Crypto-mining pool AntPool has issued an advisory to its users ahead of the highly anticipated Ethereum (ETH) update, dubbed The Merge.
Antpool will not support its users?
Antpool is a large mining pool, based in China. It was launched in March 2014 and is supported by the world’s largest Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer – Bitmain Technologies LTD. This mining pool accounts for about 20% of the network hashrate. As a result, Antpool becomes the largest mining pool globally.
In a new blog post, AntPool says it will not support its users’ assets on the new Ethereum proof-of-stake (PoS) chain, citing a risk of censorship. The large mining pool explained that it will not maintain customer assets on Ethereum after the blockchain moves to proof-of-stake next month in The Merge.
As ETH2.0 (The Merge) comes with a risk of censorship in various countries, ANTPOOL, for reasons of customer asset security, will not be able to maintain users’ ETH assets on the PoS chain. ETH miners are encouraged to add an ETH wallet address to their current account before 2022/09/03 00:00 (UTC+0), to receive ETH assets accumulated on ANTPOOL.
At the same time, AntPool also expressed its support for proof of work (PoW) in a blog post. It said it would continue to offer an Ethash pool service for those who want to mine Ethash tokens like Ethereum Classic (ETC). The decision is not surprising given that the network recently committed $10 million to develop the ETC ecosystem.
Antpool will continue to provide Ethash mining pool services to users who plan to continue mining Ethash tokens like [Ethereum Classic], and will do everything possible to ensure hash power stability and asset security.
The merge allows Ethereum to move from a proof-of-work model to a proof-of-stake model, paving the way for future upgrades that could increase the blockchain’s scalability.
When Ethereum moves to proof of stake, validators will process transactions on the network. However, validators are largely controlled by a few staking providers. For example, U.S.-based providers, including Lido Finance, Coinbase, Bitcoin Switzerland, Kraken and staked.us, control about 60 percent of the 416,000 validation nodes on the Ethereum network.
AntPool says it only wants to support decentralized PoW consensus models, which they believe are in line with the vision of Bitcoin (BTC) pseudo-creator Satoshi Nakomoto.
As one of the largest PoW mining pools in the world, ANTPOOL champions Satoshi Nakamoto’s decentralized PoW consensus, and fully supports BTC, ETC and other PoW tokens. ANTPOOL has always been dedicated to the development and maintenance of the PoW ecosystem. It is committed to leading the blockchain industry using technology and embracing a bright future with infinite possibilities.”
