Bitcoin, large mining companies lose ground

The sharp decline in bitcoin prices has brought the issue of survival of smaller minerals into the spotlight. Are the extraction and validation of the transitions of the first cryptocurrency now exclusive to a few large companies?

A report by the research firm Diar , which this time focused on the state of the mining industry in 2018, will bring the alarm back .

" The anonymous miners closed December after having solved a huge 22% of the total blocks, against 6% of the beginning of last year. The Bitcoin network is currently less likely to suffer an attack, as the pools controlled by BTC.com have lost their domain over the network, "reads the study's opening lines.

The biggest contribution from the smaller miner has led to a decrease in the weight of some of the most prominent names in the industry.

" At the beginning of last year, Bitmain- led mining pools , as well as ViaBTC , in which the hardware company invested, controlled 53% of the networks' hash power, and 2019 started with 39%, " they explain. the experts of Diar. And this is good news for Bicoin network and its much-touted decentralization, says Anatoliy Knyazev of Exante , that " the loss of popularity of the giants of mining rejects the theory that the whole industry represents a form of natural monopoly". It is however true that the thinning of bitcoin mining profitability has caused the disappearance of many small and medium-sized companies, as well as the downsizing of some of the top players.

The most striking case is that of Bitmain , which in just over a month has closed offices in Israel and the Netherlands, as well as suspending the activities of its mining farm in Rockdale, Texas. In August last year, the Chinese company announced that its US office would bring 400 jobs through an investment of $ 500 million.