Monthly Update on Bitcoin Mining Pool Distribution

I've been keeping an eye on the distribution of Bitcoin mining pools lately and honestly, it's looking a lot more decentralized now. No pool holds more than 18% of the hashrate currently, which is definitely a positive sign.

Right? I checked out both btc.com and coin.dance for stats. There's this new Binance pool that jumped to around 7% hashrate just in the last 24 hours. Still, the biggest players are mostly Chinese pools.

Yeah but that growth of Binance pool is kinda alarming too... Remember what CZ said about rollback a while back? Not super comfortable with them.

I’ve been with F2Pool for a while. I thought I’d give Binance pool a shot since they claim better payouts. Tried it for five days and this is what I got.

But those 5-day tests are kind of pointless, aren’t they? It’s just luck of the draw with these pools.

Okay but if you look at it differently, doing a pie chart by pool country will show decentralization. And anyway, luck shouldn't matter that much with pay-per-share pools.

I get what you mean, but still, hitting blocks with different fees plays a role. If one pool gets lucky and hits blocks with higher fees, they’ll pay out more.

Yeah, spot on. If Binance hits blocks with better fees, they’ll obviously look better in payout comparisons.

Makes sense. I should check the average fees for the blocks both pools found during my test. That’ll give a clearer picture.

Exactly, the average fee per block is key here. It’s not just about how many blocks but the fees attached to them.

Decentralization is a tricky term though. 70% of pools are in China, so you could argue it's centralized despite some pools being smaller.

True, it’s a lot about perceptions. Plus, most mining rigs come from China too, which is another layer to the centralization debate.

But who actually owns these pools? Bitmain’s influence is massive, and that’s concerning for true decentralization.

Totally agree. It’s not just about location; ownership matters too. We have to consider exchanges as well since they play a huge role in the mining ecosystem.

I did some digging and found out Bitmain owns Antpool and BTC.com. They’ve even invested in Viabtc, which doesn’t help the decentralization argument.

That’s pretty wild! I stopped using Viabtc after learning that. Bitmain has way too much control.

Here’s a recent update: Binance pool is around 10% of the hashrate now, which is putting them in the top five. They’re definitely on the rise.

Honestly, their low fees are attractive. If I had more gear, I might consider joining their pool because why not take advantage?

But you gotta wonder if them having low fees is just a tactic to pull everyone in and centralize more. They need just a bit more to climb the ranks.

Right, Huobi isn’t just gonna stand back while Binance is making these moves. It’s competitive out there.