Bitcoin (BTC)

He mined more than 400,000 Bitcoin when BTC was worth less than $1. Then he disappeared... ArtForz. Discover the forgotten story of this mysterious pioneer, who alone controlled 25% of the Bitcoin network in 2010. 🧵👇

When Bitcoin was worth almost nothing. In 2010, Bitcoin was still very marginal. Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper was a little over a year old and BTC was barely $0.01. The mining difficulty was ridiculously low and the reward was still 50 BTC per block. The early users were cypherpunks, libertarians and nerds, who mined with… their processors. A simple desktop PC was enough at the time to mine blocks. It is in this setting that a new pseudonym appeared on Bitcointalk in July 2010: ArtForz. No one knew it yet, but that name would become a legend.

A broke engineer with a PayPal problem. Before Bitcoin, ArtForz wasn't really what you'd call a finance mogul. He's an electrical engineer, comfortable with hardware, circuits, and graphics cards. He loves computers, video games, and complex systems. To make ends meet, he “farms” virtual currencies in video games, which he then sells for real money. Until the day PayPal froze his account because of these activities. The message hits hard for ArtForz: the traditional financial system can cut off access to your money… with a single click. At the same time, a new concept circulates on certain internet forums: A currency that no company, no bank, no platform can censor: Bitcoin. ArtForz immediately grasped the strength of the concept and, above all, quickly saw that Bitcoin could be mined.

From laptop to the “ArtFarm”. In 2010, it was still possible to mine on a laptop or a simple desktop. Early enthusiasts discovered that GPUs (graphics cards) are far more efficient than CPUs for calculating the hashes needed for Proof of Work. Officially, Satoshi Nakamoto hoped for a “gentleman’s agreement” to avoid launching a hardware race too quickly, so as not to kill the network’s decentralization. But ArtForz decided to step up in July 2010 and started mining with GPUs. He quickly built what is considered one of the world’s earliest GPU mining farms: the “ArtFarm”. In just 1 month, ArtForz already controlled about 10% of the Bitcoin network’s computing power. By the end of 2010, his farm reached up to 25% of the network’s total hashrate. ArtForz stacked dozens in cardboard boxes to keep them roughly ventilated, in a sort of

409,650 Bitcoin: a treasure mined in indifference. With his ArtFarm, ArtForz kept chaining blocks. Cross estimates indicate a total of about 409,650 BTC mined by ArtForz during this period, which is colossal! ArtForz sold a good portion of the BTC when the price started to rise, but according to several accounts, he still kept around 50,000 BTC.

The bug that could have killed Bitcoin. ArtForz is not only an opportunistic miner, but also a highly competent programmer and security expert. In July 2010, he discovered what would later be labeled as one of the most dangerous bugs in Bitcoin history: a flaw in the way transaction scripts are validated, later called the OP_RETURN bug. The flaw could have allowed spending BTC from any wallet without possessing the keys. ArtForz could have exploited it, but he chose to report the issue directly to Satoshi Nakamoto and the developers. The problem was then fixed urgently. Authors like Nathaniel Popper in Digital Gold emphasize this moment: the fact that ArtForz did not use the flaw to enrich himself is presented as evidence that the system's incentives were already working. His own coins would have been worthless if the protocol lost all credibility. That day, an anonymous miner cert...

The hardware race: FPGA, ASIC and the fall of the ArtFarm. But ArtForz's domination doesn't last forever. As Bitcoin gains popularity, new miners want to get a piece of the pie. Mining moves from CPU to GPU, then to FPGA (reprogrammable circuits), then to ASIC (specialized chips designed for crypto mining). ASICs quickly render desktop PCs obsolete, and GPUs become almost useless for Bitcoin mining. ArtForz tries to survive and designs his own custom mining chips, bringing his share back up to around 5% of the hashrate. But in August 2011, despite his efforts, ArtForz's share falls below 1% of the total hashrate. He can no longer compete against massive farms and warehouses filled with metal racks and industrial fans.

The Scrypt controversy. Facing this growing centralization, ArtForz refuses to give up. If the hardware becomes too powerful, perhaps the algorithm itself needs to change… He turns to Scrypt, a cryptographic function designed in 2009 by Colin Percival to secure file backups. In 2011, ArtForz implements Scrypt in a new cryptocurrency: Tenebrix, often cited as the first crypto to use Scrypt as a proof-of-work algorithm. Litecoin, launched in October 2011, also adopts Scrypt for its Proof Of Work. In Litecoin’s whitepaper, developers will write in black and white: “We humbly extend our great thanks to ArtForz for the implementation.” But the story does not end there as controversy erupts over the possible use of Scrypt by ArtForz to mine 150 times faster with GPUs. A part of the community begins to suspect ArtForz of keeping a hidden technical advantage for himself. Art

The disappearance. After 2012, traces of ArtForz become scarce. His pseudonym appears on forums related to video game mods, notably for Minecraft and Kerbal Space Program. But no longer any posts on Bitcointalk. ArtForz remains silent. Some think he still holds 50,000 BTC in a cold wallet... Others think he sold everything or lost it all... Nobody really knows.

Why does ArtForz still matter today? ArtForz's story raises several fundamental questions about: 🔹 The centralization of the Bitcoin network and mining. 🔹 The role of anonymous pioneers, whose contributions may not be widely recognized by the public. But who was ArtForz really? We know little about him. He is a solitary engineer, a coder clever enough to spot a fatal bug… and ethical enough not to exploit it. A pioneer who accumulated 409,650 BTC at a time when no one was yet watching Bitcoin price charts. And then, complete silence.

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