DEMAND Launches Bitcoin Mining Pool With Stratum V2, Promises Improved Security and Performance

Last updated: November 27, 2023 02:37 EST
. 2 min read

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Bitcoin mining company DEMAND announced today the launch of the world’s first Stratum V2 mining pool, built using the open-source Stratum Reference Implementation (SRI). This new pool seeks to improve security, flexibility, and performance in Bitcoin mining through the use of the updated protocol.

The Stratum V2 protocol offers a range of enhancements over the previous Stratum version, providing miners more control and helping decentralize Bitcoin mining.

A Major Update for Bitcoin Mining

One of the key features of Stratum V2 is empowering individual miners to build their own block templates when mining Bitcoin. In the past, mining pool operators controlled transaction selection when creating blocks, leading to centralization risks. With Stratum V2, miners can now choose which transactions to include in blocks themselves.

“Because Bitcoin mining is overwhelmingly done through mining pools, transaction selection has become relatively centralized: only a few mining pool operators can essentially decide to collude and prevent that certain transactions ever confirm,” DEMAND co-founder and SRI project lead Filippo Merli said in a press release. “Stratum V2 gives the power of transaction selection back to the individual miners, to make the mining ecosystem more decentralized and Bitcoin more censorship resistant.”

To utilize the capabilities of Stratum V2, miners will need to run the proxy and set up a Bitcoin node for receiving transactions. DEMAND plans to incentivize miners to create their own block templates by lowering fees for these users. This should promote more decentralized, full node Bitcoin mining.

Solo Mining and Hash Power Resale

Currently, DEMAND’s mining pool is focused entirely on solo miners, allowing them to find blocks independently and receive the full mining reward. DEMAND also enables hash power resale through a marketplace, so users can maximize profits by mining themselves or reselling hash power.

Looking forward, DEMAND intends to introduce pooled mining as well, enabling users to collaboratively mine and share profits.

The launch of DEMAND’s Stratum V2 mining pool comes at an opportune time for the Bitcoin mining industry. With mining becoming more centralized in large mining farms, Stratum V2 provides a potential opening to shift control and profits back into the hands of individual miners.

By allowing miners to build block templates and reduce reliance on pool operators, the protocol could reinvigorate participation in Bitcoin mining. It also offers solutions to combat emerging threats like mining censorship. DEMAND’s pool provides a testing ground for improvements to Stratum V2 as it looks to gain wider adoption. With miners’ growing appetite for independence, the debut of this first-of-its-kind pool could mark a turning point for the industry.