Bitcoin.com achieved a significant milestone on September 21, 2016, as its newly launched mining pool successfully mined its first Bitcoin block, number 430757, marking the entry of one of the cryptocurrency ecosystem’s most prominent platforms into the competitive mining landscape.
TL;DR
- Bitcoin.com mining pool mined its first block (#430757) on September 21, 2016
- The pool was the first large-scale mining operation fully dedicated to Bitcoin Unlimited
- CTO Emil Oldenburg led development alongside Bitcoin Unlimited core developers
- Pool offered 110% PPS block reward with zero fees — the most generous incentive in the industry
- Global infrastructure deployed across the United States, China, and Europe
The launch came at a pivotal moment in Bitcoin’s history. With the network facing growing transaction congestion and an intensifying debate over block size limits, Bitcoin.com’s decision to build a pool dedicated to Bitcoin Unlimited was as much a political statement as a business venture. The pool’s hashrate would vote for bigger blocks, directly challenging the prevailing consensus around the 1 MB block size limit that had constrained the network for years.
Building the Pool: A Collaboration of Expertise
Bitcoin.com’s Chief Technical Officer Emil Oldenburg spearheaded the development effort, working alongside Bitcoin.com developer Shaun Chong and two prominent Bitcoin Unlimited developers, Andrew Stone and Andrea Suisani. The collaboration brought together the platform’s commercial resources with the technical expertise of the Bitcoin Unlimited development community, creating a mining operation designed to compete with established pools from day one.
The pool’s architecture leveraged Bitcoin Unlimited’s Xthin technology and Xpedited blocks, enabling faster block transmission across a globally distributed relay network. Servers were deployed in three strategic locations — the United States, China, and Europe — ensuring low-latency connections for miners regardless of geographic location. This infrastructure was critical for minimizing stale blocks and orphan rates, factors that directly impact miner profitability.
An Unprecedented Reward Structure
What set the Bitcoin.com pool apart from competitors was its remarkably generous reward system. The pool paid 110% of the block reward on a Pay-Per-Share (PPS) basis while charging absolutely zero fees for both PPS and Pay-Per-Last-N-Shares (PPLNS) payment methods. This meant miners received more than the standard block reward, subsidized by Bitcoin.com itself, making it arguably the most profitable pool in the industry at launch.
“We are paying more on PPS than any other pool,” Oldenburg explained. “We pay a 110% block reward, and charge 0% fees for PPS and PPLNS. Bitcoin.com’s mining pool pays PPS directly instead of giving miners some fees after the blocks are mined. Our reward scheme is simpler and is guaranteed to make the miner more money regardless of luck.”
Fighting Congestion With Hashpower
Beyond the financial incentives, the pool represented Bitcoin.com’s strategic commitment to resolving the network’s growing congestion crisis. At the time, Bitcoin transaction fees were rising and confirmation times were becoming unpredictable, creating friction for users and businesses alike. By dedicating hashrate to Bitcoin Unlimited, which proposed removing the block size limit from consensus code entirely, Bitcoin.com was using its mining power as a vote for on-chain scaling.
Oldenburg was candid about the urgency of the situation. “We plan to build a transaction accelerator very soon as well,” he noted. “This congestion is causing massive problems on all fronts in the Bitcoin ecosystem.” However, he was clear that accelerators were merely a bandage: “I really wish transaction accelerators weren’t necessary. We need to remove the block size from the consensus code like Bitcoin Unlimited has done and let the blocks be as big as necessary.”
Rapid Growth Following Launch
The pool’s growth trajectory validated its aggressive incentive model. By October 2016, just weeks after mining its first block, the pool had already captured approximately 1% of the global Bitcoin network hashrate. The momentum continued, and by early 2017 the pool was operating at 80 petahashes per second, commanding 2.456% of the global hashrate — a remarkable achievement for a new entrant in a market dominated by established Chinese mining operations.
Why This Matters
The launch of Bitcoin.com’s mining pool on September 21, 2016, was far more than a business expansion. It was a strategic deployment of hashpower in service of a specific vision for Bitcoin’s future — one where blocks could grow to accommodate demand rather than constraining throughput at an artificial ceiling. The pool’s 110% PPS reward structure demonstrated that Bitcoin.com was willing to operate at a loss to attract miners who shared this vision, effectively subsidizing the block size debate with real economic resources. As Bitcoin traded around $597 and Ethereum sat at $13.77, the industry was still small enough for individual actors to meaningfully influence its direction through mining power. The choices made by pools like Bitcoin.com’s would ultimately shape the trajectory that led to Bitcoin’s eventual hard fork and the creation of Bitcoin Cash in 2017.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile, and past events do not guarantee future results. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.
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