About block 971,689
Bitcoin block 971,689 was mined by ViaBTC on October 16, 2026 at 9:20 AM UTC, 15 min 45 s after block 971,688. That is slower than the 10-minute target; long gaps are normal, since every hash attempt is an independent lottery ticket.
It confirmed 3,865 transactions in 1.58 MB (99.8% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 2.40 sat/vB, down from 4.00 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0363 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, ViaBTC earned 3.1613 BTC for this block.
Block 971,689 is number 1,994 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 481; 22 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 971,711. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 78,311 blocks after this one.
Its hash starts with 19 zeros: that is the proof of work, a number below the target that the whole network’s hashrate had to search for. ViaBTC found 103 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 10 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.