Chain News Today TheBitTimes.com

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...

During a recent podcast interview, Michael Saylor explained that Bitcoin being bought and centralized by corporations should not be feared. He outlined three main reasons driving the need for custodians. During a podcast interview, MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor expressed the opinion that large corporations purchasing and then centralizing Bitcoin (BTC) should not be a cause for concern. While speaking to Natalie Brunell on the Coin Stories podcast, released on Aug. 7, Saylor emphasized the inevitability of third-party and corporate participation growing in the Bitcoin space. However, he suggested that lack of complete self-sovereignty should not be feared . “We need to be prepared for Bitcoin to infuse everything” Saylor stated, explaining that as Bitcoin becomes more integrated into society, it will have many use cases and there will not be a one-size-fits-all model. “There are different type of wrappers. Some people will always be self-custody, some will be multi-sig, some will n...