Bitcoin Landscape Explore the landscape

A visual essay and guide

What remains

Bitcoin’s unspent outputs, block by block

Every bitcoin in existence sits in an unspent output, and every one of those outputs is in this landscape. Seen from above it is a map: time runs left to right, from the first block in 2009 to the newest; amount runs upward, from dust to whole coins to thousands of bitcoin. Height and colour show how much remains in each place. Your browser replays the real chain to draw it.

Explore the landscape Watch the film 3:12

The landscape seen from beyond its newest block: a long field of glowing columns runs back to a dark horizon, its near edge bright where the chain is still being written.

I. Field

Seen from beyond its newest block, the landscape runs back to 2009 at the horizon. The near edge glows where the chain is still being written. Everything behind it is what remains: outputs that were created at some block and have not been spent since.

The landscape from beyond its newest block, the bright near edge in front and the older field receding toward the horizon.
Explore this view
Read the data

A cell covers 64 blocks of creation time and one of 2,072 amount rows. Height and colour show weighted density: an output of up to 5 BTC counts one; a larger output counts its amount divided by 5 BTC, so large holdings stay visible among the small. Height follows a logarithm of that value.

II. The map

From above, the field becomes a map. Time runs left to right, from the first block in January 2009 to the newest, at the right edge. Amount runs upward on a scale where each step is ten times the one below: single satoshis at the bottom, whole coins in the middle, 10,000 BTC and more at the top. Every point on the map is a cell, and bright lines are amounts that many outputs share.

The whole chain from above as a long strip, with the years from 2009 to 2026 marked along the bottom.
From the opening view up to the whole chain, then down over every amount of the last five years.
Explore this view
The map from above over 2022 to 2026: years along the bottom and amounts up the right side, from 1,000 sat to 1,000 BTC, with bright horizontal lines at round amounts.
From above1,000 sat → 1,000 BTCThe last five years from above, with the film’s axes. Each label up the side is ten times the one below it.

III. Five places

Bitcoin’s history leaves shapes on the map that you can learn to recognise. The film visits five of them, each in the look that shows it best.

  • Low over the oldest row: a long line of columns of about 50 BTC outputs runs into the distance, labelled about 50 BTC each, 2009 to 2010, 33,094 never spent. Look · Landscape

    The first line

    The oldest row still standing: outputs of about 50 BTC, the block reward of 2009 and 2010. 33,094 of them have never moved; together they hold about 1.65 million BTC.

    Explore this view
  • A dark blue field crossed by bright horizontal lines labelled 10 BTC, 1 BTC, 0.1 BTC and 0.01 BTC. Look · Outputs

    Round amounts

    Bright lines are popular amounts. From 2014 to 2018, the rows around 0.01, 0.1, 1 and 10 BTC each hold at least twice as many outputs as any of the two rows on either side.

    Explore this view
  • In warm orange haze, a dense ridge of tall pale columns of tiny outputs. Look · Golden hour

    The ridge

    From 2023, a ridge of tiny outputs piles up, worth a few hundred satoshis each.

    Explore this view
  • In daylight, one cell among the rows of large amounts, labelled 35 times 1,000 BTC. Look · Daylight

    Towers

    One cell holds 35 outputs of exactly 1,000 BTC, all made within ten hours.

    Explore this view
  • The newest edge of the field seen from the side: a wall of pale columns ending at empty ground. Look · Landscape

    The newest edge

    The field only grows here, at its right-hand edge, one block at a time.

    Explore this view
Close among the columns: one tall column of about 1 BTC outputs stands in the middle, its height marked in fine divisions, among shorter blue neighbours.
Cell 15150:803214 outputs214.0569 BTC

IV. A cell

Come close and the map breaks into columns. Each column is a cell: everything made in the same 64 blocks, about half a day, at nearly the same amount. This one holds 214 outputs of about 1 BTC each.

