What is the block maturity value seen in many pool interfaces?

Question

As you can see in this screenshot, a column called "Maturity" is shown on most mining pools' found blocks table. I did my best to find an answer to my own question with keywords such as "monero block maturity" or "cryptonote block maturity", but couldn't find anything.

It seems like a certain number of steps or confirmations needed when a block is found by a pool (I guess it's the same when mining solo), but I can't be sure.

Sub questions: this value obviously goes from x to zero. What's the value of x, and is it always the same? EDIT: Ok, just saw the "Maturity Depth Requirement" in my own screenshot... sorry! Still, this original question remains. ;-)

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

It seems like a certain number of steps or confirmations needed when a block is found by a pool (I guess it's the same when mining solo), but I can't be sure.

This is exactly right. When a block is mined, it cannot be spent until 60 blocks after it has been mined (with a 2 minute block time, this means roughly 2 hours). The same applies when solo mining. When mining solo, the block reward will show up right away in your wallet, but it won't be in the "unlocked" portion of your balance until 60 more blocks have been mined.