First Altcoin, Namecoin (NMC), Celebrates 13 Years of Operation with Stable Hashrate through Merged Mining, Despite Declining Token Value.
The Namecoin (NMC) network – the first altcoin in cryptocurrency history – has just celebrated 13 years of operation since its official launch on April 18, 2011. Although the token's market value has significantly decreased over time, the network continues to develop and maintain one of the highest hashrates in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Namecoin's Journey from Pioneer Project to 13-Year Milestone
Forked from Bitcoin's original source code and implemented 835 days after Bitcoin's creation, Namecoin was designed to provide a decentralized domain name management system. The project developed ".bit" domain names not controlled by any organization, with the goal of enhancing censorship resistance and privacy protection on the Internet.
Notably, "bitcoin.bit" is recognized as the first Non-Fungible Token in cryptocurrency history. To date, hundreds of thousands of .bit domain names have been registered and managed through this system.
Currently, NMC is trading at $0.98 – much lower than its peak of $13.11 in November 2013. However, the development community remains active, with the release of Namecoin Core 28.0 Beta in December 2024 and participation in multiple industry conferences in the past two years.
Most notably, the network's hashrate reached 487.40 exahash per second (EH/s) on April 18, 2025 – an extremely impressive security metric. This achievement was made possible through merged mining with Bitcoin, allowing Bitcoin Miners to simultaneously secure the Namecoin network without incurring significant additional processing costs.
Namecoin's .bit domain name management mechanism operates through blockchain transactions, with users utilizing NMC tokens to register, update, and renew domain ownership through a process involving name_new, name_firstupdate, and name_update commands on the Namecoin Core software.
Namecoin's persistent existence after 13 years is evidence of the feasibility of decentralized domain name management solutions, while also acknowledging the pioneering role of this project in blockchain-based decentralized Internet infrastructure.
