The Bitcoin community has seldom expressed concerns about the gradual centralization of the Bitcoin network. Ever since ASICs became the norm for Bitcoin mining, it has become impractical for individuals and small groups to involve themselves in profitable mining.
A recent article in one of the leading business magazine offers a brief insight into the current distribution of hashing power across large mining pools who have dominated the digital currency network. The publication lists 18 different mining pool with their respective stake in the Bitcoin network, which has been exhibiting consistent growth in the past few years. According to available data, the number of users on Blockchain.info alone has risen to close to 8 million users which is a lot more than the previously estimated number of 5 million bitcoin users by 2019 (as per the numbers stated in a report by Juniper).
The 18 leading bitcoin mining pools are listed along with their respective percentage share of the total hashing power is listed below. Position Mining Pool Percentage 1 DiscusFish/F2Pool 22.06 2 AntPool 16.82 3 BW Pool 15.33 4 BTCC 14.34 5 BitFury 8.61 6 BitClub Network 4.15 7 Slush 4.15 8 HaoBTC 3.66 9 KnCMiner 3.26 10 Kano CKPool 2.77 11 Unknown Pool 2.37 12 1hash 0.79 13 Telco 214 0.69 14 GHash.io 0.3 15 Eligius 0.3 16 BitMinter 0.2 17 Eobot 0.1 18 P2Pool.Org 0.1 Total 100 Domination by the Chinese Mining Pools
According to the data obtained from Blocktrail , the Bitcoin network analysis and block explorer services company, almost 100 percent of new blocks are discovered by these 18 players. The top three players, all Chinese mining pools put together easily control 53 percent of the Bitcoin network, giving them the necessary leverage upon the whole digital currency infrastructure.
The distribution and geographical positioning of these mining […]
