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Bitcoin block
A new block is added at to the blockchain at almost a constant rate approximately every 10 minutes. about-me A block consists of a
block header and
transaction data.
A block stores the hash of the previous block's header.
The first
transaction in a block is special: it starts a new
coin which is owned by the creator of the block.
Block header
The block header stores the hash of the previous block in the
blockchain .
The block header also stores the merkle root of the merkle tree of the hashes of the transactions stored in the transaction data section of the block.
The hash of a block header starts with many zeroes because of the requirement of the
proof of work to create the block.
Maximum size of a block
The size of a block is limited to 1 MB.
Block categories
Three categories of blocks:
Blocks in the main branch contain transactions thate are considered at least tentatively confirmed
Blocks on side branches off the main branch have (at least tentatively) lost the race to be in the main branch
Orphan blocks don't link into the main branch, usually because a missing predecessor
Blocks in the main branch and on side branches form a tree whose root is the genesis block .
The main branch is the branch with the highest sum of difficulty from genesis block to the respective leave block.
Block height
The block height is a number that indicates how much blocks there are between the genesis block (block 0) and the block with this number.
Multiple blocks can have the same block height. This is usually the case when two or more
miners create a block roughly simultaneously.
Genesis block
The first block, or block 0, is also called the genesis block.
Block database
The block database stores all information that a
client has downloaded to a
node .
The block database is stored in the
data directory in the directories
blocks (the actual Bitcoin blocks) and
chainstate (unspent
transaction output).