Computing, Distributed Systems & Bitcoin Timeline

Trace the lineage from EDVAC, transistors, CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, and ASICs through distributed systems, volunteer computing, consensus research, and Bitcoin. Every entry links to a primary-source-backed article.

Built exclusively from fact-checked statements in this library (last updated 2026-08-29).

1945

  • Computing FoundationsThe EDVAC First Draft under John von Neumann’s name widely circulated an electronic stored-program design. Read the article

1946

  • Computing FoundationsENIAC was publicly unveiled, demonstrating the potential of general-purpose electronic numerical computing. Read the article

1947

  • Computing FoundationsBardeen and Brattain demonstrated the point-contact transistor at Bell Labs. Read the article

1958

  • Computing FoundationsKilby demonstrated an integrated circuit, a step toward the manufacturable IC designs of Noyce and others. Read the article

1960

  • Computing FoundationsAtalla and Kahng demonstrated the MOS transistor, a foundation for dense digital ICs. Read the article

1964

  • Computing FoundationsThe CDC 6600 divided work between its arithmetic processor and peripheral processors, helping define the modern supercomputer. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsIBM announced System/360, a software-compatible computer family. Read the article

1965

  • Computing FoundationsGordon Moore observed and projected the growth of economical component density. Read the article

1969

  • Computing FoundationsARPANET connected remote computers through packet networking. Read the article

1971

  • Computing FoundationsIntel released the 4004, an early commercial single-chip microprocessor. Read the article

1976

  • Computing FoundationsThe Cray-1 arrived as a scientific system integrating vector processing, short wiring, and cooling. Read the article

1978

  • Computing FoundationsLamport formalized logical clocks and the happened-before relation. Read the article

1982

  • Computing FoundationsThe Byzantine Generals Problem formalized agreement under faulty behavior. Read the article

1983

1985

  • Computing FoundationsFLP proved a termination limit for deterministic consensus in fully asynchronous systems. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsThe Xilinx XC2064 commercialized reconfigurable logic as an early FPGA. Read the article

1987

  • Computing FoundationsTSMC founded the dedicated-foundry model, expanding the split between chip design and wafer fabrication. Read the article

1989

  • FoundationsChaum founded DigiCash and began building the eCash system. Read the article

1992

1993

  • Computing FoundationsThe first TOP500 list was led by a 1,024-processor CM-5, making the shift to massive parallelism visible. Read the article

1994

  • Computing FoundationsNASA Goddard built the first Beowulf cluster from commodity PCs and Linux. Read the article

1996

  • Computing FoundationsGIMPS began its Internet-scale search for Mersenne primes. Read the article

1997

  • Computing Foundationsdistributed.net split the RC5 key search across volunteer hosts. Read the article
  • FoundationsAdam Back devised Hashcash, a precursor to proof-of-work. Read the article

1998

  • FoundationsWei Dai's b-money and Nick Szabo's Bit Gold were proposed. Read the article

1999

  • Computing FoundationsSETI@home launched publicly, connecting home PCs to radio SETI. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsNVIDIA announced the GeForce 256 as a GPU under its vendor definition, popularizing the product category. Read the article

2000

  • Computing FoundationsFolding@home launched molecular-dynamics computing on its own platform. Read the article

2001

  • Computing FoundationsSony, SCE, IBM, and Toshiba began Cell processor development at their joint Austin center. Read the article

2002

  • Computing FoundationsDevelopment began on BOINC as a reusable multi-project platform. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsThe first Earth Simulator reached No. 1 on TOP500 at 35.86 TFLOP/s on Linpack. Read the article

2004

  • Computing FoundationsMapReduce documented large-scale data processing on commodity clusters. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsSETI@home offered a BOINC version. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsIBM launched World Community Grid for humanitarian research. Read the article

2005

  • Computing FoundationsWorld Community Grid added Linux support and began integrating BOINC. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsEinstein@Home and Rosetta@home launched science workloads on BOINC. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsNTT DATA announced the public BOINC-based cell computing βirth platform. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsMessage@Home opened as a PerlBOINC experiment and later evolved into PrimeGrid. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsNTT DATA released the cell computing Gene middleware package for managed LAN PCs. Read the article

2006

  • Computing FoundationsAn archived official record marks the end of cell computing Gene sales after about four months. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsNVIDIA introduced CUDA as a software platform for general-purpose GPU computing. Read the article

2007

  • Computing FoundationsThe PlayStation 3 Folding@home client became available, connecting Cell/B.E. to scientific computing. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsDynamo documented a highly available distributed key-value store. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsMilkyWay@home began distributed computation of Galactic structure. Read the article

