Bitcoin mining's 75% Stratum V2 shift is about block control, not hash rate

## Bitcoin mining's 75% Stratum V2 shift is about block control, not hash rate  On May 11, [CoinDesk](https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/05/11/bitcoin-mining-pools-with-75-of-btc-hashrate-join-open-standard-for-block-construction) reported that Foundry, AntPool, F2Pool, SpiderPool, MARA Pool, Block, and DMND joined the Stratum V2 working group, putting nearly three-quarters of global bitcoin hashrate behind an open standard for block construction. The headline number looks like a decentralization milestone. In mining, though, protocols often change behavior long before they change reported concentration. ### The protocol change is about who builds the block template Under Stratum V1, pool operators usually decide transaction selection. Stratum V2 changes that by letting individual miners build their own block templates. That does not make bitcoin mining evenly distributed. It does, however, move one of the most sensitive decisions in the system away from a single pool's control point. The distinction matters because the industry often collapses two different questions into one: - who controls most of the hash rate; - who controls transaction selection. Those are not the same thing. A pool can keep a large share of the network and still give miners more autonomy over block construction. That is why the 75% figure is more useful as a governance signal than as a pure concentration metric. ### The 75% figure matters because it changes the default conversation CoinDesk listed Foundry at 34.2% of global hashrate, AntPool at 14.2%, F2Pool at 11.3%, SpiderPool at 10.5%, and MARA Pool at 4.7%, with Block and DMND joining the working group as well. Together, that is enough to make Stratum V2 part of the industry's default conversation instead of a niche proposal. Once a protocol has that much backing, software vendors and pool operators can no longer treat it as an academic option. The practical question becomes when the stack starts supporting it by default, not whether the idea deserves attention. ## Why the timing matters now The timing is not accidental. CoinDesk said CoinShares estimates up to 20% of miners are currently unprofitable, while hashprice sits at $38.57 per petahash per second per day, close to breakeven for mid-generation hardware. Difficulty is also set to rise again on May 15, from 132.47T to 135.64T, and network hashrate is near 998 exahash per second. That combination matters for a simple reason: when margins are tight, mining operators usually care less about ideology and more about operational control. If Stratum V2 makes transaction selection cleaner, more transparent, or easier to standardize, its appeal grows precisely when profitability is under pressure. In other words, stress can accelerate protocol changes that looked optional in better market conditions. ### Tight margins make block-construction rules more valuable At this point, the practical value is not a slogan about decentralization. It is that a cleaner block-construction path can reduce friction around transaction selection and make template decisions less opaque. If the rule set becomes easier to run, more pools may adopt it for operational reasons before they adopt it for philosophical ones.  ### Stratum V2 changes control, not concentration Stratum V2 does not magically decentralize hashrate. Large pools remain large pools. If anything, the standard's real promise is more limited and more realistic: reduce the amount of discretionary control sitting in one place without pretending the underlying economics have changed. That boundary matters. A protocol can improve governance quality even when it cannot fix concentration. The more useful question is whether block construction becomes less opaque and less dependent on a few operators' preferences. This is not a reallocation of hash rate so much as a rewrite of defaults. Whoever gets the new rule into pool software first changes the options miners see first. ## What to watch next Three signals will tell us whether this is a paper shift or a live one: - whether major pools start shipping Stratum V2 as the practical default; - whether miners actually use the block-template flexibility the protocol allows; - whether the move shows up in reduced friction around transaction selection and pool policy. If those signals line up, this announcement will look less like a symbolic endorsement and more like a real change in how Bitcoin blocks are assembled. If they do not, the 75% figure will still matter, but mostly as a reminder that governance upgrades take longer than headlines. --- Author: [Alex Chen](https://x.com/AlexC0in) | Alex has followed blockchain technology since 2021, focusing on DeFi and on-chain data analysis Source: [coindesk.com](https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/05/11/bitcoin-mining-pools-with-75-of-btc-hashrate-join-open-standard-for-block-construction)