WHY 100 BLOCKS, BY THE WAY???
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It all started with a seemingly innocuous question. Three question marks thrown out as a self-provocation. Why 100 Blocks? Why this number, this unit, this almost liturgical repetition of blocks, when just one is enough to change a life? On the surface, it's just a project name, a brand, an aesthetic. In reality, it's a key. A key hidden within the Bitcoin protocol, where technology becomes philosophy, where the code speaks of ethics, patience, and truth.
When a miner finds a block, they receive the promise of 3.125 bitcoins. But the protocol, that incorruptible old sage, tells them: “Wait.” Not in a week, not in a month, just until a hundred new blocks are added to theirs. A hundred validations, a hundred network pulses, a hundred proofs that their work hasn't been in vain. Only then does the reward become real. Before that, it's just a line in a ledger. A wait. A faith in the code.
These 100 blocks represent the time it takes for truth to be accepted. This maturation period, inscribed by Satoshi himself in the very fabric of the protocol, is not a technical constraint: it is a lesson. Nothing true is immediate. Not reward, not recognition, not sovereignty. The miner who finds a block has performed a miracle, but he must prove to the world that this miracle holds true. He cannot claim his reward until he has waited for another hundred blocks to seal his work.
This is where everything falls into place. The 100 Blocks isn't a slogan. It's a rhythm, a beat, the very breath of the network. It's the time between action and validation, between work and recognition, between conviction and proof. It's that suspended moment where the truth hasn't yet been confirmed, but it already exists.
The miner, however, keeps working. He doesn't celebrate. He doesn't look at the price chart. He never stops. He knows that each block found might be just an illusion until it has been confirmed a hundred times by the rest of the world. He lives in this perpetual in-between: the certainty of his action, and the doubt of the consensus. Bitcoin was born from this paradox, and every miner who dedicates themselves to it silently reenacts this scene.
Waiting 100 blocks is waiting for the world to say “yes.” Yes, your work is right. Yes, your block is honest. Yes, it is now part of the shared truth. It's a validation without hierarchy, without central authority, but ruthless in its rigor. No friends, no lobbying, no special treatment: just time, proof, calculation. And this waiting is worth all the ceremonies.
When you have a project, an idea, a dream, it's the same thing. You mine your personal block. You launch it into the world, raw and sincere, without knowing if it will be accepted. And you wait. What others call randomness, Bitcoin calls proof of work. What others call patience, Bitcoin calls 100 blocks.
These 100 blocks represent a period of reflection. The space between the heat of the moment and the coldness of judgment. A buffer of reality. The protocol doesn't take your word for it; it asks you to let the network verify. It teaches you the discipline of verification. You can't force consensus. You can only wait for it to form around you, slowly, block by block.
This is the very mechanism that inspired The 100 Blocks. Because the true miner, the one who understands Bitcoin, knows that everything needs its incubation period. Art, ideas, trust, sovereignty. Everything of value is born over time. Immediacy is merely an illusion of fiat currency. In Bitcoin, nothing is instantaneous, but everything is definitive.
The 100 Blocks is also a way of saying: “I'm not waiting for the reward, I'm committing to the process.” Like the miner, the artist, the thinker, the builder advances block by block, without knowing which one will be accepted by the human network. They produce their proof of work, again and again. They know that validation will come later. Maybe after 100 blocks, maybe never. But they continue, because the meaning lies in the effort, not in the reward.
Most people want to mine immediately. They want the block and the payout in the same second. They crave the instant gratification of the fiat world, the dopamine rush of "right now." But Bitcoin doesn't work that way. It forces you to slow down, to understand that every reward must be earned, confirmed, and proven. It teaches you trust in time, the value of slowness, and the beauty of consensus achieved without violence.
It's a modern parable. The man who mines a block must wait to know if he has truly found the truth. The one who creates something must wait to know if the world will recognize the righteousness of his action. In both cases, 100 blocks of waiting are required. The protocol reminds us that truth needs time to mature, and that the reward is worthless without the time it takes to be confirmed.
So yes, “why 100 blocks, anyway?” Because that’s exactly the number Satoshi chose to symbolize the boundary between faith and certainty. 99 blocks isn’t enough. 101 would be too many. 100 is the perfect number. Neither too long nor too short. The time needed for the entire network to breathe, observe, and verify. It’s a balance between patience and movement, between individual work and collective validation.
And if you look closely, everything in Bitcoin follows this principle. Transactions need confirmations. Blocks need anchoring. Rewards need time. Even trust here is built block by block. Nothing is fixed, but nothing is arbitrary. It's a world where slowness isn't a weakness, but a guarantee of robustness.
The 100 Blocks is a celebration of this rhythm. It's not a brand, it's a philosophy: produce, wait, verify. Repeat the act, refine the proof, let the network do its work. In this world, the short term has no value. What matters is what remains after one hundred validations. When you ask a miner if they've found a block, they smile. They know the real question is: "Will your block hold after one hundred confirmations?" Because in the meantime, the network will have decided. It will have tested its robustness, its authenticity, its alignment with the universal truth of the protocol. And if it holds, then that block becomes immortal. Etched in digital stone.
What Bitcoin does with blocks, time does with ideas. It lets the dust, the excitement, the bubbles settle. It tests consistency, veracity, real value. What remains after a hundred blocks of waiting is what deserves to exist. Everything else collapses in the reorganizations of noise. So yes, The 100 Blocks was born from this image. A discreet tribute to slowness, rigor, and verification. A way of saying that everything worthwhile takes time. That resilience is forged over time. That truth is not proclaimed, it is proven. Block after block.
And if you think about it, every miner working alone in their corner, every Bitaxe, every NerdQaxe, every Umbrel buzzing in an anonymous living room, participates in this grand symphony. Each one mines their block, silently, hoping to be validated by the network. Some will find a block. Others never will. But all share the same faith: that of contributing to a truth that transcends them. The 100 waiting blocks also represent the 100 days, the 100 attempts, the 100 doubts it takes to transform an idea into a conviction. It's a metaphor for work well done, for taking the time, for rejecting mental "fiat." It's the promise that one day, perhaps, the network will recognize your work and engrave it in the chain. Not because you demanded it, but because you deserved it.
And when it happens, there's no applause. No fanfare. Just a discreet log, a "New block found" in the console, and a number added to the chain. But at that precise moment, you become part of history. Your block becomes a fragment of reality. Your proof of work is validated by the entire world. It's silent, but it's eternal. That's what The 100 Blocks is. The space between doing and recognizing. Between faith and proof. Between man and protocol. One hundred blocks of waiting for truth to separate from noise. One hundred validations for your work to become a stone in the world. One hundred reasons to continue, block after block, mining for truth.
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