Who controls bitcoin mining? This autumn's conferences ask it in four cities
From pool protocols in Atlanta to home miners in Seoul and Bangkok and the AI energy race in Amsterdam: a plain guide to the mining debate, with every session time in local and Moscow time.
Miners add new blocks to Bitcoin and decide which transactions go into them. If only a few companies made that choice, they could in theory leave some payments out. That is why who controls mining keeps coming up. This autumn at least four Bitcoin-only conferences have sessions on it.
Pools: the quiet centre of power
Most miners do not mine alone. They join a pool, which shares out the rewards more evenly. Traditionally the pool, not the miner, builds the block and chooses the transactions.
At TABConf 8, Johnny Santos traces how mining protocols evolved: from early tools (getwork, getblocktemplate) to Stratum, then Stratum V2 / DATUM and today's "poolless" approaches. His proposal says newer protocols are "moving mining authority back toward the individual miner". For each stage he asks: who builds the block, what must be trusted, and what each miner needs to run.
The talk proposals are public on GitHub (see sources). Both describe ongoing work; neither claims a winner yet.
Home mining and open hardware
Several sessions are about small miners:
- In Seoul, Gio (MDK) argues "The Future of Bitcoin Mining is Open", and the founder of the "BTCorea Grassroots Hash Force" speaks on going "From a Bitaxe to the Sea of Hash". Bitaxe is an open-source small miner that people run at home.
- In Bangkok, Piccolo's session is called "Home Mining", with the Thai subtitle "plug in, get paid", and bit_aloo talks on mining decentralisation.
- In Amsterdam, a panel asks "Who Controls the Mining Stack?": who builds the machines, who coordinates miners, and who picks transactions.
Home mining rarely pays back quickly. Electricity, noise and heat matter more than the device price. Do the maths before you buy.
Energy and AI
As AI data centres compete for electricity, miners argue they showed the way first. In Amsterdam, "Miners Walked So Data Centers Could Run: Fighting Energy FUD" (Erik Hersman of Gridless, Margot Paez, Susie Violet Ward) says miners have shown how flexible demand can support grid investment. In Bangkok, "Energy Wars: Bitcoin Mining vs. AI & Data Centers" covers the same clash. Canaan's Gwyn Lauber speaks on heat reuse.
All sessions with times
| Local / MSK | Event | Session |
|---|---|---|
| 13 Oct, 15:00 Atlanta / 22:00 | TABConf | "Recent Advances in Difficulty Adjustment for Mining Pools", Eric Price |
| 15 Oct, 10:30 Atlanta / 17:30 | TABConf | "From Solo Mining to Poolless Mining", Johnny Santos |
| 15 Oct, 11:00 Atlanta / 18:00 | TABConf | "Georgia Bitcoin Council: bitcoin policy in the Peach State" |
| 5 Nov, 10:00 Amsterdam / 12:00 | Bitcoin Amsterdam | "Generating Freedom: Watt It Takes to Go Off-Grid" |
| 6 Nov, 11:00 Amsterdam / 13:00 | Bitcoin Amsterdam | "Who Controls the Mining Stack?" |
| 6 Nov, 11:45 Amsterdam / 13:45 | Bitcoin Amsterdam | "Capitalizing on Bitcoin Mining Heat Reuse", Gwyn Lauber (Canaan) |
| 6 Nov, 12:00 Amsterdam / 14:00 | Bitcoin Amsterdam | "Miners Walked So Data Centers Could Run" |
| 8 Nov, 11:30 Seoul / 05:30 | Bitcoin Korea | "The Future of Bitcoin Mining is Open", Gio (MDK) |
| 8 Nov, 14:30 Seoul / 08:30 | Bitcoin Korea | "Decentralize the Bitcoin – From a Bitaxe to the Sea of Hash" |
| 8 Nov, 17:00 Seoul / 11:00 | Bitcoin Korea | "Energy Transitions and Bitcoin Mining", Piccolo |
| 28 Nov, 10:40 Bangkok / 06:40 | Bitcoin Thailand | "Bitcoin and Thailand's Energy Equation" |
| 28 Nov, 15:35 Bangkok / 11:35 | Bitcoin Thailand | "Mining Decentralization", bit_aloo |
| 29 Nov, 09:00 Bangkok / 05:00 | Bitcoin Thailand | "Home Mining", Piccolo |
| 29 Nov, 09:30 Bangkok / 05:30 | Bitcoin Thailand | "Energy Wars: Bitcoin Mining vs. AI & Data Centers", Piccolo |
The Georgia session description calls the US state the second-largest bitcoin mining state in the country; we have not checked that figure.
See the conferences on our calendar and in Events, and live network data on Network.
Sources
- TABConf 8 talk proposal: From Solo Mining to Poolless Mining (Johnny Santos) github.com
- TABConf 8 talk proposal: Recent Advances in Difficulty Adjustment for Mining Pools github.com
- TABConf 8 session: Georgia Bitcoin Council github.com
- Bitcoin Amsterdam agenda bitcoin.amsterdam
- Bitcoin Korea Conference schedule, day 2 bitcoinkoreaconference.com
- Bitcoin Thailand Conference schedule bitcointhailand.co
- Bitcoin whitepaper (proof of work, section 4) bitcoin.org
Times are Lugano (CEST, UTC+2) and Moscow (UTC+3). Not investment advice.
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