-
Bitmain is also associated with a Bitcoin Mining pool, called Antpool.
-
Block wants to create products adapted for home Bitcoin mining.
Block, the company led by Jack Dorsey, introduced Proto, a suite of mining hardware products and services. One of its objectives of this launch is to “decentralize” both the supply of mining hardware and the distribution of hashrate, to strengthen the bitcoin network and offer better experiences in using products to miners.
He Proto approach is to offer a line of ASIC chips and hardware systems focused on performance and customization. Its main lines of development seek to promote innovation in applications such as domestic mining, an organization model that manages to atomize and distribute the hashrateand which was characteristic in the early age of Bitcoin. Proto also prioritizes off-the-grid solutions and commercial heat reuse, in addition to decentralization.
We have focused on developing products that decentralize access to developers, increase network resilience, and make everyday use of Bitcoin secure and easy.
Proto, Block’s line of mining products and services.
Why try to decentralize Bitcoin mining more?
Essentially, the developers of Proto and Jack Dorsey, its director, propose themselves as an American alternative to the current concentration of the bitcoin miningdominated by a few companies with an overwhelming market share operating from China. The dominant company he refers to is Bitmain, although there are also other important ones such as Canaan and MicroBT. According to Minerstat and its ranking12 of the 20 most profitable miners in the world, regardless of the Cryptocurrency mined, are from the Antminer line. The first of all, with a profitability of $94.33 at the time of writing, is the Antminer A7.
Bitmain, founded in 2013 by Micree Zhan and Jihan Wu, rose to the top of the bitcoin mining market thanks to its series of ASIC products, from the Antminer line.
Bitcoin Miner S21e XP Hyd is one of the latest equipment from Bitmain. Fountain: Bitmain
It is considered that Bitmain professionalized bitcoin mining products and services, since the alternatives that existed before its appearance They could not meet demand and suffered from excessive delays in equipment shipments.. Still today, Bitmain dominates the manufacturing of bitcoin hardware.
The centralization of mining in the hands of Bitmain has raised significant concerns. For example, in 2018, Bitmain was criticized for its disproportionate influence, prompting Jimmy Song, one of the critics at the time, to mention the potential dangers of a single company dominating the manufacturing of mining equipment.
Risks of ASIC manufacturing centralization
One of these risks is mining equipment has serial manufacturing defectswhich would affect the entire product line and, therefore, the Bitcoin mining process.
Another, more serious risk is that the dominant company installs “some type of backdoor in the mining equipment through some hidden hardware, firmware or software.” This back door could “force” the miner to use one of the pools controlled by the factoryor to assign the block rewards to an address associated with the manufacturing company.
Another risk, this time a supply chain risk, is related to price speculation, equipment purchase restrictions or shipping delays.
Concern about the centralization of mining in the hands of Bitmain and its teams increases because the same company operates Antpoolone of the largest mining pools in the world. At the time of writing, Antpool is the largest bitcoin mining pool in the world after Foundry USA, mining almost 23% (232 blocks) of the network in the last 7 days. This same pool has obtained more than 1 million BTC as a reward since its creation. A backdoor in a line of ASIC miners could favor the same company’s pool.
Bitmain is the largest bitcoin mining rig manufacturer in the world. Fountain: Mempool.space
Excessive centralization of equipment manufacturing and/or network hashrate through pools controlled by a single company would allow, under certain non-typical conditions and not necessarily convenient for it, a single entity to control the confirmation of transactions, censor new transactions and even alter some of bitcoin’s accounting through a 51% attack.
Evolution of Proto’s decentralized mining products
Proto started in 2021 including the design and production of its first 3nm chip. As CriptoNoticias reported, they have also launched the Mining Development Kit (MDK) Betawhich provides tools and resources for developers interested in exploring applications for bitcoin mining hardware.
Chip creation is one of Block’s priorities, with its Proto line. Fountain: Mining.build
Block, through its Proto line, comments that the manufacturing of chips for ASICs is a fundamental task:
We are committed to the long-term development of ASIC chips, which will be the core of our entire product offering. These chips will power our own hardware systems and will be available as standalone products to other mining hardware manufacturers to enable decentralization of hardware solutions in the market.
Proto, Block’s line of mining products and services.
As CriptoNoticias also reported, part of the mining industry concerned about decentralization has made efforts to implement, or begin to implement, that ideal within bitcoin mining.
Recently this year, the Ocean pool created DATUMwhich stands for Decentralized Alternative Templates for Universal Mining, and ruled out the protocol called StratumV2.
DATUM allows individual miners to build block templates using their own Bitcoin node, instead of centralizing control in the pool operators.
Crypto Keynote USA
For the Latest Crypto News, Follow ©KeynoteUSA on Twitter Or Google News.
