Bitcoin mining groups controlling 75% of BTC hash power adopt open standard for building blocks

Major Step Toward Decentralization in Bitcoin Mining

Recently, a significant shift toward decentralization in Bitcoin mining took place when seven leading mining pools decided to support the same open standards.

Foundry, AntPool, F2Pool, SpiderPool, MARA Pool, Block Inc, and DMND have all joined the Stratum V2 working group, as announced last week.

Stratum V2 is an open-source protocol that outlines how mining pools interact with individual miners. One of the most impactful changes it introduces is that miners can now create their own block templates. Essentially, this shift places the power of transaction selection into the hands of individual miners rather than pool operators.

According to data from a hashrate index, Foundry controls about 34.2% of the global Bitcoin hashrate. AntPool follows with 14.2%, F2Pool at 11.3%, SpiderPool at 10.5%, while MARA Pool accounts for 4.7%. When combined with other signees of Stratum V2, these seven pools collectively represent nearly 75% of Bitcoin’s total hashrate.

In the current Stratum V1 framework, nearly all new block transaction selection is managed by the pool operator, which has been a major structural issue in the mining industry for the past couple of years.

While Stratum V2 doesn’t alter hashrate concentration, it does change who determines the contents of each block, raising concerns within the Bitcoin community.

It’s a bit troubling that a single pool can dominate more than 30% of the hashrate. The concern lies in the fact that the pool that selects transactions also has a say in how shares from that block are allocated.

Since its inception in 2022, following a collaboration between Brainins and Spiral, Stratum V2 was initially seen as somewhat niche. However, with the recent involvement of Foundry and AntPool, this could mark the start of an intensified phase for wider adoption.

The timing of this move also aligns with ongoing challenges in the mining sector. CoinShares reports that up to 20% of miners are currently facing unprofitability, with the hash price—what miners make per unit of computing power—hovering around $38.57 per petahash per day, which is about breakeven for those using mid-tier hardware.

CoinWarz indicates that the mining difficulty is expected to rise from 132.47T to 135.64T on May 15. Presently, the network hashrate stands at about 998 exahashes per second.