Width
64 blocks, 969,600 to 969,663 · 13 hours
Depth
One amount row · 0.997 to 1.009 BTC
Divisions
One for each output · 214
Height
Grows with the count, on a logarithmic scale
Above the field near the newest edge, a line leads from one tall column to a card that reads one cell: 214 outputs, 64 blocks, 13 hours, 0.997 to 1.009 BTC.
Down to the column, with the film’s anatomy of a cell.
Explore this view
Read the data

Cell 15150:803 covers blocks 969,600 to 969,663 and amounts from 0.99676749 to 1.00868904 BTC. At block 969,652 it holds 214 outputs, 214.0569 BTC. Height is a logarithm of weighted density, so ten times as many outputs do not stand ten times as tall; the divisions always show the exact count.

V. Time

Now let eight days of real blocks run: 1,200 blocks, from 969,652 to 970,852, with the camera still. At block 969,912, seventeen of the cell’s outputs are spent in a single block. A spent output leaves the unspent set; its bitcoin is not destroyed but moves into new outputs at the edge. The column grows to 232 outputs while its last blocks are written, then only loses them, down to 94.

Beside the column at block 969,955: a label reads minus 17 spent above it, and a counter reads 129 outputs.
Blocks 969,652 → 970,34372 blocks/s The first 691 of the eight days’ blocks, as in the film. The counter beside the column shows its outputs at every block; at block 969,912 it drops from 160 to 143.
Explore this view
Read the data

The cell holds 214 outputs at block 969,652, 160 at block 969,911, 143 after block 969,912, 108 at block 970,345 and 94 at block 970,852. Flashes mark spends, brighter for more bitcoin moved; spends of coins created within the last four weeks are dimmed, because young coins move constantly.

VI. From above

The same eight days, from above. Each flash is a spend: outputs leaving one cell in that block, drawn where their coins were made, so the years along the bottom read as their age. Most flashes crowd the newest edge, where young coins move all the time. The rest are old coins waking up anywhere back to 2009: 1,000 BTC made in 2018, 100 BTC from 2019.

The whole chain from above in dim grey, sprinkled with amber flashes that thicken toward the newest edge, with the years 2009 to 2026 along the bottom and a label reading 100 BTC spent, coins from 2019.
Blocks 969,652 → 970,852Pulse · 100 blocks/sBitcoinTimelapse.com · 125 blocks/s In Pulse the field dims to grey so only activity shows. Then the same blocks in the look of the original 2D film, over the recent years: new outputs rise at the edge while spends flicker out across the field.

Explore Pulse from above Explore the film’s look

Both open at block 969,652. Press Play to watch the flashes.

Read the data

A flash’s brightness follows the bitcoin moved. The film’s Pulse view shortens the glow to a half-life of 100 blocks and tames the newest edge, which is spent constantly, so that eight days read clearly; the link carries those settings. The labels in the film name a few of these spends of older coins.

VII. Readings

Colour can answer different questions. In both views height shows the number of outputs. In the first, the warmer the colour, the more outputs: the crowded rows of small amounts burn brightest. In the second, the warmer the colour, the more bitcoin: the crowded rows go dark, and the rows above 5 BTC light up.

The field with colour by number of outputs: the crowded rows of small amounts glow brightest across the near side.
A · OutputsColour by outputs per cellExplore this view
The same field with colour by bitcoin held: the crowded small-amount rows turn dark and the rows of large amounts light up.
B · ValueColour by BTC per cell (1 to 2,000 BTC)Explore this view

Explore the landscape

Every view on this page opens in the app at its exact block and camera.

Practical

The guide

Touch

On a touch screen, map mode follows the conventions of map apps: every gesture keeps the ground under your fingers where it is. Pinch, twist and a two-finger drag combine in one movement.

Phones get their own layout. The timeline keeps the scrubber, transport, the speed menu, and Places, Settings and Help; in portrait the inspector and the settings open as sheets from the bottom. Fly mode needs a keyboard.

Gestures

One finger
Pan; the ground stays under your finger
Pinch
Zoom around your fingers
Twist
Rotate
Two fingers up or down
Tilt
Tap
Inspect the cell
Double-tap
Fly closer; keep the second tap down and drag to zoom
Two-finger tap
Zoom out
The app on a phone in portrait: the landscape fills the screen above a compact timeline with large touch controls.
The phone layout, portrait.