2008

  • Computing FoundationsNTT DATA ended the public cell computing βirth platform. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsGPUGrid used CUDA through BOINC, bringing volunteer NVIDIA GPUs into scientific computing. Read the article
  • FoundationsSatoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin whitepaper. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsKhronos released OpenCL 1.0 for cross-platform parallel programming. Read the article

2009

  • FoundationsThe genesis block (block 0) was mined. Read the article
  • FoundationsSatoshi announced Bitcoin software v0.1 (SourceForge release the next day). Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsEarly Bitcoin software included a miner that ran on general-purpose CPUs. Read the article
  • FoundationsThe first bitcoin transaction went from Satoshi to Hal Finney. Read the article

2010

  • Foundations10,000 BTC bought two pizzas — now Bitcoin Pizza Day. Read the article
  • FoundationsThe Mt.Gox exchange opened. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsAn SSE2 SHA-256 mining optimization was shared for Intel and AMD CPUs. Read the article
  • Critical Perspectives & RisksA value-overflow bug minted 184.4 billion phantom BTC. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsA public OpenCL miner connected ATI and NVIDIA GPUs to Bitcoin mining. Read the article

2011

  • EconomicsThe dark-web marketplace Silk Road launched. Read the article
  • FoundationsBitcoin reached $1 per coin for the first time. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsAn open-source FPGA Bitcoin miner targeted Xilinx and Altera devices. Read the article

2012

  • Computing FoundationsAlexNet trained on two GeForce GTX 580 GPUs, demonstrating GPU-accelerated deep learning. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsThe PlayStation 3 Folding@home client ended while the project continued on other platforms. Read the article
  • MechanicsFirst halving: block reward cut from 50 to 25 BTC. Read the article

2013

  • Computing FoundationsAvalon SHA-256 ASIC miners shipped, accelerating mining’s move to dedicated silicon. Read the article
  • Critical Perspectives & RisksA BerkeleyDB/LevelDB mismatch briefly split the chain. Read the article
  • EconomicsThe FBI shut down Silk Road and arrested its operator. Read the article
  • FoundationsBitcoin surpassed $1,000 for the first time. Read the article

2014

2015

  • Computing FoundationsEthereum Frontier launched its mainnet under Ethash proof of work. Read the article

2016

2017

2018

  • Critical Perspectives & RisksCVE-2018-17144, a double-spend flaw, was disclosed. Read the article
  • ScalingBitcoin SV forked away from Bitcoin Cash. Read the article

2019

  • Computing FoundationsPrimeGrid found the first known AP27, an arithmetic progression of 27 primes. Read the article

2020

  • Computing FoundationsSETI@home stopped new workunit distribution and entered analysis hibernation. Read the article
  • MechanicsThird halving: reward cut from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsESA launched PhiSat-1 to demonstrate onboard AI filtering of Earth-observation imagery. Read the article

2021

  • Computing FoundationsSpaceborne Computer-2 launched to the ISS for COTS edge-computing and AI experiments. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsWorld Community Grid completed its legal transfer from IBM to Krembil Research Institute. Read the article
  • ContextEl Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender. Read the article
  • ScalingTaproot activated, introducing Schnorr signatures. Read the article
  • FoundationsBitcoin hit an all-time high near $69,000. Read the article

2022

  • Computing FoundationsWorld Community Grid paused work distribution and result intake for its migration to Krembil. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsIntel announced the SHA-256 Blockscale ASIC for Bitcoin mining. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsFrontier became the first exascale system to lead TOP500. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsEthereum Mainnet moved to proof of stake in the Merge, ending GPU mining. Read the article
  • EconomicsFTX collapsed, losing roughly $8B in customer funds. Read the article

2023

  • Computing FoundationsIntel issued a Blockscale discontinuance notice, forecasting final shipment for April 20, 2024. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsWorld Community Grid announced a complete restart after post-transfer alpha operations. Read the article
  • EconomicsGrayscale won its SEC lawsuit, opening the path to ETF approval. Read the article

2024

2025

  • EconomicsSilk Road founder Ross Ulbricht was pardoned and released. Read the article
  • Critical Perspectives & RisksEl Salvador repealed Bitcoin's legal-tender status. Read the article
  • EconomicsAbout 400,000 ETH was stolen from Bybit — the largest crypto theft on record. Read the article
  • ContextThe US established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Read the article
  • FoundationsThe GENIUS Act was signed, advancing stablecoin regulation. Read the article
  • FoundationsBTC hit an all-time high of $126,198. Read the article

2026

  • MechanicsCirculating BTC supply passed the 20-million-coin mark. Read the article
  • Computing FoundationsLineShine reached No. 1 on the June 2026 TOP500 list at 2.198 EFLOP/s on HPL. Read the article
  • Critical Perspectives & RisksThe BIP 110 soft-fork attempt stalled for lack of miner support. Read the article
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