About block 4,998
Bitcoin block 4,998 was mined by Unknown on February 20, 2009 at 12:56 PM UTC, 2 min 6 s after block 4,997. 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 4,998 is number 967 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 2; 1,049 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 6,047. The next halving is at block 210,000, 205,002 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 17 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 969,659 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.