About block 11,973
Bitcoin block 11,973 was mined by Unknown on April 23, 2009 at 4:07 PM UTC, 9 min 39 s after block 11,972. That is faster than the 10-minute average the network aims for: blocks come in bursts because finding one is pure chance.
It confirmed 1 transactions in 0.00 MB (0.0% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 0.00 sat/vB, and all fees added up to 0.0000 BTC. With the 50.000 BTC subsidy of halving era 1, Unknown earned 50.0000 BTC for this block.
Block 11,973 is number 1,894 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 5; 122 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 12,095. The next halving is at block 210,000, 198,027 blocks after this one.
Its hash starts with 8 zeros: that is the proof of work, a number below the target that the whole network’s hashrate had to search for. Unknown found 3 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 963,663 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.