About block 998
Bitcoin block 998 was mined by Unknown on January 19, 2009 at 6:18 AM UTC, 8 min 1 s after block 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 998 is number 999 of 2,016 in difficulty epoch 0; 1,017 blocks remain until the next difficulty adjustment at block 2,015. The next halving is at block 210,000, 209,002 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 7 blocks in the week before. Today the block has 971,818 confirmations, so it is settled beyond any practical doubt.