Mining pools in 2010-2011?

[highfarmer]

I am trying to help a guy with a project. He mined bitcoins back in 2010, 2011 or maybe 2012. Not for a long time, so its not like there should be worth that much but still, you never know, and we want to at least give it a try and see if we could find this potential money.

So we are trying to figure out where it was mined, first of all. So I was hoping maybe the more experienced members on this forum would could give us any idea about what websites or apps that were available at the time. Maybe he could then recognize it. So we are looking for any information, whatever it is, that could help us and give us a clue where to start.

I guess it is very hard, but it would be great to at least know something more so we know if it is possible or not.

[1715172139]

1715172139

[nc50lc]

Opening of Bitcoin mining pools are usually announced here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=41.2000 (last page)
Check if there's a topic that rings a bell.

Or better if you can use the forum's search function:

• On the menu, click "SEARCH". (upper-left)
• Tick the options: "search in topic subjects only".
• Set the message age accordingly; about "Between 3650 and 9999 days", or lower for allowance.
• Untick "check all" and expand "Choose a board to search in, or search all", then tick "Pools" under Mining.
• Fill up the search with "pool", and press enter.
  
  

The search window should look like this:


-edit-
fixed image link

[NeuroticFish]

Asking in the mining related board may be of help too. With some luck, the older miners or pool owners may be able to help...
See: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=14.0

[hZti]

Somehow this topic comes up again and again. Is this some kind of scam attempt?

[mocacinno]

In ~2010 it's also possible he was just solo mining... At that time, the bitcoin core reference client versions had a solo cpu mining capability built right into the gui... It was removed in version 0.13.0 (2016~ish).

Since he seems to remember only a very little bit, i would also keep this option in mind, since solo cpu mining trough the core wallet itself was by far the easiest way to mine (btw, before somebody gets any idears: it was removed in ~2016 because it was very, very, very inefficient and even at the time it was removed it was a very, very, very bad idea to do this... Doing this right now would just be throwing away money).

[highfarmer]

Opening of Bitcoin mining pools are usually announced here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=41.2000 (last page)
Check if there's a topic that rings a bell.

Or better if you can use the forum's search function:

• On the menu, click "SEARCH". (upper-left)
• Tick the options: "search in topic subjects only".
• Set the message age accordingly; about "Between 3650 and 9999 days", or lower for allowance.
• Untick "check all" and expand "Choose a board to search in, or search all", then tick "Pools" under Mining.
• Fill up the search with "pool", and press enter.
  
  

The search window should look like this:

Thank you very much, will check that out!

Asking in the mining related board may be of help too. With some luck, the older miners or pool owners may be able to help...
See: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=14.0

Good idea! Will do that, thank you!

Somehow this topic comes up again and again. Is this some kind of scam attempt?

Oh, I didn't know that. I can promise you that this is not a scam.

Depending on pool he used, he also need either Bitcoin address or username/password to withdraw mined Bitcoin. You also could check list of pool which doesn't require account at https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/10996.

Thank you very much, will check that out!

In ~2010 it's also possible he was just solo mining... At that time, the bitcoin core reference client versions had a solo cpu mining capability built right into the gui... It was removed in version 0.13.0 (2016~ish).

Since he seems to remember only a very little bit, i would also keep this option in mind, since solo cpu mining trough the core wallet itself was by far the easiest way to mine (btw, before somebody gets any idears: it was removed in ~2016 because it was very, very, very inefficient and even at the time it was removed it was a very, very, very bad idea to do this... Doing this right now would just be throwing away money).

Solo mining, ah. I will ask him about that too!



Ok, thank you guys so far! I will make a new subject in the mining category and hopefully come back with more questions if this situation develops!

[DannyHamilton]

Somehow this topic comes up again and again. Is this some kind of scam attempt?

This specific thread? Maybe, maybe not.

