⚡️💬 STORY - He mined over 400,000 Bitcoin when BTC was worth less than $1.
Then he disappeared...
ArtForz.
Discover the forgotten story of this mysterious pioneer, who single-handedly controlled 25% of the Bitcoin network in 2010.
➥ When Bitcoin was worth almost nothing. In 2010, Bitcoin was still very much a niche currency.
Satoshi Nakamoto's white paper was just over a year old, and BTC was worth barely $0.01.
The mining difficulty was ridiculously low, and the reward was still 50 BTC per block.
The first users were cypherpunks, libertarians, and nerds, who mined with... their processors.
A simple desktop PC was enough to mine blocks at the time.
It was against this backdrop that a new username appeared on Bitcointalk in July 2010: ArtForz.
No one knew it yet, but this name would become legendary.
➥ A broke engineer with a PayPal problem.
Before Bitcoin, ArtForz wasn't exactly what you'd call a financial tycoon.
He is 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 was harsh for ArtForz: the traditional financial system can cut off access to your money... with a single click.
At the same time, a new concept was circulating on certain Internet forums: A currency that no company, no bank, no platform can censor: Bitcoin.
ArtForz immediately understood the power of the concept and, above all, he quickly realized that Bitcoin could be mined.
➥ From laptops to “ArtFarms.”
In 2010, it was still possible to mine on a laptop or a simple desktop computer.
The first enthusiasts discovered that GPUs (graphics cards) were much more efficient than CPUs at calculating the hashes required for Proof of Work.
Officially, Satoshi Nakamoto hoped for a "gentleman's agreement" to avoid rushing into a hardware race too quickly, so as not to kill the decentralization of the network.
But ArtForz decided to step up a gear in July 2010 and started mining with GPUs.
He quickly built what is considered one of the world's first GPU mining farms: the "ArtFarm."
In just one month, ArtForz already controlled about 10% of the Bitcoin network's computing power.
By the end of 2010, his farm had reached up to 25% of the network's total hashrate.
ArtForz stacked dozens of them in cardboard boxes to keep them somewhat ventilated, in a kind of homemade chaos halfway between a laboratory and a geek's attic.
One day, he posted on Bitcointalk that he had mined 1,700 BTC in six days.
➥ 409,650 Bitcoin: a treasure mined amid indifference.
With its ArtFarm, ArtForz is racking up the blocks.
Cross-referenced estimates suggest that ArtForz mined a total of around 409,650 BTC during this period, which is colossal!
ArtForz sold a large portion of the BTC when the price began to rise, but according to several accounts, it still retained around 50,000 BTC.
➥ The bug that could have killed Bitcoin.
ArtForz is not just an opportunistic miner, he is also a highly skilled programmer and security expert.
In July 2010, he discovered what would later be described as one of the most dangerous bugs in the history of Bitcoin: a flaw in the way transaction scripts are validated, linked to what would become known as the OP_RETURN bug.
The flaw could have allowed anyone to spend BTC from any wallet without owning the keys.
ArtForz could have taken advantage of this, but he chose to report the problem directly to Satoshi Nakamoto and the developers.
The problem was then fixed as a matter of urgency.
Authors such as Nathaniel Popper, in Digital Gold, emphasize this moment: the fact that ArtForz did not use this flaw to enrich himself is presented as proof that the system's incentives were already working.
His own coins would have been worthless if the protocol had lost all credibility.
On that day, an anonymous miner certainly saved Bitcoin.
➥ The race for hardware: FPGA, ASIC, and the fall of ArtFarm.
But ArtForz's dominance did not last forever.
As Bitcoin grew in popularity, new miners wanted to get in on the action.
Mining moved from CPUs to GPUs, then to FPGAs (reprogrammable circuits), and then to ASICs (specialized chips designed for mining cryptocurrencies).
ASICs quickly rendered desktop PCs obsolete, then made GPUs virtually useless for mining Bitcoin.
ArtForz tried to survive by designing its own custom mining chips, which allowed it to regain about 5% of the hashrate for a time.
But in August 2011, despite its efforts, ArtForz's share fell below 1% of the total hashrate.
It could no longer compete with giant farms and warehouses filled with metal racks and industrial fans.
➥ The Scrypt controversy.
Faced with this growing centralization, ArtForz refuses to give up.
If the hardware becomes too powerful, then perhaps we need to change... the algorithm itself.
It turns to Scrypt, a cryptographic function designed in 2009 by Colin Percival to secure file backups.
In 2011, ArtForz implemented 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 adopted Scrypt for its Proof of Work.
In the Litecoin white paper, the developers wrote in black and white:
"We humbly offer our thanks to ArtForz for the implementation."
But the story doesn't end there, as controversy erupted over ArtForz's possible use of Scrypt to mine 150 times faster with GPUs.
Part of the community began to suspect ArtForz of keeping a hidden technical advantage to himself.
ArtForz denied wanting to deceive anyone.
Shortly after this controversy, he almost completely stopped posting on Bitcointalk.
➥ The disappearance.
After 2012, traces of ArtForz became scarce.
His username appeared on forums related to video game mods, notably for Minecraft and Kerbal Space Program.
But there were no more messages on Bitcointalk.
ArtForz remains silent.
Some believe he still holds 50,000 BTC in a cold wallet...
Others think he sold everything or lost it all...
No one really knows.
➥ Why does ArtForz still matter today?
The story of ArtForz raises several fundamental questions about:
➤ The centralization of the Bitcoin network and mining.
➤ The role of anonymous pioneers, whose contribution is not necessarily recognized by the general public.
But who was ArtForz really?
Little is known about him.
He was a solitary engineer, a coder brilliant enough to spot a fatal bug... and ethical enough not to take advantage of it.
A pioneer who accumulated 409,650 BTC at a time when no one was yet looking at Bitcoin price charts.
And then, complete silence.
Greetings to you, ArtForz, if you're on Nostr 🫡
