Anicca Research is dedicated to studying the emerging phenomenon of hashpower as a new asset class and using those insights to advance the hashpower industry. Bitcoin is an alternative global settlement system. All economic activities flow through settlement systems. Traditional settlement systems are tightly controlled by a few chartered institutions. In Bitcoin, everyone can become a contributor and a shareholder of the network by contributing hashpower. Through the proof-of-work process, Bitcoin provides strong settlement assurance to participants of the network. It is a critical infrastructure of the Bitcoin settlement system’s security and reliability. Its health is one of the core determinants of Bitcoin’s ability to scale into a standard of our future digital economy. Since its inception, the hashpower industry has grown into a billion-dollar business. As Bitcoin becomes more mainstream, the hashpower industry will also evolve in unexpected ways. Understanding its history and current state of the affairs, will provide rich insights on its future trajectory.