Antpool and Foundry, two prominent Bitcoin #mining pools, currently hold a combined 53.4% of the global hashing power, which has raised concerns among experts regarding the decentralization of cryptocurrencies.
According to the latest analytical data, Antpool has recently surpassed its competitor, significantly increasing its hashing capabilities.
"China is actively engaged in mining in anticipation of the approval of a Bitcoin ETF"states Bradley Park, a Web3 analyst from #CryptoQuant.
With the upcoming #Bitcoin halving, it is expected that competition between #China and the #United States in terms of mining equipment performance will intensify. This is due to the rising costs of electricity and mining difficulty, which will likely lead to an increase in the cost of Bitcoin mining.
While many consider the halving event, which reduces the mining rewards by half, as an optimistic event for the price of BTC, some experts believe that it will depend on the actions of major central banks that are increasing the money supply (M2). There are also concerns that companies seeking dominance may negatively impact the decentralization of #Bitcoin. They could control a significant portion of the hashing power and, therefore, have the ability to manipulate the network. This could result in a loss of trust in Bitcoin and a decrease in its value.
To prevent such a scenario, some propose using alternative mining algorithms that would be less centralized. Changes to the Bitcoin protocol to make it more resistant to monopolization are also possible.
However, at present, there are no concrete solutions to this problem. The situation may change with the development of technologies and the emergence of new players in the mining market. But for now, the dominance of #Antpool and #Foundry USA raises concerns about the decentralization of Bitcoin.
