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Coinbase Transaction Meaning

A coinbase transaction is the first transaction in every new block on a blockchain that uses mining or validation rewards, such as Bitcoin. It is the mechanism through which new coins are introduced into circulation and miners or validators are compensated for securing the network. Unlike regular transactions, a coinbase transaction has no traditional inputs.

Instead, it creates new coins according to the protocol’s issuance rules and collects the transaction fees paid by users whose transactions are included in the block. The outputs of a coinbase transaction specify the addresses that receive the block reward and fees. In Bitcoin, coinbase transaction outputs are subject to a maturity period-typically 100 block confirmations-before they can be spent.

This rule protects the network in the event of blockchain reorganizations or forks by ensuring rewards are not immediately usable until the block is considered final. The coinbase transaction is also historically significant.

Bitcoin’s genesis block contains a coinbase transaction embedding a newspaper headline referencing bank bailouts, widely interpreted as a statement on the motivation behind creating a decentralized monetary system. Beyond issuance, coinbase transactions may include arbitrary data fields, allowing miners to embed metadata into the blockchain.

While limited in size, this feature has occasionally been used for signaling or timestamping purposes. In essence, the coinbase transaction is the economic heartbeat of mining-based blockchains, tying security, issuance, and incentives into a single protocol-defined action.

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