Wondering: for the first block to be validated, it is necessary to validate transactions (mining) in order to receive the reward for the new block created.
Mining is just the inclusion of transactions into the Blockchain. Every full nodes on the network would verify the transaction.What was traded the first time for this reward to be granted? Or in other words: what did the first miner validate to receive 50 bitcoins?
The whole point of mining is not for miners to validate transactions. They can choose not to include any transactions other than the coinbase transaction. Coinbase transactions doesn't need a reference input.What I don't get is: even if this block is out of nothing, it had to generate a reward for the validation of 50 btc that do not exist, to a miner who did not validate anything...
Mining is also the distribution of Bitcoins. If you don't give BTC even if someone mined a block which doesn't have a transaction other than the coinbase, the supply would be hard to regulate. Some blocks today also do not have other transactions other than the coinbase. I think a little further: if we assume Satoshi received 50 btc to validate an nonexistent transaction that does exist. In his first transaction, was he the only one able to validate his own transaction?
Any nodes that run the reference Bitcoin client can validate the block and testify that he did deserve that amount of Bitcoins since his block matches the target.You get the block reward (+ transaction fees) if you mine a valid block that matches the target, regardless of how many transactions you include.
