees are not halved.
  2. Hashpricealso hashprice at difficulty · sats/TH/s/dayExpected miner revenue per unit of hashing, in sats per TH/s per day at the current difficulty; a model, not a payout.
  3. Hashratealso network hashrate · EH/sAn estimate of the total computing work the Bitcoin network is doing, inferred from how fast blocks arrive against the current difficulty.

P1

  1. Pool labelalso mining pool attribution · coinbase tagThe name attributed to a block from the coinbase transaction's tag or payout address; a label of who assembled the block, not proof of who owns the hashrate.

How the glossary works

A term is added when a published piece or a Data Desk instrument needs it, and filed under one field: protocol and network, mining, custody and holdings, or policy and money. Each entry carries a one-sentence definition that can be quoted whole, a longer explanation, the primary record the definition rests on, and a link to the piece where the Gazette first used it. Terms the desk measures also say how they are measured, where on the desk, and what people commonly get wrong about them. In that piece the term’s first mention links here, so the definition reaches the reader where they meet the word. Definitions are dated and revised in the open; a change that alters a meaning is logged in Corrections.