About block 973,968
Bitcoin block 973,968 was mined by ViaBTC on October 31, 2026 at 10:57 AM UTC, 21 min 32 s after block 973,967. 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 3,421 transactions in 1.56 MB (99.8% of the 4 million weight-unit limit). The median transaction paid 1.21 sat/vB, up from 0.13 sat/vB in the block before, and all fees added up to 0.0218 BTC. With the 3.125 BTC subsidy of halving era 5, ViaBTC earned 3.1468 BTC for this block.
Block 973,968 is number 241 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 483; 1,775 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 975,743. The next halving is at block 1,050,000, 76,032 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 93 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 9 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.