In general though?  Yeah, I suspect a lot of these "Someone I know was mining in 2007" and "Someone I know received some bitcoins back in 2005" messages (years chosen for comical effect) are related to either the friend being scammed, the poster being scammed, or an attempt to scam unsuspecting members of the forum.

I am trying to help a guy with a project. He mined bitcoins back in 2010, 2011 or maybe 2012.

The more they can remember about that time, the better the chance of figuring it out.

If they started in 2010, then they were almost certainly CPU mining with just about any desktop computer. There's a very good chance they were solo-mining using Bitcoin-Qt and any bitcoin they successfully mined are stored on the hard drive of the computer they were using at the time (and nowhere else). Mining would have been as easy as just downloading the Bitcoin-Qt software and runing it.

If they started in very late 2010 or early 2011, then there's a pretty good chance that they were using a computer that had a very good graphics card.  In that case, they may have had to download some specialty mining software along with Bitcoin-Qt and needed to figure out how to configure it. Around this time the first pool (Slush's Pool) started, so it's possible they may have configured their equipment to use that pool.

By mid-2011 FPGA mining was catching on and CPU mining was all but dead.  GPU mining was still viable, but it was fading fast. The chances that they were pool mining is increasing at this point, and there were an additional 2 or 3 pools that opened up I think.

By early 2013, ASIC were created, and mining quickly moved from CPU, GPU, and FPGA to ASIC. The return on mining without ASIC quickly became meaningless. Quite a few more pools  started opening up, some of the more popular being F2Pool and Antpool.

[anonymoussynth]

So I was also mining in 2012ish and I had a Butterfly Labs piece and a HashFast Baby Jet. At one point I had 70 BTC but I sold them all long before BTC broke 1000.
The pool I used was the Eligius pool aka LukeJr's pool.
In 2012 until 2014ish I was getting small payments of BTC every day - like .01 - .10 BTC, but then eventually difficulty and electricity made it unprofitable. I still have the HashFast in storage but it's basically an expensive paperweight at this point.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Eligius
The upshot of Eligius pool was that you didn't need to register for an account. You could just have an address and then the coins were mined directly into it.

[BlackBoss_]

I am trying to help a guy with a project. He mined bitcoins back in 2010, 2011 or maybe 2012.

So I was hoping maybe the more experienced members on this forum would could give us any idea about what websites or apps that were available at the time. Maybe he could then recognize it. So we are looking for any information, whatever it is, that could help us and give us a clue where to start.

I found some information but you will have to use Google search to find their websites. Mining pools from 2011 probably are no longer active in 2022, their websites can be dead.

After hours of searching, I found that thread Bitcoin Mining Pool List. It is a damn hell helpful list for you to check old mining pools.

Bitcoin mining pools historical timeline


Visual Analytics of Bitcoin Mining Pool Evolution: On the Road Toward Stability?




Slush Pool. The world's first and oldest Bitcoin mining pool has mined nearly 1.3 million BTC since inception. Reading other sources, Slush Pool is not the oldest bitcoin mining pool, it's not correct.

A Short History of the World’s Largest Bitcoin Mining Pools

Mining pools on bitcoin network (2009 - 2020)

Code:

     +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
     | rank                       miner   blocks_total   blocks_miner    pblocks |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
  1. |    1                     Unknown         629697         245793   39.03354 |
  2. |    2                      F2Pool         629697          54080   8.588258 |
  3. |    3                     AntPool         629697          48856   7.758652 |
  4. |    4                   BTC Guild         629697          32935   5.230293 |
  5. |    5                   SlushPool         629697          32883   5.222035 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
  6. |    6                     BTC.com         629697          29125    4.62524 
  7. |    7                    GHash.IO         629697          23083   3.665731 |
  8. |    8                     BitFury         629697          19513   3.098792 |
  9. |    9                   BTCC Pool         629697          18027   2.862805 |
 10. |   10                      ViaBTC         629697          17364   2.757517 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 11. |   11                     BTC.TOP         629697          15368   2.440539 |
 12. |   12                      BW.COM         629697          12417   1.971901 |
 13. |   13                     Eligius         629697          11425   1.814365 |
 14. |   14                   BitMinter         629697           6464   1.026525 |
 15. |   15                       50BTC         629697           6392   1.015091 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 16. |   16                    KnCMiner         629697           6290   .9988931 |
 17. |   17             BitClub Network         629697           5672   .9007507 |
 18. |   18                      OzCoin         629697           4845   .7694176 |
 19. |   19                   EclipseMC         629697           3488   .5539172 |
 20. |   20                       Bixin         629697           3355   .5327959 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 21. |   21                   ASICMiner         629697           3127   .4965881 |
 22. |   22                 Bitcoin.com         629697           2444   .3881232 |
 23. |   23                    KanoPool         629697           2428   .3855823 |
 24. |   24                      Poolin         629697           2135    .339052 |
 25. |   25                    GBMiners         629697           2093   .3323821 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 26. |   26                       DPOOL         629697           1918   .3045909 |
 27. |   27                CloudHashing         629697           1824   .2896631 |
 28. |   28                   Telco 214         629697           1661   .2637776 |
 29. |   29                     21 Inc.         629697           1508   .2394803 |
 30. |   30                     Polmine         629697           1273   .2021607 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 31. |   31                   Cointerra         629697            870   .1381617 |
 32. |   32                MegaBigPower         629697            816   .1295861 |
 33. |   33                        OKEX         629697            802   .1273628 |
 34. |   34                      58COIN         629697            745   .1183109 |
 35. |   35               1THash&58COIN         629697            710   .1127526 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 36. |   36                  digitalBTC         629697            676   .1073532 |
 37. |   37                       Huobi         629697            643   .1021126 |
 38. |   38                        HHTT         629697            623   .0989365 |
 39. |   39                  Bitparking         629697            583   .0925842 |
 40. |   40                      MaxBTC         629697            449   .0713041 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 41. |   41                     BATPOOL         629697            441   .0700337 |
 42. |   42   Bitcoin Affiliate Network         629697            438   .0695573 |
 43. |   43                     CoinLab         629697            346   .0549471 |
 44. |   44                TripleMining         629697            333   .0528826 |
 45. |   45                GoGreenLight         629697            333   .0528826 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 46. |   46                       CANOE         629697            321   .0509769 |
 47. |   47                 BTC Nuggets         629697            293   .0465303 |
 48. |   48                 Solo CKPool         629697            243     .03859 |
 49. |   49                 Yourbtc.net         629697            226   .0358903 |
 50. |   50                bytepool.com         629697            202   .0320789 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 51. |   51                  ConnectBTC         629697            153   .0242974 |
 52. |   52                   NovaBlock         629697            133   .0211213 |
 53. |   53               BitcoinRussia         629697            127   .0201684 |
 54. |   54         xbtc.exx.com&bw.com         629697            116   .0184216 |
 55. |   55             digitalX Mintsy         629697            116   .0184216 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 56. |   56               Bitcoin India         629697            114   .0181039 |
 57. |   57                      NMCbit         629697            105   .0166747 |
 58. |   58                      CKPool         629697             86   .0136574 |
 59. |   59                      Mt Red         629697             77   .0122281 |
 60. |   60                 shawnp0wers         629697             72   .0114341 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 61. |   61                     8baochi         629697             51   .0080991 |
 62. |   62              ST Mining Corp         629697             48   .0076227 |
 63. |   63                        EMCD         629697             46   .0073051 |
 64. |   64                    PHash.IO         629697             44   .0069875 |
 65. |   65               simplecoin.us         629697             43   .0068287 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 66. |   66                 MiningKings         629697             41   .0065111 |
 67. |   67                      mmpool         629697             40   .0063523 |
 68. |   68                   Waterhole         629697             36    .005717 |
 69. |   69                     Binance         629697             35   .0055582 |
 70. |   70                      BTCDig         629697             33   .0052406 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 71. |   71                       1Hash         629697             30   .0047642 |
 72. |   72                       Eobot         629697             25   .0039702 |
 73. |   73                   HAOZHUZHU         629697             25   .0039702 |
 74. |   74       transactioncoinmining         629697             24   .0038114 |
 75. |   75                      175btc         629697             22   .0034937 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 76. |   76                     Bitsolo         629697             22   .0034937 |
 77. |   77               NiceHash Solo         629697             20   .0031761 |
 78. |   78                        DCEX         629697             19   .0030173 |
 79. |   79                     HotPool         629697             17   .0026997 |
 80. |   80                       A-XBT         629697             16   .0025409 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 81. |   81                   BCMonster         629697             15   .0023821 |
 82. |   82                Bravo Mining         629697             13   .0020645 |
 83. |   83                    Haominer         629697             10   .0015881 |
 84. |   84                     BTCServ         629697              9   .0014293 |
 85. |   85                   bcpool.io         629697              8   .0012705 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 86. |   86              myBTCcoin Pool         629697              8   .0012705 |
 87. |   87                      TBDice         629697              4   .0006352 |
 88. |   88                   Multipool         629697              3   .0004764 |
 89. |   89        Patel\'s Mining pool         629697              2   .0003176 |
 90. |   90                       BTCMP         629697              2   .0003176 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 91. |   91                     Nexious         629697              1   .0001588 |
 92. |   92                       7pool         629697              1   .0001588 |
 93. |   93          Tricky\'s BTC Pool         629697              1   .0001588 |
 94. |   94                   EkanemBTC         629697              1   .0001588 |
 95. |   95                    HASHPOOL         629697              1   .0001588 |
     |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 96. |   96                      HashBX         629697              1   .0001588 |
 97. |   97                     RigPool         629697              1   .0001588 |
 98. |   98                       UNOMP         629697              1   .0001588 |
     +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