Time and playback

Space plays or pauses. The speed menu in the timeline offers 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 5x, 10x, 20x and Max. Keys 0 to 4 select 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 5x and Max; 1x is 60 blocks, about 10 hours of Bitcoin, every second. [ and ] step one block back or forward, exactly; with Shift they step 1,008 blocks, about a week. The timeline also accepts a block height or a UTC date.

N, or the Follow button, follows the tip: the camera moves with the newest block, while playing and when you scrub or step, and you can still pan, orbit and zoom. N again stops. Every block you land on, by seeking, stepping or playing at 1x, is the exact unspent set after that block. Online, 5x, 10x, 20x and Max follow the speed of your connection, and the HUD says so when playback is download-limited.

M, or the Sound button, turns on a click for each spend flash on screen while the chain plays, darker for older coins and louder for more bitcoin. Sound is off at first.

The whole landscape from far above as it grows from the genesis block to the newest.
The whole history: block states sampled about 2,000 blocks apart, from the genesis block on.

The inspector

Point at the landscape and a card under the block panel names the cell under the cursor: its range of amounts, its 64 blocks and the days they were mined, and the unspent outputs and value it holds at the current block. It reads data already in your browser, so it follows the cursor.

The card under the cursor: size 0.9967 to 1.009 BTC, blocks 969,600 to 969,663, unspent outputs 214, value 214.0569173 BTC.

Click the cell, or press I with the cursor on it, to open the inspector. A ring marks the cell in the landscape. Below a heading with the cell’s column and row, its blocks and its exact range of amounts, the drawer has four parts. Here it is open on the column of about 1 BTC outputs that the essay follows.

At this block
Worked out in your browser by the same replay that draws the landscape: the unspent outputs and their value, the weighted density that sets height and colour, the bitcoin spent from the cell recently, and how the outputs split between up to 5 BTC and above.
History index
The cell’s complete record from the server: every output ever created in it, in which block, and when it was spent. A tick confirms that the record and the replay agree to the satoshi.
Lifecycle
How many outputs the cell has ever received, how many are alive at this block, how many are still unspent at the latest block the index covers, and the median lifespan of its outputs. The chart draws its unspent outputs over time.
Outputs
The outputs themselves: those still unspent, those spent after this block (earliest first) and, folded away, those spent before it, each with its amount, its creation block and its age.

Its last line opens the same place in the 2D explorer at bitcointimelapse.com, at the nearest pixel. On a phone, tap a cell and the inspector opens as a sheet.

The inspector drawer for cell column 15,150, row 803, blocks 969,600 to 969,663: at block 969,652 it holds 214 unspent outputs worth 214.0569173 BTC; the history index matches the replay; 448 outputs were ever created, 75 are still unspent; a chart of unspent outputs falling over time; and a list of the unspent outputs with amount, creation block and age.
The inspector on the 1 BTC column at block 969,652: 214 outputs alive, 448 ever created, and its unspent outputs falling over time.

Looks

A look sets the light, palette and measure in one choice; the data stays the same. Eleven are built in, each one click away in the settings, and Save… stores your own. The settings also change one thing at a time: the cells’ shape (smooth, columns, boxes or stepped), how tall the big coins stand, and the time of day.

  • The field in deep blue dusk light, its columns lit by a soft afterglow under a darkening sky.

    Landscape

    The default look: film palette colours in the blue hour just after sunset, the first stars out, light haze, shadows, bloom and cylinder columns near the camera.

    Explore this view
  • The field in flat, unlit film colours on pure black, with white-hot rows among the blue.

    BitcoinTimelapse.com

    The film at bitcointimelapse.com: its unlit colours through the film palette, stepped cells instead of cylinders, black background and ground, no lighting or post effects.

    Explore this view
  • The field under a pale blue midday sky, green and yellow columns casting short crisp shadows.

    Daylight

    Midday: a high white sun in a pale blue sky, crisp shadows and the viridis palette, with no glow, so the relief reads like a map.

    Explore this view
  • The field at sunset in orange haze, long shadows stretching from its columns.

