Bitcoin in 2011

Based on bitcoin's open source code, other cryptocurrencies started to emerge.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit group, started accepting bitcoins in January 2011, then stopped accepting them in June 2011, citing concerns about a lack of legal precedent about new currency systems. The EFF's decision was reversed on 17 May 2013 when they resumed accepting bitcoin.

  • January 8th Pooled mining reaches a capacity of 10 Ghash per second.
  • January 27th Biggest monetary transaction in bitcoin history from 3 accounts in Zimbabwe on #bitcoin-otc. The currency value was 4 BTC to 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollars.
  • January 28th Block #105000 is generated – at that point, 5.24 million bitcoins had been issued, 25% of the total 21 million.
  • February 9th Bitcoin reaches parity with the US dollar (the exchange rate was one BTC to the USD).
  • February 10th After bitcoin is mentioned on Slashdot and Hacker News, Bitcoin.org struggles with surge of new users, many coming from Twitter.
  • February 14th An Austrian user puts an old Porsche on sale on a bitcoin exchange for 3000 BTC.
  • March 1st User MagicalTux buys the exchange Mtgox.com from founder Jed McCaleb.

  • March 6th Sudden change in the Bitcoin network: connection speed spikes to 900 Ghash per second and decreases to 500 Ghash per second within a short period of time. There are rumors that it was caused by a supercomputer or network bot, dubbed the “mysterious miner”, connecting to the network.
  • March 18th low Bitcoin rate comparing to dollar achieved 70 cent per 1 USD. Before it there has been a current increase of the rate (it is possible that it has been made artificially), then there has been a current decrease.
  • March 22nd WeUseCoins published the video What Is Bitcoin? and it goes viral with over 8 million views.
  • March 27th First stock to exchange BTC for GBP opens.
  • March 31st First stock to exchange BTC for BRL opens.
  • April 5th BitMarket.eu, first stock to exchange BTC for PLN, opens
  • April 12th Fisrt Bitcoin option agreement is signed, on #bitcoin-otc.
  • April 16th TIME magazine publishes an article about crypto currency.
  • April 23rd BTC/USD rate reaches and surpasses the USD/EUR price and the USD/GBP rate on MtGox stock exchange. The general capitalization of bitcoins is 10 million USD.
  • April 27th VirWoX opens first exchange from BTC/SLL.
  • June Wikileaks and other organizations began to accept bitcoins for donations.
  • June 2nd USD to BTC rate is 10 USD to the coin. For 6 days, the Bitcoin value is fixed at 31.91 USD on MtGox.
  • June 12th BTC to USD rate decrease to 10 USD.
  • June 13th The first theft occurs in the history of bitcoin. User allinvain reports 25 thousand coins (375 thousand USD).
  • June 19th MtGox's database suffers a security breach. The names, password hashes and emails of 60 thousands users are stolen. An unknown hacker accesses a MtGox administration account, and sends hundreds of thousands of fake bitcoins, decreasing the value of the crypto currency from 17.5 USD per 1 coin to 1 cent per coin. Sales are resumed a week later. On the same day, thousands of coins are stolen from MyBitcoin accounts. It was one of the biggest bitcoin crashes (hacks) in the history.
  • July 22nd BitCoins Mobile, the first mobile app for iPad, is launched.
  • August 20th First Bitcoin conference at the World Expo exhibition in New York City.
  • August 23rd First decentralized P2Pool mines its first block.
  • September Vitalik Buterin co-founded Bitcoin Magazine.
  • November 25th First crypto currency conference in Europe, takes place in Prague (Czechia).
  • December 12th The biggest amount of fees paid for a block up to date: 171 BTC for block # 157235.
  • December 23rd Douglas Feigelson of BitBills filed a patent application for "Creating And Using Digital Currency" with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, an action which was contested based on prior art in June 2013.