Bitcoin News and Finance
As China Cracks Down on Bitcoin Miners, Stealth Miners and Mystery Hashrate Return Skip to main content

As China Cracks Down on Bitcoin Miners, Stealth Miners and Mystery Hashrate Return

As China Cracks Down on Bitcoin Miners, Stealth Miners and Mystery Hashrate Returns

While on the surface it seems officials from five provinces in China have been cracking down on bitcoin miners, no one is quite sure how much hashrate is moving, which pools are affected, or where these miners will end up. A number of mining pools have seen hashpower percentages decline and Bitcoin’s overall hashrate has regressed as well. On the other hand, as several known pools have lost hashrate, processing power from “unknown” pools has increased a great deal.

Pool Percentages Decline, Overall Hashrate Dips Lower

There have been reports stemming from officials in provinces like Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Yunnan, and Sichuan instructing bitcoin miners to close down shop. The crypto community, in general, assumes that a great deal of hashrate comes from China, but exactly how much hashpower actually resides in the country is still a mystery. Reporting is scarce when it comes to bitcoin mining operations and the most recent studies are outdated.

Hashrate distribution shows known pools that have disclosed their identity have seen recent hashpower losses. On June 2, 2021, the Bitcoin (BTC) network hashrate was around 191 exahash per second (EH/s) and today, it’s hovering just above the 100 EH/s zone. The metric has dipped on a few occasions lower than 100 EH/s, but has remained fairly consistent at that level since June 19. Pools that have seen hashrates slide significantly include operations like Okex pool, Binance pool, and Huobi pool.

As China Cracks Down on Bitcoin Miners, Stealth Miners and Mystery Hashrate Return
Mystery hash has captured between 8.63 % to 10% of Bitcoin’s overall hashrate on June 22, 2021. Today, “unknown” hashrate has been bouncing between the seventh and the fifth-largest hashers in the world.

Interestingly, pools like Antpool, F2pool, Viabtc, Poolin, and Btc.com have seen wild fluctuations in terms of hashrate but remain the top five mining pools worldwide. Antpool and Viabtc, which are considered ‘Chinese pools,’ command the most SHA256 hashrate globally as well, of all the chains using the SHA256 consensus algorithm. On the BTC chain, the top five mining pools today have been the top miners for months on end in 2021, with a few pools changing positions every now and then.

The Return of Mystery Miners

Since the initial warnings coming first from Inner Mongolia during the first week of March 2021, stealth mining has increased a great deal. Mystery miners — engaged in stealth mining — have been prevalent since the Bitcoin network first launched. Basically, if one was to look at the BTC hashrate distribution today, they would notice 18 pools that disclose their identity.

But there’s another chunk of hashrate that is dubbed “unknown” on Btc.com’s hashrate distribution charts and other hashrate aggregation/distribution websites. Since China started cracking down on bitcoin miners, the mystery hashrate — which is the seventh-largest mining pool today — has increased a great deal. Statistics show that stealth mining pools are finding a lot more blocks since March 2021, and unknown hash has increased every month thereafter.

As China Cracks Down on Bitcoin Miners, Stealth Miners and Mystery Hashrate Return
Unidentified hashrate started to appear more prominently in November 2020 and into 2021. During the first quarter of 2021, the unknown hashrate has increased. After the China crackdown, stealth hash spiked a great deal percentage-wise.

Unknown hashrate commands around 10 EH/s of BTC hashpower today and over 12% of the overall SHA256 hashrate processing blocks on BTC, BCH, and BSV chains. The crypto community understands that mining operations that want to remain unidentified leverage virtual private networks (VPNs) or proxy services to hide their IP addresses. Mystery hash was very prevalent in 2018 and 2019, but subsided a great deal in 2020. In January 2019, mystery hash commanded 22% of the BTC chain and 17% of the BCH chain. At the time, Coin Metrics published a study on the mystery hash phenomenon.

As China Cracks Down on Bitcoin Miners, Stealth Miners and Mystery Hashrate Return
Unknown hashrate has nearly doubled in three days. While known mining pools that have been identified have seen hashrate percentage losses.

