New research suggests Bitcoin mining centralized around Bitmain
For years, rumors have circulated that Bitcoin’s largest mining machine manufacturer has secretly centralized a majority of Bitcoin’s hash power. The theory is down to more than a simple observation of the logo stamped on most mining cases. No, skeptics think that Bitmain’s pool itself — not just its machines — secretly creates the vast majority of blocks that are added to Bitcoin’s ledger. A sleuth found a clue in Antpool’s block template: A manually prioritized transaction immediately after the 6.25 BTC block reward or ‘coinbase’ transaction. This new research by pseudonymous Bitcoin developer 0xb10c seemingly confirms long-rumored practices by Antpool hiding its massive operation under the names of ostensibly independent pools. In short, it warns that despite tens of thousands of decentralized nodes, Bitcoin might actually be quite centralized from a mining perspective. One template and custodian for supposedly independent pools Specifically, 0xb10c detected that B...