Block Reward
New cryptocurrency paid to a miner or validator for successfully adding a block to a blockchain.
A block reward is the payment a blockchain gives to the participant who successfully adds the next block of transactions. In Bitcoin, this reward goes to the miner who finds a valid proof-of-work solution, and it is made up of newly created bitcoin plus any transaction fees included in that block. The new-coin portion is also how Bitcoin issues its supply over time, following rules written into the protocol rather than decisions by a company or central bank.
Block rewards matter because they help secure the network. Miners spend electricity and computing power to compete for blocks, and the reward gives them an economic reason to follow the rules and validate transactions honestly. Bitcoin’s newly issued reward is cut in half at regular intervals, an event called a halving, which gradually reduces the rate of new bitcoin creation until no new bitcoin is issued. A practical comparison is a paycheck for maintaining the ledger: the miner does the work of confirming transactions and, if successful, receives the block reward as compensation.
Other terms in Bitcoin
ASIC
A specialized computer chip built to do one task very efficiently, commonly used in Bitcoin mining to perform hashing calculations.
BTC
The ticker symbol for bitcoin, the native currency of the Bitcoin network.
Bitcoin
A decentralized digital currency and payment network that lets people send value without relying on a bank or central authority.
Block Height
A block height is the number that shows a block’s position in a blockchain, counted from the first block.