July 31 marks 15 years. Project founder Ivan Tikhonov recalls how the Bitcoin website appeared, why a forum grew alongside it, how the team survived a block, how mining was different in the early years, and what challenges crypto media faces today.
First There Was the Website, Then the Forum
The story did not begin with the forum, although many remember it most. The website came first: it published materials for beginners about what bitcoin is, how mining works, and where to start learning about the new technology.
The forum was launched later. It quickly became a place where Russian-speaking cryptocurrency enthusiasts gathered. This was before the mass rise of messengers, so the forum served as the main platform for communication.
- Owners of major services discussed launching and developing cryptocurrency projects.
- Miners shared experiences about hardware, settings, and mining.
- Developers discussed technical issues and network structure.
- Traders followed the market and cryptocurrency exchanges.
- Regular users looked for clear answers and help getting started.
The project then developed in stages: first the website with basic explanations, then the forum as a live community hub, followed by offline meetings, editorial growth, moving and launching applied services for those who not only read about cryptocurrencies but worked with them in practice.
The story of the first offline meeting is also important, but it happened after the website launch. In 2013, people who had only known each other from the forum met at a bar in St. Petersburg. Some traveled from other cities just to finally meet their conversation partners in person.
It was at that meeting that Ivan Tikhonov met the future first editor-in-chief. It became clear then that the project could regularly publish quality news, not just occasional notes and discussions. That was the start of the editorial team’s growth.
Why Bitcoin Security Became
Until 2015, the project’s main domain was . The abbreviation BTCsec meant Bitcoin Security. It was originally intended that the site would primarily talk about secure bitcoin storage and transaction protection.
The situation around cryptocurrencies in Russia changed those plans. In 2014, a prosecutor’s lawsuit was satisfied in defense of an indefinite group of people. It claimed that spreading information about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies was illegal. Not only , but , and several other domains were blocked.
At first, the team simply saw that the site stopped opening. Only later were they able to reconstruct the whole chain of events and understand why it happened. Suing the prosecutor’s office over cryptocurrencies was not easy and, to put it mildly, worrisome. But the team believed their position was right, restored the appeal deadlines, and began to challenge the decision.
The process took about six months. While it was unclear how long the courts would last, the project decided to move to a new domain. Besides, it was inconvenient to pronounce, people often made mistakes in writing, and such typos could not be corrected in print publications. So the switch became not just a forced step, but a long-overdue one.
In the end, the first domain was successfully defended. According to Ivan Tikhonov, if that had not happened, could have remained blocked in Russia since 2015, possibly to this day.
When Posts Were Paid in Bitcoin
In the early years, bitcoin was used in the project not only as a publication topic but also as a payment method. There were no bans on such payments at the time, so if an author wanted to receive a reward in BTC, it was not a problem.
The reward system changed as the community grew:
- Useful forum posts: 1 BTC per week for a notable contribution to discussions.
- Spreading information about Bitcoin on other forums: 3 BTC for a post that stayed on the platform for at least a week.
- An expanded initiative involving exchanges, pools, and other market players: up to 12 BTC for one post.
The main condition was simple: the post had to stay on the platform for at least a week. This was not always easy. Some forum administrators called bitcoin materials and mining instructions scams and quickly deleted such messages. At the same time, the number of paid posts was not limited.
Gradually, editorial work began to take shape around a random but very active community. The project was no longer satisfied with individual forum messages: the audience needed news, analytics, and clear explanations of how cryptocurrency and related services were developing.
This led to the editorial model : regularly releasing news, analyzing market events, explaining technology in simple language, and tracking how cryptocurrency intersects with services, finance, and regulation.
Mining, ASICs, and Ethereum’s Switch to Staking
For Ivan Tikhonov, mining became the first practical entry point into cryptocurrencies. When he first saw a description of bitcoin mining, he suspected it might be a clever way to spread trojans. But the source code was open, and that changed his view.
One evening after work, he sat down to figure out what bitcoin was and how it worked. He only got up from the computer in the morning — already understanding the network’s principles, its logic, and the potential scale of the technology.
