Bitcoin's year, kept by Hal
The Book of Days
The Book of Days gives Bitcoin a year to keep. The civil calendar sets the fixed feasts. The chain sets the moveable ones, and our own node, Hal, keeps that clock: every date below that depends on a block comes from blocks Hal has verified for itself.
Hal's numbers
Hal is catching up. These are his last good numbers.
- Height
- 972,918
- Last block
- Oct 24, 7:57 AM ET
- Average block, last day
- 9 min 48 s
- Hashrate, last day
- 1,027 EH/s
- Next Turning
- Thu, Oct 29, 2026 ± 15 h est.
- Next Jubilee
- Tue, Mar 7, 2028 ± 29 days est.
Source: Bitcoin Hashpoint, node Hal. Block 972,918, mined Sat, Oct 24, 2026, 7:57 AM ET. How Hal sets these dates
Next up
White Paper Night
In 7 days
The fixed feasts
The Bitcoin year begins on White Paper Night, October 31, the way the church year begins in Advent. Each date below shows the feast's next turn on the calendar.
| Date | Observance | What it remembers | The rite |
|---|---|---|---|
| White Paper NightHal now: Day 6,567 since the white paper. | The white paper reached the mailing list, October 31, 2008 | Read the nine pages aloud. Candy for the children, a pamphlet for the adults walking with them | |
| The Feast of AbundanceHal now: 20,102,871.88 BTC issued, 95.73% of the 21 million. | Thanksgiving, kept for what human ingenuity made cheap | The Abundance Count at the table, then a gift of sats to a builder | |
| Satoshi's SilenceHal now: Day 5,795 since Satoshi's last post, December 12, 2010. | Satoshi's last forum post, December 12, 2010 | A day without price talk. Give one gift without your name on it | |
| Genesis DayHal now: Day 6,503 since block 0. | The first block, mined January 3, 2009, with its bailout headline | Proof of Keys: move coins off every exchange into your own keys. Read the headline aloud | |
| Release DayHal now: Difficulty 140.6 trillion, against 1 when version 0.1 shipped. | Bitcoin version 0.1, released January 9, 2009 | Update your wallet software and learn one new thing about how it works | |
| Running BitcoinHal now: Hal at block 972,918, mined Oct 24, 2026, 7:57 AM ET. | Hal Finney's two-word post on January 10, 2009 | Run a node, or help a friend set one up. Remember Hal, who died in 2014. Run your own node | |
| First SendHal now: 50,957 transactions waiting in Hal's mempool. | Satoshi sent Hal 10 coins in block 170, January 12, 2009, the first payment between two people | Send sats to someone who has never held any | |
| Gox RemembranceHal now: Hal's audit of Oct 23, 2026 counted 20,102,382.37 BTC in 164,557,923 unspent outputs. | Mt. Gox went dark, February 24, 2014 | Restore your wallet from its words and reread your letter to your family | |
| Pizza DayHal now: $1 buys 1,233 sats. The pizza's 10,000 BTC came to $810.78 million at the Oct 23, 2026 close. | Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 coins for two pizzas, May 22, 2010 | Buy a neighbor a meal, in bitcoin where you can, and tell the story |
The stretch from Genesis Day to First Send forms a season of its own, the Nine Days of Genesis: the nine days the network took to go from its first block to its first payment between two people. Nine pages open the year, and nine days begin it.
