PMR Editorial·05/13/2026 6:03 am·8 min read
Bitcoin Pools With 75% of Hashrate Back Stratum V2
A group of major Bitcoin mining pools now supports an open standard that changes who can choose the transactions inside new blocks. For crypto readers, that is one of the biggest mining decentralization stories of 2026.
If you spotted the headline on Patriot Press or another crypto feed, the key point is easy to miss. Hashpower is still concentrated in large pools, but block-construction control can shift back toward individual miners. That is why this news matters far beyond mining hardware.
What changed when the biggest pools joined Stratum V2
On May 7, the Stratum V2 working group said seven major mining participants had joined its effort to build and deploy the protocol. The new members are Foundry, AntPool, F2Pool, SpiderPool, MARA Pool, Block Inc., and DMND.
That list changed the tone around Stratum V2 overnight. The protocol has been around since 2022, when Braiins and Spiral helped launch the working group. Until now, many miners saw it as promising but niche. Support from the largest pools gives it real weight because adoption in mining often depends on big operators moving first.
Which mining pools are behind the switch
The scale becomes clearer when you look at current hashrate shares. Based on Hashrate Index data cited around the announcement, five of the biggest pools already account for nearly three-quarters of Bitcoin's global hashrate.
Participant | Approx. hashrate share | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
Foundry | 34.2% | The largest pool, large enough to shape network debates on its own |
AntPool | 14.2% | One of the oldest and most influential pool operators |
F2Pool | 11.3% | A large, long-running pool with broad miner reach |
SpiderPool | 10.5% | Another major player with meaningful block share |
MARA Pool | 4.7% | Public-company-backed pool with visible industry influence |
Block Inc. | No major public pool share listed | Adds product, software, and ecosystem support |
DMND | Small | Early adopter with live Stratum V2 experience |
The headline number comes mostly from the big five. Even so, Block Inc. and DMND still matter because open standards spread through software teams, infrastructure, and early real-world use.
Why this is a bigger deal than it first sounds
This story is about who decides block contents, not who owns more machines. Under Stratum V1, which still dominates pooled mining, the pool operator usually picks the transactions for the next block. The miners supply hashpower, but they often don't choose what gets included.
That setup has bothered Bitcoin users for years. Foundry alone sits above 30% of global hashrate, and several other pools also control large shares. When a small number of operators decide transaction selection for so much of the network, the risk is less about raw compute and more about policy power.
Bitcoin's hashrate did not spread out this week. The power to shape block contents got a path to spread out.
That is why the working group's expansion matters. A protocol update would normally stay inside mining circles. This one touches decentralization, censorship risk, and Bitcoin's basic promise that no single gatekeeper should decide too much.
How Stratum V2 gives miners more control over block construction
Stratum V2 is an open-source mining protocol. It improves the connection between pools and miners, and it adds a feature that changes block building in a simple but important way. It lets miners create their own block templates, which are draft versions of a block that include chosen transactions and their order.
In practice, that means an individual miner can decide what goes into a block candidate instead of accepting a list assembled by the pool. The pool still handles coordination and payouts, so miners do not have to give up the pooling model to gain more say.
Stratum V1 versus Stratum V2 in everyday language
With Stratum V1, the pool operator usually builds the candidate block and sends work to miners. A miner's job is mostly to hash that template and try to find a valid solution. The operator stays in charge of transaction choice.
With Stratum V2, miners can use a feature called Job Declaration to build their own candidate blocks. That changes the decision flow. The pool still groups miners together for steadier income, yet the miner can take back a choice that used to sit at the pool level.
Hashrate concentration does not change on day one. Foundry does not become smaller because it supports Stratum V2. AntPool does not lose market share because the protocol exists. What changes is the layer of control over transaction selection.
Why block construction control matters to Bitcoin users
Transaction selection is where censorship pressure can show up. If one operator decides a large share of block contents, that operator can exclude certain transactions, reorder them, or follow outside pressure more easily. Even if that never happens at scale, the structure itself leaves too much room for it.
Miner-built templates lower that risk because control spreads across many participants. A pool can still coordinate payouts and jobs, but it has less ability to act like a single editor for every block mined under its banner.
There is also a design fit here. Bitcoin was built as an open network where no central party should have broad discretionary control. Giving miners more control over block templates moves pooled mining closer to that goal, even if it does not solve every centralization concern.
Why the timing matters for Bitcoin mining right now
This shift comes at a hard time for miners. Revenue is tight, competition is heavy, and the network keeps pushing upward. CoinShares has estimated that as much as 20% of miners are unprofitable right now. At the same time, hashprice, the daily revenue earned per petahash per second, has hovered around $38.57, near break-even for many operators running mid-generation machines.
Difficulty is also set to rise again on May 15, from 132.47T to 135.64T, according to CoinWarz data cited around the announcement. Meanwhile, Bitcoin's total network hashrate sits near 998 exahash per second. That is close to record territory.
Miner pressure, hashprice, and rising difficulty
When margins get thin, every technical choice matters more. A miner who is barely profitable pays closer attention to pool fees, stale shares, bandwidth use, and any tool that could improve payouts or reduce risk.
That is part of the backdrop here. Stratum V2 is about governance, but it is also a better protocol in practical terms. It adds encrypted connections, lowers bandwidth demands, and can work better for modern mining setups. Braiins has reported tests showing profit gains of up to 7.4% in some cases, though results will vary by hardware and setup.
Why big pools may be more open to change now
Pools want miners to stay. They also want to look trustworthy at a time when large pool concentration gets more scrutiny. Backing an open standard helps on both fronts. It shows a willingness to give miners more control while also updating old infrastructure.
There is a business angle, too. If miners start caring more about block-template control, pools that ignore Stratum V2 could look behind the curve. On the other hand, early support can attract miners who want both stable payouts and a less centralized setup.
What this move could mean for Bitcoin's future
Support from major pools does not flip a switch across the network. Still, it gives Stratum V2 a path it did not have before. When the biggest players agree to work on the same open standard, vendors, firmware teams, and independent miners have a stronger reason to build around it.
That is why this feels bigger than a press release. Bitcoin mining still has concentration issues, but one of the most sensitive powers inside pooled mining now has a credible route toward wider distribution.
The next step is real adoption, not just public support
Joining the working group matters, but live deployment matters more. A public commitment means the participants will help build, test, and move toward the standard. It does not mean every miner on those pools is already using it today.
Right now, only a limited set of operations run Stratum V2 in production. Braiins Pool supports it natively, OCEAN uses it through DATUM, and smaller operators such as DMND and Blitzpool have early live support. Larger pools still need rollout plans, software updates, and support paths for older machines, which may rely on proxies for a while.
What crypto readers should watch next
The clearest proof will come from use in the field, not from more statements. Over the next few months, these are the signs worth following:
Production support announcements from Foundry, AntPool, F2Pool, SpiderPool, or MARA Pool.
Firmware and proxy updates that let older ASICs connect without major downtime.
Public metrics or miner reports showing Stratum V2 jobs running at meaningful scale.
More working group members, especially hardware makers and pool software vendors.
If those pieces start lining up, Bitcoin will not look different from the outside. Under the hood, though, a key layer of control will be more distributed.
Conclusion
Bitcoin did not solve mining concentration this week. It did something more targeted and more practical. It opened a path for miners to gain more say over block construction, even when they still mine through large pools.
That is why support for Stratum V2 from participants tied to about 75% of hashrate matters so much. If rollout reaches real production, Bitcoin gets closer to a network where the people doing the work have more control over what enters each block. For the long-term health of the chain, that is a change worth watching closely.