The largest and most anticipated upgrade in Bitcoin mining infrastructure quietly took place last week, as seven of the industry’s top mining pools joined forces to support the open-source Stratum V2 protocol. Foundry, AntPool, F2Pool, SpiderPool, MARA Pool, Block Inc, and DMND collaborated on this move, which was officially announced by the Stratum V2 working group.
Miners gain more control over Bitcoin blocks
Stratum V2 is an open-source protocol that manages communication between mining pools and the individual miners within those pools. The core advancement with Stratum V2 is that miners now have the authority to create their own block templates. This means each miner can directly decide which transactions are included in new blocks, shifting a key decision-making power away from pool operators to the miners themselves.
Under the older Stratum V1 protocol, the responsibility for choosing transactions to be included in nearly every new block resided mainly with pool managers. This centralized approach has been widely debated over the past two years as one of the main structural issues in the mining sector.
Stratum V2 allows miners to determine which transactions are added to their blocks, a capability long sought after by advocates for a more decentralized and transparent Bitcoin mining ecosystem.
Major hashrate consolidation
According to Hashrate Index data, Foundry accounts for 34.2% of global Bitcoin hashrate, AntPool provides 14.2%, F2Pool holds 11.3%, and SpiderPool represents 10.5%. MARA Pool adds another 4.7% to this figure. Together, these seven pools now collectively represent about 75% of the Bitcoin network’s total hashrate, setting a new benchmark as they lead the adoption of Stratum V2.
This substantial market share marks a turning point for the rollout of Stratum V2. The protocol, available since 2022, had so far only been adopted by a handful of pools. With working group founders Braiins and Spiral at the helm, this development is seen as the beginning of a rapid expansion phase for the standard.
Mining economics under pressure
Alongside these technical advances, the mining industry is also facing increasing economic stress. Estimates by CoinShares indicate that nearly 20% of active miners are currently unable to turn a profit. The hashprice—the daily revenue per unit of mining power—now stands at $38.57, which is regarded as the break-even point for operators running mid-range hardware.
The Bitcoin network’s difficulty level is also set to increase, jumping from 132.47T to 135.64T as of May 15. The total network hashrate is currently recorded at 998 exahashes per second.
Overall, the widespread adoption of Stratum V2 could kickstart a significant transformation within the mining marketplace, offering greater transparency and empowering miners to exercise more influence over block construction. While these major pools previously regarded Stratum V2 as a secondary, side project, industry observers now expect the protocol to rapidly become the new standard with such powerful backers behind it.