The chain's feasts
The chain keeps its own time, about one block every ten minutes. These feasts fall on a block height, not a date, so every date here counts as an estimate from Hal's average block time.
| Feast | Block | Blocks left | Feast day | Hal's estimate | At 10 minutes | How close |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The TurningHal now: 1,206 of 2,016 blocks (59.8%). Est. Oct 29, 2026, ± 15 h. Difficulty +5.0% at this pace. | 973,728 | 893 | est. | Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 12:48 PM ET | Thu, Oct 29, 2026, 10:41 PM ET | give or take about 16 hours |
| The Millionth BlockHal now: 27,082 blocks left. | 1,000,000 | 27,165 | est. | Sat, Apr 17, 2027, 9:01 PM ET | Fri, Apr 30, 2027, 9:21 AM ET | give or take about 11 days |
| The Halving JubileeHal now: 77,082 blocks left. Subsidy 3.125 BTC now, 1.5625 BTC after. | 1,050,000 | 77,165 | est. | Tue, Mar 7, 2028, 12:35 AM ET | Tue, Apr 11, 2028, 2:41 PM ET | give or take about 29 days |
| The MeridianHal now: 182,082 blocks left. The epoch stands 63.3% done. | 1,155,000 | 182,165 | est. | Wed, Jan 16, 2030, 7:44 PM ET | Wed, Apr 10, 2030, 6:41 PM ET | give or take about 2 months |
Hal stood at block 972,835 at Fri, Oct 23, 2026, 5:51 PM ET. Each estimate takes the blocks left and multiplies them by Hal's average block time over its last 2,016 blocks, from block 970,819: 9 minutes 20 seconds. Beside it, the same count at the protocol's target of exactly ten minutes a block. Blocks arrive at random and the network's hashing power drifts, so each date carries a margin: two standard deviations of block luck plus a 5 percent swing in the pace. A date a few days out lands within hours; a date years out can move by months. Hal refreshes these every evening. How Hal sets these dates.
| Feast | When | What it remembers | The rite |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Turning | Every 2,016 blocks | The network's difficulty reset | Stack your regular amount and check your keys |
| The Millionth Block | Block 1,000,000 | A million blocks with no rewrite of history | Watch it arrive together and write down where you were |
| The Halving Jubilee | Every 210,000 blocks | The issuance schedule keeping its word | A vigil for the block, after the Long Wait: forty days of skipping one purchase and saving the difference |
| The Meridian | 105,000 blocks after each Jubilee | The middle of each four-year epoch, 105,000 blocks after a Jubilee | The Meridian Letter: write yourself what you hold, why you hold it and what you hope for. Seal it and open it at the next Jubilee |
The record
Hal read these from its own copy of the chain's headers. Times show when each block's miner stamped it, in Eastern time.
The Halving Jubilees
| Block | Mined |
|---|---|
| 210,000 | Wed, Nov 28, 2012, 10:24 AM ET |
| 420,000 | Sat, Jul 9, 2016, 12:46 PM ET |
| 630,000 | Mon, May 11, 2020, 3:23 PM ET |
| 840,000 | Fri, Apr 19, 2024, 8:09 PM ET |
The Meridians
| Block | Mined |
|---|---|
| 105,000 | Fri, Jan 28, 2011, 4:41 AM ET |
| 315,000 | Sun, Aug 10, 2014, 11:06 PM ET |
| 525,000 | Tue, May 29, 2018, 4:24 PM ET |
| 735,000 | Thu, May 5, 2022, 6:23 AM ET |
| 945,000 | Tue, Apr 14, 2026, 3:35 AM ET |
The last 12 Turnings
| Block | Mined | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| 971,712 | Fri, Oct 16, 2026, 8:37 AM ET | +5.92% |
| 969,696 | Sat, Oct 3, 2026, 3:16 AM ET | -0.03% |
| 967,680 | Sat, Sep 19, 2026, 3:09 AM ET | +4.16% |
| 965,664 | Sat, Sep 5, 2026, 4:32 PM ET | +1.31% |
| 963,648 | Sat, Aug 22, 2026, 8:48 PM ET | -1.31% |
| 961,632 | Sat, Aug 8, 2026, 3:35 PM ET | +0.99% |
| 959,616 | Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 6:51 PM ET | -0.74% |
| 957,600 | Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 4:09 PM ET | -5.00% |
| 955,584 | Fri, Jun 26, 2026, 10:00 PM ET | +7.15% |
| 953,568 | Sat, Jun 13, 2026, 8:23 PM ET | -10.09% |
| 951,552 | Fri, May 29, 2026, 6:29 AM ET | +1.72% |
| 949,536 | Fri, May 15, 2026, 12:01 PM ET | +3.12% |
This year so far
The Bitcoin year that began on White Paper Night, October 31, 2025. Where the Hashpoint published an edition that day, the date links to it.
