Show in real time total Bitcoins already in circulation #724

On overview tab should show in real time the total of Bitcoins already in circulation (Bitcoins generated).

As far as I can tell, it would be fairly simple to calculate. But I wonder if it's relevant to the "Overview" tab, as this - as it is now - only concerns itself with information relative to the wallet.

Not so fast, you could do 50*block count, but at least one block actually has 49.9999... (and the loss of fees) so you would have to go through each block and total bitcoins (not that that is impossible, but its not a fast process..) to get an accurate count.

Interesting. I thought the protocol required a reward of 50 BTC per block until block number 210,000. Or is 50 BTC simply the maximum reward, and clients will accept blocks with up to 50 BTC as the reward? What is the block number with the 49.9999... reward?

EDIT: I found out by looking in the code:

if (vtx[0].GetValueOut() > GetBlockValue(pindex->nHeight, nFees))
    return false;

(where vtx[0] is the first transaction in the block (the generation transaction) and GetBlockValue() returns 50+fees for all blocks up to block no. 209999)

So the 50 BTC block reward is only a maximum. This complicates things. I would still like to see that 49.999... BTC reward block in case anyone has a link (or a block number).

blockexplorer doesnt show it right due to a bug (use raw version instead) but here it is: http://blockexplorer.com/block/0000000000004c78956f8643262f3622acf22486b120421f893c0553702ba7b5

Real-time block chain analytics are more appropriate for blockexplorer or blockchain.info etc.