Following Bitcoin's successful 4th block reward halving, an important discourse has emerged surrounding the situation of miners of the largest cryptocurrency. Amidst major players' continued investment in new mining devices, smaller participants face a serious hurdle as the block reward has dropped by a significant 50 percent. While this was happening on the mining side, Bitcoin Ordinals founder Casey announced his latest solution, revealing a worrying trend in mining regarding the decentralization of Bitcoin mining.

He Emphasized the Problem of Centralization of Bitcoin Mining

Casey highlighted Bitcoin's core censorship-resistant value proposition due to the decentralized nature of miners competing to mine and verify blocks on the Bitcoin Blockchain. However, he cautioned about the current landscape in which several leading pools are acting as proxies for AntPool, thereby compromising the supposed independence of its operations.

It is a well-established fact that Bitcoin mining activities are concentrated among a few major players, reflecting the dominance observed among mining chip providers, primarily Bitmain. However, recent developments, such as Jack Dorsey's company Block announcing that his company has completed the next generation of Bitcoin mining chips, have increased optimism for miners of all sizes. These chips, featuring Block's three-nanometer technology, hold promise for improving the efficiency and accessibility of mining operations.

Stratum V2 Announced

On the other hand, Casey introduced Stratum V2, an improved version of Bitcoin's pooled mining protocol, to address concerns about the decentralization of mining. Unlike its predecessor, Stratum V2 gives individual miners the authority to determine the transaction selection for each block, rather than the pools from which they mine. This significant development provides miners with greater autonomy in pool mining while strengthening control over block mining.

After extensive development, as Stratum V2 was nearing completion, Casey invited miners to commit resources to trial the protocol. Casey directed miners to DEMAND POOL, a Stratum V2 mining pool, to evaluate the pool's features and provide feedback on any issues encountered.

This collaborative effort from Casey is part of the industry's commitment to driving innovation and addressing critical barriers to ensure the continued strength and decentralization of the Bitcoin mining ecosystem.