dikaios1517 on Nostr: You're right that pool centralization doesn't make the deciding difference when it ...
You're right that pool centralization doesn't make the deciding difference when it comes to defending against changes to the consensus rules via hard forks. Nodes are the deciding factor there, and specifically nodes that are actually being used by those who run them, not ones that are just sitting on a shelf gathering dust while the owner broadcasts transactions through whatever the default node is in Sparrow wallet, and checks to see where the transaction is in the mempools using mempool.space.
However, pool centralization is a MASSIVE deal when it comes to what transactions actually make it into blocks. Foundry currently decides what transactions make it into 41% of blocks. Antpool and its slave-pools decide what make it into another 50% or so. That means effectively two entities control what transactions are included in roughly 91% of blocks. That's problematic, to say the least.
Miners should move to pools that allow them to create their own block templates, instead of relying on the pool to dictate what is included in the block template. Currently, the only pool that allows this is OCEAN (nprofile…l9gt) that I am aware of, but more pools should adopt DATUM and do the same.
It would not be NEARLY such a big deal that Foundry has 41% of the hash rate, if the individual miners on that pool could create their own block templates based on the transactions in their node's mempool.
However, pool centralization is a MASSIVE deal when it comes to what transactions actually make it into blocks. Foundry currently decides what transactions make it into 41% of blocks. Antpool and its slave-pools decide what make it into another 50% or so. That means effectively two entities control what transactions are included in roughly 91% of blocks. That's problematic, to say the least.
Miners should move to pools that allow them to create their own block templates, instead of relying on the pool to dictate what is included in the block template. Currently, the only pool that allows this is OCEAN (nprofile…l9gt) that I am aware of, but more pools should adopt DATUM and do the same.
It would not be NEARLY such a big deal that Foundry has 41% of the hash rate, if the individual miners on that pool could create their own block templates based on the transactions in their node's mempool.