    Golden hour

    Sunset from the tip side: a low orange sun, long shadows, thick warm haze, light shafts toward the sun and the inferno palette.

    Explore this view
  • The field as land in a morning sea, sand and brown at its sparse edges and green where it is busiest.

    Earth

    A summer morning over an atlas: mist pales the distance, a sea runs to the horizon, and land goes from sand on the sparsest cells through brown earth to green.

    Explore this view
  • The field at sunrise with tall dark-red and white towers rising along the rows of large amounts.

    Whales

    Sunrise over the BTC held in each cell instead of the number of outputs: the large-amount rows tower over the dust, and the magma palette runs to white on the biggest holdings.

    Explore this view
  • A dim grey field with scattered amber glows where outputs were recently spent.

    Pulse

    A dim grey landscape where activity shows: spends flash amber and their glow lingers for hundreds of blocks. Press Play to watch the chain breathe.

    Explore this view
  • The field as square boxes in blue and yellow under a plain white sun, with no sky or haze.

    Outputs

    Height and colour by the number of outputs in each cell, cividis, square boxes under a white sun, so dust rows and large holdings are compared by count alone.

    Explore this view
  • Tall grey bars of small outputs beside shorter columns glowing violet, red and yellow where the money is.

    Money map

    Height by the number of outputs, colour by the BTC they hold: grey below 1 BTC per cell, then violet, red and orange to pale yellow at 2,000 BTC.

    Explore this view
  • A nearly flat field from which a few thin walls rise very high.

    Linear

    Height in proportion to weighted density, so proportions are true: nearly everything lies flat and the densest dust cells rise as walls.

    Explore this view
  • The field drawn in grey and black ink on a white page.

    Paper

    A white page for figures: light grey to black ink by density, soft shadows and red spend flashes.

    Explore this view
The recent field in the Daylight look, one of the eleven looks the film shows in turn over the same flight.
From the film: one flight over the recent field in all eleven looks, then the cells’ shape, how tall the big coins stand and the time of day. The data never changes.

Quality

Performance
75% resolution, FXAA, no shadows or ambient occlusion, and cylinders only close to the camera.
Balanced
Native resolution, SMAA, two shadow cascades, SSAO and bloom, with cylinders where cells are 6 px wide or more.
High
Three shadow cascades, SSAO with 16 samples, fog, sky and stars, and 12-sided cylinders where cells are 4 px wide or more.
Ultra
High plus 4096 shadow cascades, volumetric light and god rays: 60 fps in the overview at 4K on an M4 Max.
Extreme
Deliberately GPU-bound, for GPUs beyond an M4 Max: supersampling, SSR, finer detail and up to 2M cylinders.

A first visit starts at Balanced with automatic resolution scaling. A browser without WebGPU, a touch-only device or one that reports 4 GB of memory or less starts at Performance and says so. Choosing a quality turns the automatic scaling off. Ultra, Extreme and the cylinder columns need WebGPU; ?webgl=1 forces the WebGL2 fallback, capped at High.

The settings panel open over the landscape, with the look and quality menus at the top.
Settings: look and quality first.

Sharing

Share, in the timeline, copies a link to the current view: the block, the camera, the look and the settings that differ from it. With a cell open in the inspector it can share that cell instead; the link opens paused with the cell’s details showing. A view link can also start playing when it opens. The address bar always holds the same link, and Copy link in the settings does the same.

Quality is not part of a link. Whoever opens one gets the quality their own device chose, so a view made at Ultra on a desktop still opens smoothly on a phone. A link without a block opens at least 1,008 blocks, about a week, before the last block, so Play has something to play.

Under the hood

  • Grid64 blocks per column and 2,072 amount rows. Every 64 new blocks add a column at the edge.
  • ReplayA Web Worker in your browser replays the change log from snapshots, so every block is exact.
  • DataThe dataset is read in pieces as you move and play, from the same server that answers the inspector’s history lookups.

How the landscape works Implementation contract

Index

Views

Each view opens in the app at its block and camera.

Movements

Places

Time

Light and reading

What remains 3:12

4K on YouTube