Block reward
Also · Block subsidy · Coinbase
The block reward is what a miner earns for a valid block, the newly created subsidy plus the fees of the transactions it contains.
The miner who finds a block writes a special first transaction, the coinbase, that pays itself. It may claim 2 things. The subsidy, new coins created out of nothing according to the issuance schedule, 3.125 BTC per block since April 2024. And the fees of every transaction in the block. Together they make up the block reward.
The subsidy is Bitcoin’s only issuance mechanism and shrinks at each halving. Fees vary with demand for block space and do not follow any schedule. The long-term question is whether fees alone will fund enough hashrate to keep the chain secure once the subsidy becomes negligible. Nothing in the protocol guarantees it.
In French · Récompense de bloc