NASA's Apollo Computer Mined Bitcoin in 2019, Now It's Obsolete
Moon-landing computer's Bitcoin mining experiment shows crypto's exponential growth.
1Apollo computer's Bitcoin experiment
In 2019, computer scientist Ken Shirriff programmed NASA's Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) to mine Bitcoin. The 70-pound machine with just 4KB RAM successfully computed one SHA-256 hash every 10.3 seconds. While this proved technically possible, the AGC never earned any Bitcoin due to its extremely slow speed compared to modern mining rigs. The project gained viral attention for contrasting space-age technology with cryptocurrency mining demands.
2Technical specifications revealed
The AGC used for this experiment was salvaged from a 1970s NASA scrapyard, likely part of the LTA-8 lunar module test article. With 36K words of read-only memory and capable of 40,000 additions per second, it represented cutting-edge 1960s computing. Shirriff wrote custom mining code in AGC assembly language to perform the cryptographic calculations. The computer successfully verified block 286,819 but couldn't compete with contemporary mining hardware.
3Historical computing power comparison
The AGC wasn't even the slowest device Shirriff tested - a 1960s IBM 1401 mainframe took 80 seconds per hash, while a 1973 Xerox Alto managed 1.5 hashes per second. These experiments demonstrate how Bitcoin's proof-of-work algorithm intentionally makes mining more difficult as computing power increases, ensuring consistent block times regardless of technological advances in hardware.
42019 vs 2026 mining difficulty
When Shirriff conducted his experiment in 2019, Bitcoin's network hashrate was 65 exahashes/second (EH/s). By September 2026, this increased 14-fold to 934 EH/s after a 1.31% difficulty adjustment to 127.45 trillion. This exponential growth means the AGC's already impractical mining speed became cosmically insignificant - requiring 13 million times the age of the universe to find a block at current difficulty.
5Mining economics shift
With Bitcoin's price reaching $81,000 and hashprice (miner revenue per computing power) jumping 22.24% to $39.63 per petahash/day, the economics of mining continue evolving. Transaction fees currently make up just 0.43% of miner rewards, making the block subsidy the primary incentive. This demonstrates how Bitcoin's design maintains miner participation despite increasing difficulty and hardware requirements.
6Proof-of-work visualized
The AGC experiment provides a tangible demonstration of Bitcoin's proof-of-work mechanism. By contrasting one of history's most famous computers with today's mining network, it shows how cryptocurrency mining difficulty automatically adjusts to maintain security. The astronomical gap between the AGC's capability and current network requirements illustrates Bitcoin's built-in resistance to centralization of mining power.
7Preservation through experimentation
Shirriff's project served dual purposes - demonstrating Bitcoin mining principles while preserving historical computing knowledge. The restoration required reverse-engineering the AGC's unique architecture and instruction set. Such experiments keep vintage hardware relevant while educating new generations about computing history and cryptographic principles underlying modern blockchain technology.
8Cryptocurrency's hardware arms race
The AGC experiment highlights Bitcoin's driving force behind specialized mining hardware development. From CPUs to GPUs to ASICs, each technological leap leaves previous methods obsolete. This continuous innovation cycle ensures network security grows with adoption, while creating economic incentives for advances in computational efficiency and energy use - key considerations for cryptocurrency's environmental impact debates.
Original article: Bitcoin News — NASA's Apollo Computer Mined Bitcoin in 2019, Now It's Obsolete