<p>Creating blocks without transactions is trivial, valid, expected under certain circumstances, and in fact happens all the time.</p>

<p>There is no chicken-and-egg problem. The first blocks were just empty.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-03T00:05:45.717Z
Here's Block #0 on blockchain.info: https://blockchain.info/block/000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f
Greg Hewgill
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-02T23:21:14.590Z
2017-10-02T23:21:14.590Z
Pieter Wuille
<p>Transactions aren’t required in order for a block to be valid, blocks are used to validate transactions and record them in a linear fashion, but transactions are not required in order for blocks to be mined.</p>

<p>Miners get a reward regardless when they mine a block, in addition they may get transaction fees as well.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-03T02:00:08.253Z
2017-10-03T02:00:08.253Z
DanielSon
<p>If there were very few coins available and people had to "mine" before they earned coins in the beginning. </p>

<p>What were they mining if there were no transactions to process? ie. no one had any coins to spend and if you arent spending there aren't any transactions to process to earn points. Seems like a chicken and egg scenario.</p>

<mining-reward>
What transaction was processed in the beginning?
gemmo
# What transaction was processed in the beginning?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-10-02)

If there were very few coins available and people had to "mine" before they earned coins in the beginning.

What were they mining if there were no transactions to process? ie. no one had any coins to spend and if you arent spending there aren't any transactions to process to earn points. Seems like a chicken and egg scenario.

**Tags:** mining-reward


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-10-02. Score: 1

Creating blocks without transactions is trivial, valid, expected under certain circumstances, and in fact happens all the time.

There is no chicken-and-egg problem. The first blocks were just empty.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Here's Block #0 on blockchain.info: https://blockchain.info/block/000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f  

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### Answer by username_3 on 2017-10-03. Score: 0

Transactions aren’t required in order for a block to be valid, blocks are used to validate transactions and record them in a linear fashion, but transactions are not required in order for blocks to be mined.

Miners get a reward regardless when they mine a block, in addition they may get transaction fees as well.


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