{"id":13076,"date":"2024-04-30T13:51:41","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T10:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/study-reveals-centralization-of-bitcoin-mining-pools-under-single-custodian\/"},"modified":"2024-04-30T13:51:41","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T10:51:41","slug":"study-reveals-centralization-of-bitcoin-mining-pools-under-single-custodian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/study-reveals-centralization-of-bitcoin-mining-pools-under-single-custodian\/","title":{"rendered":"Study Reveals Centralization of Bitcoin Mining Pools Under Single Custodian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bitcoin mining has become perilously centralized, with a single entity holding coins mined by nine major pools, thereby controlling approximately 47% of the network&#8217;s hashrate, according to a report by <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.bitmex.com\/pow-centralisation-hysteria-what-size-war-chest-is-required\/\">BitMEX<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The document references a post by a user named mononaut on X. According to his data, an unnamed custodian has amassed bitcoins from AntPool, F2Pool, Binance Pool, Braiins, BTC.com, SECPOOL, and Poolin.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A single custodian now controls the coinbase addresses of at least 9 pools, representing 47% of total hashrate.<\/p>\n<p>As demonstrated by this consolidation of mining reward outputs from AntPool, F2Pool, Binance Pool, Braiins, btccom, SECPOOL and Poolin:<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/IQpH2TgP6k\">https:\/\/t.co\/IQpH2TgP6k<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/w5Nk09Rawf\">https:\/\/t.co\/w5Nk09Rawf<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6RDHdm0ZjP\">pic.twitter.com\/6RDHdm0ZjP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 mononaut (tx\/acc) (@mononautical) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mononautical\/status\/1777686545715089605?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 9, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The same custodian controls the input addresses of ULTIMUSPOOL and 1THash and has received mining rewards from Luxor.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;In other words, this organization holds the keys to at least 47 out of every 100 mined bitcoins,&#8221; noted mononaut.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>He added that many participants of the listed pools provide hashrate for AntPool&#8217;s transaction accelerator, which the major custodian used.<\/p>\n<p>Crypto analyst Alex Bergeron, in an article for <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/technical\/shadow-boxing-comments-on-pow-hysteria\">Bitcoin Magazine<\/a>, pointed to the high degree of mining centralization in the Bitcoin blockchain. He explained the situation as pools attempting to &#8220;adjust [their] payout scheme and completely eliminate [income] deviations from the equation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;In effect, the pool has to pay each payment out of its own pocket and hope it can recoup itself with mined blocks. If you have a streak of bad luck and your balance isn&#8217;t strong enough to compensate for income, you&#8217;re Sam Bankman-Fried,&#8221; he wrote.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Thanks to a combination of &#8220;timing, business acumen, and cash reserves the size of Digital Currency Group,&#8221; the largest pools have concentrated a significant portion of users, Bergeron believes.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at BitMEX calculated that the minimum fund for a mining pool controlling 50% of the hashrate should be at least 400 BTC. This would give the platform a &#8220;95% chance of survival&#8221; over a year.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh7-eu.googleusercontent.com\/mjKVKJFn3qs80MXjVrr2SZNEZLumOXK075lIM8COUwdnC-_U1x5bMpAE4cD6tn622w5FeeQlosTp73CmNBIzW4Mwn8N5s4aU-laXfCWNXGMvUxSIurwy8zI1x_fGkf5_7815FGHNOlsYN-s_ov7y6MQ\" alt=\"Study Reveals Centralization of Bitcoin Mining Pools Under Single Custodian\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Chances of a pool&#8217;s &#8220;survival&#8221; over a year depending on reserves and capacities. Data: BitMEX.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For risk-free existence, a pool controlling 5% of capacities requires a reserve of 500 BTC.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, CEO of analytics firm CryptoQuant Ki Young Ju found no signs of Bitcoin miners capitulating, despite the halving of block rewards following the recent halving event.<\/p>\n<p>CoinShares concluded that mining companies could enhance diversification through AI and other sectors to offset declining revenues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bitcoin mining has become perilously centralized, with a single entity holding coins mined by nine major pools, thereby controlling approximately 47% of the network&#8217;s hashrate, according to a report by BitMEX. The document references a post by a user named mononaut on X. According to his data, an unnamed custodian has amassed bitcoins from AntPool, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1137,167],"class_list":["post-13076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-cryptocurrency-mining","tag-research"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"69","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}