For specific years

• In 2009: all miners are unknown (32490 blocks found)
• In 2010: all miners are unknown (67920 blocks found)
• From 2011 to May 2020, please take a look at bar charts.

Mining pool announcement threads
2011
BTC Guild - Pay-per-Share Pool
Eligius: 0% Fee BTC, 105% PPS NMC, No registration, CPPSRB
Youbtc.net
Bitminter bitcoin mining pool - shutdown mining 2020-07-01 website 2021-06-01
Bitminter mining pool shutting down
[20 gh] NMCBit pool 3% fee prop 6.6% PPS
[OFFLINE] SIMPLECOIN.US [PPLNS/SMPPS]
[0Th]Ozcoin Pooled Mining |DGM 1%|Stratum+VarDiff port 80|NEW CN mining|
2012
[4+ EH] Slush Pool (slushpool.com); Overt AsicBoost; World First Mining Pool
[CLOSED] MaxBTC.com Pool - Closed Indefinitely Aug 3rd 2013
[1200 TH] EMC: 0 Fee DGM. Anonymous PPS. US & EU servers. No Registration!
[ANN] CoinLab Protected Pool
[NR 1] Triplemining.com <> BIG jackpot every week <>

I created a topic for Bitcoin Mining History

[SheriffBass]

So I was also mining in 2012ish and I had a Butterfly Labs piece and a HashFast Baby Jet. At one point I had 70 BTC but I sold them all long before BTC broke 1000.
The pool I used was the Eligius pool aka LukeJr's pool.
In 2012 until 2014ish I was getting small payments of BTC every day - like .01 - .10 BTC, but then eventually difficulty and electricity made it unprofitable. I still have the HashFast in storage but it's basically an expensive paperweight at this point.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Eligius
The upshot of Eligius pool was that you didn't need to register for an account. You could just have an address and then the coins were mined directly into it.

WOW, you got the history down, that's great info.