On January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the Genesis Block on a small server in Helsinki, Finland, receiving 50 bitcoins and marking the beginning of crypto mining. Seven years later, ViaBTC Pool officially launched on June 5, 2016, and has now completed seven years of operation. This article reviews the evolution of mining technology and how ViaBTC became an industry leader along the way.
From CPU to ASIC: Exponential Hashrate Growth
In Bitcoin's early days, Satoshi envisioned mining using CPUs in personal computers. In 2010, Bitcoin enthusiast Laszlo Hanyecz discovered that GPUs could perform more computations per second and pioneered GPU mining. After sharing his code, Bitcoin's hashrate surged from 6 MH/s in January 2010 to 120 GH/s in December 2010 — a 20,000-fold increase. Ironically, Hanyecz also started Bitcoin Pizza Day by buying two pizzas with 10,000 BTC, giving the currency its first real-world value.
GPU mining and rising Bitcoin prices triggered an arms race. In 2011, FPGA miner code was shared on GitHub, ushering in an era of specialized mining rigs. Bitcoin's hashrate rose from 116 GH/s at the start of the year to nearly 30 TH/s by year-end — a 300x growth. The birth of ASIC miners in 2012 saw hashrate skyrocket from 20 TH/s to 12 PH/s, a 600-fold increase. Since then, ASICs have replaced CPUs, GPUs, and FPGAs as the dominant mining hardware.
From Solo Mining to Pool Mining
Soaring hashrate raised concerns about profitability for individual miners. Czech programmer Marek Palatinus recognized the limitations of solo mining and created the world's first mining pool, Slush Pool, in 2010, uniting miners to share resources and rewards. Bitcoin mining gradually shifted from solo to pool mining.
Mining pools themselves faced challenges. GHash.IO attracted miners with a zero-fee policy in 2013, and by 2014 its peak hashrate exceeded 51%, alarming the community. However, the pool shut down in 2016 due to repeated DDoS attacks. Many pools underestimated technical requirements and failed. Early Bitcoin builder Haipo Yang decided to build a more stable and efficient pool. In just two months, he independently coded ViaBTC Pool, which went live on June 5, 2016.
ViaBTC's Rise and Innovation
Born amid fierce competition, ViaBTC has remained a top-tier pool thanks to stable technology, innovative products, and superior user experience. Shortly after launch, ViaBTC invented the PPS+ payment method, building on traditional PPS and PPLNS. This approach guarantees stable mining revenue while sharing miner fees, allowing ViaBTC miners to earn more than peers in other pools. Mainstream pools later adopted PPS+, driving industry-wide change.
Technology is always a priority at ViaBTC. The pool optimized Bitcoin's broadcasting and transmission processes through a self-developed BTC client. With high-speed block updating networks around the world, miners can discover and broadcast new blocks faster, reducing orphan rates and ensuring stable revenue. To date, ViaBTC remains the mining pool with the lowest orphan rate. The pool also introduced a wide range of tools: Transaction Accelerator, Auto Conversion, Smart Mining, Hedging Service, Crypto Loans, Hashrate Fluctuation Notification, Revenue Sharing, and Referral Commission — providing faster, more stable, and more lucrative mining and derivative services.
Looking back at seven years, ViaBTC has witnessed the ups and downs of crypto mining. GHash.IO fell to network attacks; others were hurt by cash flow disruptions or abandoned by miners due to unstable block output. ViaBTC stayed committed to products and technology, focusing on users. These efforts have made it one of the few crypto companies to celebrate a seventh anniversary.
Today, ViaBTC serves over one million users in more than 130 countries and regions, supporting 10+ cryptos including BTC and LTC. It ranks among the top pools for BTC and LTC hashrate, with cumulative mining output valued at billions of dollars. Moving forward, ViaBTC will continue to provide professional, efficient, secure, and stable crypto mining services, and develop comprehensive, reliable, and satisfying crypto products. It aims to drive the progress of the mining industry and witness the new blockchain future together with its users.