Bitcoin Mining Pools: Are They Really Independent? Casey Rodarmor Raises Concerns
Bitcoin mining pools may not be as independent as previously thought, according to Casey Rodarmor, the creator of Bitcoin Ordinals. In a recent post, Rodarmor highlighted concerns about the lack of decentralization in the Bitcoin mining space, pointing out that many large pools appear to be proxies for AntPool, with similar transaction selection policies.
A post from pseudonymous Bitcoin developer 0xB10C further supported Rodarmor’s claims, showing that mining pools run by BTC.com, Binance, Poolin, EMCD, Rawpool, and possibly Braiins have the same custom transaction template as Antpool. This has raised speculation about a potential partnership between these pools and AntPool/Bitmain, leading to a concentration of mining power.
Data from Blockchain.com revealed that just two mining pools, Antpool and Foundry, were responsible for mining the majority of Bitcoin blocks over the past year. This centralization of mining power poses a risk to the censorship-resistance that Bitcoin is built upon.
To address this issue, Rodarmor and others advocate for the adoption of Stratum V2 mining pools, which allow miners to have more control over which transactions are included in each block. Developed by Braiins Pool in collaboration with Bitcoin core developer Matt Corallo, Stratum V2 aims to improve efficiency and prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.
Corallo emphasized the importance of decentralization in Bitcoin mining, warning that relying on large single entities for mining could lead to potential problems in the future. As discussions around the centralization of mining power continue, the Bitcoin community will need to find solutions to ensure the network remains decentralized and censorship-resistant.
