<p>There is no technical constraint causing the genesis block's reward to be unspendable forever.</p>

<p>It is a bug that has now become the accepted standard.  In the future the genesis block reward could be spent but clients must be updated to fix this bug or they will reject blocks containing a valid input referring to this transaction (4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b).  </p>

<p>Other clients outside of bitcoind, like btcd, also mimic this bug so they don't risk a fork if Satoshi ever decided to spend these coins.  Seeing that Satoshi isn't around much fixing this bug isn't exactly a priority and there is a good chance that this might never be "fixed".  </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-28T04:21:43.280Z
It may or may not be considered a bug, but it is part of the consensus rules now, effectively. Software can be changed to alter this, but with a software change we could also make Bitcoin a frontend for Paypal - so it's not a very interesting argument. Effectively, every full validation node needs to be modified, at the same time simultaneously, or we'd be giving Satoshi a means to instantly fork the network. Changes like this are called "hard forks", and only done when there is very pervasive consensus that it is needed.
Pieter Wuille
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-27T23:56:18.137Z
2015-01-28T05:00:43.390Z
2015-01-28T05:00:43.390Z
Zamicol
<p>Is the genesis block reward forever unspendable?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-29T23:48:14.200Z
I believe this is not a duplicate.  The other question asks why it is unspendable.  This questions asks if that is changeable.
Zamicol
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-30T02:56:34.133Z
I might be biased, since I wrote the original question, but I think that this question is a subset of the question I wrote.
Nick ODell
<genesis-block><coinbase-transaction>
Is it true the genesis block reward can't be spent forever?
Zamicol
# Is it true the genesis block reward can't be spent forever?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-01-27)

Is the genesis block reward forever unspendable?

**Tags:** genesis-block, coinbase-transaction

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I believe this is not a duplicate.  The other question asks why it is unspendable.  This questions asks if that is changeable.  
> **username_1**: I might be biased, since I wrote the original question, but I think that this question is a subset of the question I wrote.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2015-01-27. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

There is no technical constraint causing the genesis block's reward to be unspendable forever.

It is a bug that has now become the accepted standard. In the future the genesis block reward could be spent but clients must be updated to fix this bug or they will reject blocks containing a valid input referring to this transaction (4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b).

Other clients outside of bitcoind, like btcd, also mimic this bug so they don't risk a fork if Satoshi ever decided to spend these coins. Seeing that Satoshi isn't around much fixing this bug isn't exactly a priority and there is a good chance that this might never be "fixed".

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: It may or may not be considered a bug, but it is part of the consensus rules now, effectively. Software can be changed to alter this, but with a software change we could also make Bitcoin a frontend for Paypal - so it's not a very interesting argument. Effectively, every full validation node needs to be modified, at the same time simultaneously, or we'd be giving Satoshi a means to instantly fork the network. Changes like this are called "hard forks", and only done when there is very pervasive consensus that it is needed.  

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