A Chinese bitcoin firm mined one-third of all blocks in a single day, taking over the top position from the US. AntPool is Leading Bitcoin Mining Once Again
Meanwhile, the race of Bitcoin mining saw an interesting turn as, in the last 24 hours alone, Chinese platform AntPool mined close to a third of all newly issued BTC. Consequently, this pushed the leading mining pool in the United States, Foundry USA, down from the number one spot. According to data taken from mempool.space today, September 22, AntPool mined 42 blocks out of 135, while Foundry USA managed to find 36.
Dominance of Long-standing Mining by China and the US
During the previous years, AntPool and Foundry USA have continuously been at the forefront of BTC mining globally. The output has continuously grown as these are just the two pools of many that have continuously stayed ahead of others. During that same time, ViaBTC mined 10% of the blocks, while the shares held by F2Pool and MARA were even smaller. The trend is a representation of how much more concentrated mining power is between the two countries.
Centralization of Bitcoin Mining Raises Concern
AntPool’s rise has refueled fears of centralization in BTC mining. Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dash Jr. recently warned that BTC transactions could take up to two hours to be considered secure, implying that current market standards of 30 to 60 minutes were outdated.
A study done by the pseudonymous analyst b10c (@0xb10c) back in April insinuated that AntPool’s influence on the network might be even bigger than it actually feels. The study, supported by an independent investigation by Mononaut, claimed that at least six Bitcoin mining pools could be assigned to the same custodian and share the same block template as AntPool. This would suggest hidden agreements and a more profound centralization than until now assumed.
Implications for Bitcoin’s Future
That could mean much if the fight between the United States and China, both leading world economies in Bitcoin mining, remains unrelenting. Foundry USA has been leading the long-term scene to this point, but the sudden surge in activity by AntPool is not going unrecognized.
Centralization from the investment perspective can be a complete misfit into the value proposition of Bitcoin and, therefore, could have an implication for the price of BTC in the market. As the race continues to heat up, stakeholders have to remain aware of the possible implications of such mining power concentration.
