The most famous cryptocurrency in the world is now a bit more decentralized, thanks to the waning influence of Bitmain and the return of the friend Bitcoin BTC miner.
The research unit Blockchain Diar has has published new data that reveals exactly who has validated the Bitcoin network.
Analysts have determined that data mining pools owned by or strongly linked to Bitmain (Antpool, BTC.com and ViaBTC) are now validating many less Bitcoin blocks compared to this period of the last year.
In reality, they are anonymous "unknown" Bitcoin miners who are currently validating multiple blocks of any single pool.
"[Unknown] The miners closed the month of December after solving a huge 22 [percent] of total blocks, from 6 [percent] at the beginning of last year, "reported Diar." The Bitcoin network is currently less likely to suffer an attack since the pools controlled by BTC.com have lost their domain over the network. "
At the time of the pixels, the "unknown" miners represented more than 23% of the computing power that managed the Bitcoin network (hash power).
Does this actually make Bitcoin 'safer'?
Bitmain is the world's leading producer of cryptocurrency equipment and has historically been the Bitcoin network.
Diar reports that at the start of 2018, Bitmain's mining pools accounted for 53% of the Bitcoin hash power. Theoretically, this would have allowed them to collude to take control of Bitcoin with a "51% offense. "
In fact, a reduction in their influence is certainly a great relief for those who are wary of 51% attacks on Bitcoin, such as the one suffered by Ethereum Classic which has led to 1.1 million dollars stolen from the cryptocurrency trade.
For this to happen, major players like Antpool and BTC.com will need to work together to monitor most of the hash power of the network. This would allow them to approve, censor or even perform rollback operations as they please.
Diar admitted that while the threat of this event could now be much lower, miners have no obligation to share details of the pools they could contribute to.
This means that some (or all) "unknown" miners could really work with one of the biggest mining basins.
… but the miners could wait for Bitcoin to bounce back
Analysts have also noted that miners who have turned off their equipment are likely to wait for an increase in the price of Bitcoins before they resume validation transactions.
Last month, when the price of Bitcoin shifted briefly from $ 3,200 to over $ 4,000, the overall power of the hash bitcoin increased for the first time since August.
This indicates a distinct correlation between the price of Bitcoin and the number of miners who are ready to participate in the network.
Diar warned that January growth in the hashish rate is unlikely to be sustainable, especially if the price returns to its now typical bearish ways. This means that if the price of Bitcoin rebounds, the mining pools controlled by Bitmain could come back online.
At least for now, let's enjoy the new Bitcoin with more decentralization (and less Bitmain).
Published on January 15th 2019 at 16:46 UTC
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