About block 496
Bitcoin block 496 was mined by Unknown on January 14, 2009 at 8:40 PM UTC, 17 min 39 s after block 495. That is slower than the 10-minute target; long gaps are normal, since every hash attempt is an independent draw with the same tiny chance.
It confirmed 2 transactions in 0.00 MB (0.1% 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 496 is number 497 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 0; 1,519 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 2,015. The next halving is at block 210,000, 209,504 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 8 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 972,067 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.