- Fri, Oct 31, 2025 White Paper Night
- Thu, Nov 27, 2025 The Feast of Abundance
- Fri, Dec 12, 2025 Satoshi's Silence
- Sat, Jan 3, 2026 Genesis Day
- Fri, Jan 9, 2026 Release Day
- Sat, Jan 10, 2026 Running Bitcoin
- Mon, Jan 12, 2026 First Send
- Tue, Feb 24, 2026 Gox Remembrance
- Tue, Apr 14, 2026 The Meridian, block 945,000
- Fri, May 22, 2026 Pizza Day
The Turning came 25 times: Nov 12, Nov 26, Dec 10, Dec 24, Jan 8, Jan 22, Feb 7, Feb 19, Mar 5, Mar 20, Apr 3, Apr 17, May 1, May 15, May 29, Jun 13, Jun 26, Jul 11, Jul 25, Aug 8, Aug 22, Sep 5, Sep 19, Oct 3, Oct 16.
The rites
Four rites mark a Bitcoiner's life outside the calendar, and a fifth makes the rest real.
- First Keys
- A newcomer writes down recovery words for the first time, restores the wallet from them and receives a first gift of sats from a sponsor who walked them through it. Every Bitcoiner owes someone a First Keys.
- The Pamphlet
- One sheet of paper, handed to a person who asks: what bitcoin is, why it holds value, how to take custody and where to read the white paper. Hashpoint will publish a printable version before each White Paper Night. Get this year's pamphlet.
- The Abundance Count
- At the Feast of Abundance, each person at the table names one thing that costs less work today than it did for their grandparents: light, a phone call, a shirt, a library in a pocket. Then the table counts how much of that gain the dollar hid.
- The Handing Down
- At a marriage, a birth or a fiftieth birthday, a holder writes or updates the letter of instruction from Chapter 8 and walks an heir through a restore.
The Naming. A node that has synced from the first block and checks every rule for itself is the rite that makes the rest real. When a new node reaches the tip for the first time, its keeper gives it a name and writes down its birth block. From that day on, no one has to take anyone's word about their money.
The Hashpoint's node is named Hal, after Hal Finney, who ran the first node besides Satoshi's. Hal was born at block 970,981 on Mon, Oct 12, 2026.
The rule of the pamphlet
The old door-to-door campaigns promised a reward after death that no one could confirm. This one offers freedom anyone can check tonight. That difference sets the rules.
- They knock. You answer. Halloween is the one night the neighbors come to your door. Offer, never chase.
- Candy for children, pamphlets for adults. Bitcoin material goes to the grown-ups.
- Teach custody, never price. No pamphlet predicts a price or promises a return.
- Ask for nothing. Give sats if you like. Never ask for money, an address or a signature.
- Point to the source. Every pamphlet links the white paper so the reader can verify instead of trust.
- Respect the no. One offer per person per season. A closed door stays closed.
Add to your calendar
One calendar holds the fixed feasts and every chain feast for the next 24 months, each Turning included. A chain feast carries "(est.)" in its title until its date locks: once Hal's margin is under 12 hours and falls inside one day, and in any case three days before the block. A locked date never moves.
Add to Google Calendar Apple Calendar (iPhone, Mac)
Subscribe, don't download: chain feasts move with Hal's estimate until they lock.
Any other calendar app: subscribe by URL to https://bitcoinhashpoint.com/book-of-days/book-of-days.ics
From Salvation Today, Chapter 9, "The Book of Days." No feast here predicts a price.