Developers behind Bitcoin mining protocol Stratum v2 (SV2) have announced the completion of “job negotiation”, a feature intended to reduce the power mining pools have over transaction selection. Mining is a crucial element in the Bitcoin ecosystem, with miners being rewarded with Bitcoin for securing the network. However, mining alone is generally unprofitable, so miners generally sign up with mining pools to combine resources and maximise rewards. Since 2018, developers have been working on SV2, which aims to improve mining efficiency and security. “Job negotiation” is the most significant element of the upgrade, as it gives individual miners the responsibility of transaction selection, rather than placing all of the control with mining pools. This reduces the vulnerability of the network to centralisation of power, which is often cited as a risk for mining pools. Regulators have previously used mining pools to control transactions, and mining pools themselves have censored transactions in the past. The efficiency gains of SV2 are also expected to prove attractive to mining pools as it reduces the risk of blockages and other issues. However, SV2 is still in development and requires testing, with the creators seeking early adopters to help test and refine the software.
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