Then came experiments: how to reassemble operations in the core, how to overclock video cards, what hardware to buy to increase mining. The mined bitcoins were then used, among other things, to pay for forum content.
Ivan Tikhonov stopped mining in 2013. By then, ASICs had entered the market, and mining began turning into an industrial industry, similar to what exists now. As a business, it did not interest him much, and the ideological side also changed.
Back in 2012, the computing power of the Bitcoin network exceeded the combined power of all the world’s supercomputers. After that, in his opinion, the question was no longer about network security, but about profits and the concentration of power among large miners.
Ivan Tikhonov took Ethereum’s switch to PoS calmly. He notes that the principle of staking cannot be reduced to the formula “the richer you are, the more you get.” Validators risk their own stake, so attacking the network for free is impossible. In addition, a successful attack would hit the price, which is not beneficial for stakers themselves.
Why Bitcoin Develops Cautiously
Ivan Tikhonov assesses the state of the modern crypto industry without drama. Bitcoin really does develop slowly, but the reason is clear: the cost of mistakes has become too high.
Moreover, Bitcoin has already found its niche. No one expects record speed or Turing-complete smart contracts from it. Its value lies elsewhere, and that is why attempts to change the basic model often ended in forks.
Those who did not like the direction of Bitcoin’s development were free to launch their own versions. But today’s use of such forks shows that most of the market did not need them as much as Bitcoin in its current form.
How the Mining Calculator and Other Tools Appeared
Tools for miners and traders were initially created not as a large public service, but for personal needs. Ivan Tikhonov needed a calculator that could account for expenses, fees, equipment depreciation, and the expected increase in difficulty over the next few months.
That’s how the mining calculator appeared, which quickly proved useful for other users as well. Later, when home mining essentially became a thing of the past, interest in it declined. But at the time, it was a sought-after tool for those who calculated the economics of mining on their own equipment.
Other utilities also existed within the project, including a block explorer. However, new teams appeared on the market, making similar services faster and more convenient. In such cases, their own tools were shut down so as not to keep them just for the sake of it.
Then the team increasingly focused on audience requests. Some users needed to predict the next difficulty, others — to quickly understand what fee to set to avoid overpaying, still others — to find out the price of TRON in USDT. That’s how converters and other applied services appeared.
Main Products and Services
- News portal: helps track events in the crypto industry, market, technology, and regulation.
- Analytics and explanatory materials: analyze how cryptocurrency and related services are developing.
- Forum: a platform for communication among miners, developers, traders, service owners, and users.
- Mining calculator: a tool for calculating expenses, fees, equipment depreciation, and changes in difficulty.
- Block explorer and other utilities: internal applied services launched for users’ practical needs.
- Converters: help quickly calculate prices and pairs like TRON to USDT.
The approach remains the same: if the audience has a clear demand for a new utility, we are ready to make such tools. In this sense, the editorial product and applied services develop side by side, and Data and Marketing help better understand users’ real needs.
AI and New Challenges for Crypto Media
Artificial intelligence will seriously shake up all information projects, not just crypto and fintech media.
Sites will have to look for additional value for readers, otherwise it will become harder to maintain large reach.
Another challenge is increased regulation. The recently adopted law on cryptocurrency legalization brought not only rules but also a whole set of prohibitions. For example, you can no longer freely write about buying an apartment in Dubai for bitcoins or advertise buying most cryptocurrencies even on legal platforms if such ads can be seen by unqualified investors.
This means a new stage for crypto media. The main tasks look like this:
- Maintain clear language.
- Quickly explain complex processes.
- Take legal restrictions into account.
- Remain useful for the audience.
In 15 years, Bitcoin Security has gone from a website for enthusiasts to a media outlet that tracks the industry, market, technology, and how cryptocurrency is changing the financial environment. Key milestones include the launch of the forum, the first offline community meeting in 2013, editorial growth, defending the domain after the block, and developing services for miners and traders.
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