In June 2011, one pool controlled more than half of Bitcoin's hashrate, and mining required a command line that most people had never seen. A Norwegian developer named Geir Harald Hansen launched BitMinter that day to address both. His pool ran for nine years.

Bitcoin's mining ecosystem in mid-2011 was dangerously concentrated. DeepBit, run by a single anonymous operator, had accumulated more than 50% of the network's total hashrate — the threshold at which one actor could theoretically rewrite recent transaction history. Forum posts debated the risks. But no one could simply tell miners to switch pools if the available alternatives still required technical knowledge most people didn't have.

Getting started with Bitcoin mining in 2011 meant installing software from a terminal prompt, configuring settings by hand, and pointing your miner at a pool address. Graphics card mining had overtaken CPU mining by this point, but the tools were still rough. Cross-platform options with a smooth onboarding experience did not exist. The command line was the only gate into the network.

Hansen had been building since March 2011. His solution was a Java client distributed via Web Start — a user could click a link in their browser and launch the mining software directly, with no installation, no terminal, no configuration files. It ran on Windows, Linux, and Mac with the same interface. The underlying goal was straightforward: more miners meant a more distributed network, and more miners required a lower barrier to entry.

BitMinter launched with GPU support and stayed relevant by moving with the hardware. When FPGA chips began replacing graphics cards in 2012, BitMinter added support. When ASICs arrived in 2013 and rendered FPGAs obsolete almost overnight, BitMinter supported those too. The pool also introduced merged mining of Namecoin in November 2011, letting members earn a second coin at no cost to their Bitcoin hashpower.

By May 2013, BitMinter was producing around 10% of all Bitcoin blocks, sometimes 20% on a given day. The pool's own records claim 6,487 blocks mined, more than 205,000 BTC produced, and 728,000 registered users over its lifetime — figures that can't be independently verified now that the site is offline, but the 10% peak hashrate is well-documented from contemporary coverage. Mining operations closed on July 1, 2020, nine years after launch and through three halvings.

BitMinter's contribution was timing. It launched into the specific moment when centralization was Bitcoin's most visible threat and accessibility was the highest-leverage fix available. Hansen didn't set out to decentralize Bitcoin — he set out to make mining easier. The two happened to be the same thing.

Part of an ongoing series on Bitcoin history. This event falls on June 26, 2011.

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[*@daily\_btc\_lore*](https://x.com/daily_btc_lore) *| Daily Bitcoin History Threads*

June 26, 2011 | 15 years ago today

# BitMinter Mining Pool Goes Live

![](https://m.stacker.news/146372)

***

In June 2011, one pool controlled more than half of Bitcoin's hashrate, and mining required a command line that most people had never seen. A Norwegian developer named Geir Harald Hansen launched BitMinter that day to address both. His pool ran for nine years.

## The 51% Problem

Bitcoin's mining ecosystem in mid-2011 was dangerously concentrated. DeepBit, run by a single anonymous operator, had accumulated more than 50% of the network's total hashrate — the threshold at which one actor could theoretically rewrite recent transaction history. Forum posts debated the risks. But no one could simply tell miners to switch pools if the available alternatives still required technical knowledge most people didn't have.

## The Command-Line Barrier

Getting started with Bitcoin mining in 2011 meant installing software from a terminal prompt, configuring settings by hand, and pointing your miner at a pool address. Graphics card mining had overtaken CPU mining by this point, but the tools were still rough. Cross-platform options with a smooth onboarding experience did not exist. The command line was the only gate into the network.

## DrHaribo's Approach

Hansen had been building since March 2011. His solution was a Java client distributed via Web Start — a user could click a link in their browser and launch the mining software directly, with no installation, no terminal, no configuration files. It ran on Windows, Linux, and Mac with the same interface. The underlying goal was straightforward: more miners meant a more distributed network, and more miners required a lower barrier to entry.

## Adapting to the Hardware

BitMinter launched with GPU support and stayed relevant by moving with the hardware. When FPGA chips began replacing graphics cards in 2012, BitMinter added support. When ASICs arrived in 2013 and rendered FPGAs obsolete almost overnight, BitMinter supported those too. The pool also introduced merged mining of Namecoin in November 2011, letting members earn a second coin at no cost to their Bitcoin hashpower.

## The Numbers

By May 2013, BitMinter was producing around 10% of all Bitcoin blocks, sometimes 20% on a given day. The pool's own records claim 6,487 blocks mined, more than 205,000 BTC produced, and 728,000 registered users over its lifetime — figures that can't be independently verified now that the site is offline, but the 10% peak hashrate is well-documented from contemporary coverage. Mining operations closed on July 1, 2020, nine years after launch and through three halvings.

## Why It Mattered

BitMinter's contribution was timing. It launched into the specific moment when centralization was Bitcoin's most visible threat and accessibility was the highest-leverage fix available. Hansen didn't set out to decentralize Bitcoin — he set out to make mining easier. The two happened to be the same thing.

***

![](https://m.stacker.news/146370)

![](https://m.stacker.news/146371)

*Part of an ongoing series on Bitcoin history. This event falls on June 26, 2011.*