Coinmetrics detailed that between mid-2015 and mid-2017, most miners disclosed their identity through the coinbase parameter to identify themselves with the name of their pool. “However, through 2018, unknown miners picked up,” Coin Metrics said, and stressed stats had shown “a newly-found appreciation for privacy, or the emergence of miners who have something to hide.”

But toward the end of 2019 and throughout most of 2020, unknown hashrate was almost nonexistent. That trend has changed a great deal in 2021, and unknown hashrate has returned, coincidentally as Beijing wants to crack down on bitcoin mining and crypto trading in China. There’s likely a reason there’s a new emergence of bitcoin miners this year who have something to hide.

What do you think about the return of mystery hashrate after China started cracking down on bitcoin miners in the country? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Custodial Lightning Network Service Attack Discovered by LN ‘Newbie’ — Hacker Strikes 6 LN Custodians

On September 18, a Redditor posted to the r/bitcoin forum and explained how he discovered a way to “attack [the] lightning Network’s custodial services.” The Reddit account dubbed “Reckless Satoshi” wanted to figure out if a “discrepancy between real routing fees and service’s transaction fee can be exploited for a profit.” The researcher disclosed that he wanted to see how large the damage could be and said “it is bad.” 6 Lightning Network Custodial Services Attacked, Researcher Discloses Findings to Offenders Prior to Public Disclosure A Redditor called Reckless Satoshi published a disclosure post on r/bitcoin this past Saturday and disclosed how he had found a vulnerability with routing fees and some of the Lightning Network’s custodial services. The research attack was done in good faith and after it was complete he disclosed the bugs to the offending services before publishing his findings. Reckless Satoshi used the Lightning Network (LN) attack on six different services incl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Axie Infinity Down 40% Since Last Week’s Price High, Protocol Revenue Outshines Competitors

Last week, the game token leveraged within the Axie Infinity gaming universe skyrocketed to all-time highs, while other crypto markets remained extremely lackluster. During the last seven days, Axie Infinity’s platform token has dropped significantly in value shedding more than 12%. Meanwhile, the game platform’s smooth love potion token has slid over 8% over the last 24 hours. Axie Infinity Down More Than 40% Since All-Time High Not too long ago, the axie infinity (AXS) token was a topical conversation because it reached an all-time high on July 15. At the time, AXS managed to capture $28.93 per unit and since then it has shed 12.8% during the last seven days. The axie infinity (AXS) token is used within the blockchain-based game that involves battles between token-based creatures called “Axies.” AXS is used for the game’s governance system as well as other actions within the game. At the time of writing axie infinity (AXS) is exchanging hands for $16.70 per coin. AXS/USD on Ju...
Post a Comment
Read more

Play-to-Earn Game From Polker (PKR) Exchange Listing – Endorsed by Akon

The Play-to-Earn NFT based Polker.Game ‘s native token $PKR has been officially listed on the popular centralized exchange BitMart. Polker.game has been in the spotlight recently as Akon, the American R&B superstar and record producer gave his official endorsement of polker stating that the “game is revolutionary” and that Polker is “hands down.. the best play to earn, NFT game in the space.”. With the BitMart listing and celebrity endorsement from Akon, Polker is perfectly positioned to become a major player in the Play-to-Earn league. Watch Akon’s Video Here What is Play-to-Earn? Although not a new concept, play-to-earn has become a trending term due to the popularity of the NFT game AXIE infinity. In the past, previous play-to-earn games have also achieved success – however, thanks to the huge amount of development in the blockchain space in recent years the gaming experience is now massively improved. Play-to-Earn games are essentially free to play and open to anyone and...
Post a Comment
Read more

China to Crack Down on Copyright Infringement Through NFTs

Authorities in China are going after creators of digital collectibles based on other people’s works of art, the use of which was not authorized. The government offensive is part of a campaign to combat online copyright infringement and piracy with the participation of several departments. Regulators in China Move to Strengthen Copyright Supervision of Online Platforms The National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) has recently launched a campaign against copyright infringement and piracy on the internet, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Internet Information Office of the People’s Republic. A major objective of the initiative is to improve copyright supervision of online businesses by investigating cases involving the sale and distribution of infringing products on short video, live broadcast and e-commerce platforms, and promptly dealing with infringing content, the agency announced in a press r...
Post a Comment
Read more
Blogarama - Blog Directory