Seven of the biggest names in Bitcoin mining have just agreed to sit at the same table. AntPool and Block Inc. have joined forces. F2Pool, Foundry, MARA Foundation, SpiderPool, and DMND joined the Stratum V2 Working Group, a collaborative effort to reform the communication protocol that mining pools use to coordinate with individual miners.
What actually changes in the V2 layer?
Since 2012, Bitcoin mining pools have been communicating with miners using a protocol called Stratum V1. The problem is that the V1 was designed in a different era, and it shows.
Layer V1 sends data in plain text, which means it is vulnerable to eavesdropping and tampering. Most importantly, Version 1 gives mining pool operators exclusive control over the creation of block templates. In English: The pool decides which transactions will go into the block, not the individual miners who contribute hashing power.
The V2 layer reverses many of those dynamics. The upgraded protocol offers end-to-end encryption, more efficient fleet management for large-scale operations, and most importantly, the option for individual miners to create their own block templates.
The working group itself was founded in 2022 by Brains and Spiral, Block Inc’s Bitcoin development arm, with the goal of creating an open, vendor-neutral standard. The addition of seven major groups transforms it from a niche initiative into something resembling an industry consensus effort.
The numbers behind the upgrade
Beyond the management implications, there is a clear economic case for V2. Reducing protocol latency and improving data processing can increase miner profitability by up to 7.4%, according to the Stratum V2 project.
Pools that join the working group represent a large hash rate. AntPool and F2Pool alone account for approximately 25-35% of global Bitcoin mining capacity. Add Foundry, which has always been one of the largest pools in terms of hashrate, as well as the MARA Foundation (the mining arm associated with Marathon Digital), and you’re looking at a working group that represents a meaningful share of Bitcoin’s total computational power.
Why this is important to Bitcoin architecture
Tier V2 does not eliminate mining pools. It restructures the relationship between the complexes and their members. Miners can still benefit from pooled resources while retaining the ability to create their own blocks. The pool handles the distribution of rewards. The miner selects the transaction.
The truth about Block Inc.’s involvement. It is an observable fact for a separate reason. Block’s Spiral Division was one of the original co-founders of the working group. Block also makes Bitcoin mining hardware, giving it a direct path to including Stratum V2 support at the chip level.
What does this mean for investors?
For investors in publicly traded mining companies like Marathon Digital (whose MARA Foundation has joined the working group), the Stratum V2 switch represents a potential efficiency gain. The 7.4% improvement in profitability, if achieved, will significantly impact business margins as the difference between profit and loss often comes down to a few percentage points on electricity costs and operational efficiency.
