On June 9, 2021, an early miner moved 1,000 Bitcoin (BTC) from 2010 block rewards, marking the sixth such transfer in 2021, totaling 6,000 BTC. While some attributed this to Satoshi Nakamoto, mining data from 2010 tells a different story: the creator was far from the only large participant.
Mining Landscape in 2010: CPU, GPU, and Minimal Difficulty
In 2010, Bitcoin could be mined using CPUs until mid-2010, then GPUs became dominant. The network mined 3.39 million BTC that year, with difficulty ranging from just 1.18 to 14,484. Today, difficulty is 21.05 trillion, a staggering increase of over 145 billion percent.
Network hashrate in March 2010 was only 43.5 MH/s — a fraction of a single modern mining rig’s 100 TH/s. By August 2010, hashrate reached 0.01 TH/s, indicating a small community of a few hundred to a few thousand miners.
Beyond Satoshi: Artforz and the Early Crowd
Between January 2009 and December 2010, Satoshi is estimated to have mined 1.1 million BTC. However, total production in that period was 4.9 million BTC, leaving 3.8 million BTC for other participants. Forum posts from 2010 reveal many active miners, including the pseudonymous Artforz, who built the first known GPU farm. On July 25, 2010, Artforz mined 1,700 BTC in six days and later controlled an estimated 20-30% of network hashrate. He also created Tenebrix, which inspired Litecoin. Like Satoshi, Artforz disappeared from the scene by late 2011.
From FPGAs in early 2011 to ASICs later, the mining landscape evolved rapidly, but the early days were a level playing field.
Conclusion: Old Coins Don't Belong to Satoshi
Satoshi has never spent any of his known 1.1 million BTC from that era. Thus, recent movements of 2010 coins are likely from other early miners — not the creator. The data underscores that Bitcoin’s birth was a collective effort, not a solo act.