By some metrics, Antpool has over 50% of Bitcoin’s hashrate through proxy pools. Is this a threat to Bitcoin?Industry expert Ian Descôteaux from Pow.Re discusses evidence of pool consolidation, risks to Bitcoin, and potential solutions for decentralization. This podcast explores the growing centralization of Bitcoin mining pools, focusing on proxy pools and their potential impact on the network.Timestamps:00:00 Start02:48 Checksum's bio03:34 Canada & South America hash rate06:42 Mining pool centralization09:14 Proxy pools11:57 Proxy pool diagram13:57 F2Pool use proxy?15:14 F2Pool block template16:09 Cobo yield & risk19:31 Merkle tree evidence25:28 UTXO accelerator29:59 Selfish mining & 51%33:35 Covenants36:26 Antpool incentives38:38 Block withholding attacks40:17 How to fix?43:32 Are new pools likely?45:52 Final thoughtsPublished twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday and a news show on Friday! ? Check out Bitcoin Season 2 and The Gwart Show.? Watch our newest documentary, The Big Empty!Follow our host on Twitter, @wsfoxley.-Thank you to our sponsor, CleanSpark, America’s Bitcoin miner! And thank you to Foreman Mining, Master Your Mining!"The Mining Pod" is produced by Sunnyside Honey LLC with Senior Producer, Damien Somerset.  Distributed by CoinDesk with Senior Producer Michele Musso and Executive Producer Jared Schwartz. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.