Bitcoin Miners celebrate 10 years since the first ASIC

by James · February 22, 2023

Photo by: Erwan Hesry – Unsplash

The Bitcoin mining industry reached a significant milestone today as it celebrates ten years since the launch of the first application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). This specialized BTC mining hardware forever changed how this blockchain and its actors interacted and gave birth to a new industry.

According to veteran Bitcoin miner and educator “TheCoinDad,” Jeff Garzik, an early adopter and BTC core developer, was among the first ASIC miners’ owners. This new hardware was launched by Canaan, a “world-leading provider of supercomputing solutions.”

FUN FACTS
It’s the 10th anniversary of Bitcoin ASIC Miners. Jan/Feb 2013 was when @VitalikButerin with @BitcoinMagazine the interview @jgarzik with the first ASIC Miner ever released on the market by @canaanio Avalon1, and earned 12 Bitcoin a day! 😱💪🔥 pic.twitter.com/80JbBQBf3F

— TheCoinDad (@TheCoinDad) 22 February 2023

Bitcoin mining industry for a decade

As TheCoinDad noted, Vitalik Buterin, the inventor of Ethereum, was one of the first to cover the launch of BTC ASIC miners. In February 2013, Buterin interviewed Garzik for Bitcoin Magazine, a publication of which he is one of the co-founders.

Until the launch of this specialized equipment, BTC miners were profitable using less powerful computers. ASIC changed and continued to influence that dynamic by forcing miners to become increasingly efficient at solving mathematical puzzles to validate blocks and earn BTC rewards, backed by the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism.

In 201, when Buterin wrote his article about the new hardware, there was skepticism in the Bitcoin community. However, Canaan delivered the first generation of Avalon ASIC models, capable of producing an average of 68,000 Mega hash/second (MH/s) when the total network hash rate was 22,000 GH/s.

Buterin wrote: “the long-awaited ASICs are indeed real.” As shown in the image below, the first ASICs resembled desktop computers, and as Garzik revealed, they were manufactured in China and could generate $240 in BTC daily, around 1 BTC in 2013 or $23,700 today.

An image of the first BTC ASIC miner. Source: **Jeff Garzik**

According to Buterin, Garzik made the following additional notes about ASIC’s functionality:

(…) when mining started it was very loud. Fans at full power when first turned on. The fans flow down, and the noise is reduced.

The Avalon models are in their 13th year^th iteration and can generate over 130 Tera Hash/s with a power efficiency of 25 Joules per TH. Since the launch of these machines, the BTC mining industry has expanded into new geographies and markets.

There are now Bitcoin mining companies listed on the US stock exchange, with most operations using thousands of ASICs to scale and remain profitable. The proliferation of these specialized machines has coincided with the expansion of Bitcoin as a global asset, and the crypto industry has a sector dominated by speculators to attract some of the most important companies in the world.

BTC’s hashrate has grown since the launch of ASICs in 2013. Source: **Coinwarz**

The case can be made that attention to BTC would be slower without ASICs. This hardware attracted attention and reinforced the incentives for people to secure the Bitcoin blockchain by unleashing a “Gold Rush” 2.0, but on the blockchain.