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Bitcoin miner active for the first time since 2009

On the legendary Bitcoin forum bitcointalk.org, a miner has surfaced whose activity dates back to January 2009.

By Mike Hesp
• 2 min read
Bitcoin miner active for the first time since 2009

On the legendary Bitcoin forum bitcointalk.org, a miner has surfaced whose activity goes back to January 2009.

Bitcoin itself at that time was barely a week old, making the miner, according to founder Satoshi Nakamoto, one of the very first crypto miners. Using a verifiable on-chain signature, the anonymous user confirmed their activity in Bitcoin's Stone Age. They replied to a forum question looking for the oldest mined coins.

Mysteriously, the forum account of the anonymous user only existed since November 2022, so it’s believed they registered solely for this purpose. Besides their username, OneSignature, and a Bitcoin signature, little else is known about the user. But they may have worked closely with the early blockchain developers.

Also the pseudonymous founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, consulted with others on bitcointalk.org about his creation. Nakamoto posted roughly ten years ago before stepping away from the scene entirely.

Only his preserved forum posts and his wallet address give clues about his true identity.

It’s more common for early Bitcoin miners to become active again after many years. For example, there was a miner who, after eight years, sent 1,100 BTC from their wallet to two different wallet addresses.

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