Bitcoin's fourth halving block sees additional $2.4 million reward paid as fee

The fourth-ever Bitcoin BTC +1.22% halving block has been confirmed. 

The halving block appears to be from the crypto mining pool ViaBTC with an additional 37.6256 BTC ($2,401,399) "reward paid as fees of the 3,050 transactions which were included in the block," according to a bitcoin blockchain explorer from Blockchain.com.

To be sure, it's possible this block can be changed after it's been confirmed. Though unlikely, the block could undergo something called chain reorganization, which occurs when two miners verify a block on the blockchain at around the same time. Since there has been intense competition among miners to nab the first post-halving block, this could happen and cause a fork in the blockchain. To know more details about the halving block, individuals must wait for more transactions to go through. 

Halving block competition and speculation

Competition among miners revved up for who would obtain the historic fourth halving block for Bitcoin — and do something unique with it. 

This year's Bitcoin halving has new tools: " Ordinals ," or small units of bitcoin minted with associated metadata, and " Runes ," more efficient token generation built on top of Bitcoin. These tools let miners associate images or other metadata in a specific Bitcoin block. 

"I’m sure all of the major mining pools and major miners have a little something special lined up," said Teddy Fusaro, president of Bitwise Invest, in The Block's spaces conversation Friday hours before the halving. "I think whoever is lucky enough to win this one is going to have a special treat for us when this block prints."

"I’d love to see maybe one of the blocks get submitted data that shows a chart of the amount of US dollars printed in the last four years," added Bitwise Invest researcher Juan Leon in the same conversation. "Just to make a point of the contrast with Bitcoin’s programatic monetary policy that has been the only asset that has successfully been able to manage inflation over its history."