The Decentralisation of Bitcoin Mining with Braiins

SHOW NOTES: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcas... Jan Čapek and Pavel Moravec are the co-founders of Braiins, a Bitcoin Mining company. In this interview, we discuss Braiins update to their updated Stratum V2 protocol software for pooled mining, how it helps solve Bitcoin mining’s centralisation problem, and why Braiins has given the Stratum software away to the community as open source. THIS EPISODE’S SPONSORS: Iris Energy - https://irisenergy.co/ Gemini - https://www.gemini.com/ Wasabi - https://www.wasabiwallet.io/ Ledn - https://www.ledn.io/ Ledger - https://www.ledger.com/ Fortris - https://fortris.com/ SUPPORT THE SHOW: → Become a Patron:   / whatbitcoindid   → Subscribe on iTunes → Leave a review on iTunes → Share the show out with your friends and family on social media → Drop me a line on [email protected] → https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/sponso... TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:41 Setting up Braiins 00:10:10 Stratum v1; mining pools basics 00:18:42 Pool mining evolution 00:28:18 A 51% attack 00:34:33 Stratum V2 features 00:48:44 Upgrading to V2; incentive to adoption 00:52:56 Developing Stratum V2 00:59:04 Hashrate growth 01:05:46 Mining business; SegWit wars; ASIC boost WHERE TO FIND THE SHOW: → My website: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/ → iTunes: https://apple.co/2OOlzVV → Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2ygc4W1 → Stitcher: https://bit.ly/2IQO8fX → SoundCloud: https://bit.ly/2CGSVQR → YouTube: https://bit.ly/3nyi9Ez → TuneIn: https://bit.ly/2ywystr LISTEN TO OLD EPISODES: → By guest: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/guests/ → By topic: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/topics/ → Transcriptions: WHERE TO FOLLOW ME: → Twitter:   / whatbitcoindid   → Medium:   / whatbitcoindid   → Instagram:   / whatbitcoindid   → Facebook:   / whatbitcoindid   → YouTube:    / whatbitcoindidpodcast   → Website: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/ → Email list: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/subscr... LEARN ABOUT BITCOIN: → Step by Step Guide: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/learn-... → Training: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/training/ → Resources: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/resour... #Bitcoin #Finance #Economics **** “What is the end goal for V2? Is allowing miners to build the block themselves, but at the same time use the money aspect of pool mining…the money would be still the same, but the transaction selection would be distributed, therefore, more secure for the whole network.” — Pavel Moravec Jan Čapek and Pavel Moravec are the co-founders of Braiins, a Bitcoin Mining company. In this interview, we discuss Braiins update to their updated Stratum V2 protocol software for pooled mining, how it helps solve Bitcoin mining’s centralisation problem, and why Braiins has given the Stratum software away to the community as open source. - - - The development and growth in pooled Bitcoin mining has been a critical part of maintaining Bitcoin’s security. The synergies of scale were always going to affect Bitcoin as it transitioned into a more mature technology. However, centralisation is an existential threat to Bitcoin. Mining pools, started in 2010 by Jan and Pavel, therefore enabled small-scale miners to continue to gain value from limited hash power, which thereby strengthened the network's security. Nevertheless, just as the rise of the mega miners concentrated the hashrate, so did the rise of major mining pools. In February over 52% of the hashrate was controlled by just 2 mining pools (Foundry USA and Antpool). This is not to state that these mining pools have malevolent intentions. But Bitcoin must always guard against an attack through trustless mechanisms. Marathon’s flip-flopping over filtering non-OFAC-compliant transactions in 2021 was a warning. The solution to the problem lies in the communication protocol used to connect miners with mining pools. The existing protocol, Stratum V1, was developed and distributed as open-source software by Braiins in 2012. Whilst it has successfully supported Bitcoin mining pools since then, it was in need of an upgrade for a series of reasons. Such an upgrade enabled this centralisation issue to be tackled head-on. Stratum V2 transfers the power for writing new blocks from the pool operators and into the hands of individual miners. This is enabled by a sub-protocol within Stratum V2 called the “Job Negiotator”. The incentive for adoption is that the other updates enable faster (i.e. more profitable) and more secure communications. It is an elegant solution built with the same technical and community-facing ethos as Bitcoin’s open-source code. Děkuji Braiins!