Miner Weekly: Bitcoin Hashprice Can be 10% Higher via Merged Mining—For Now
This article first appeared in Miner Weekly, BlocksBridge Consulting’s weekly newsletter curating the latest news in bitcoin mining and data analysis from TheEnergyMag. Subscribe to receive in your inbox once a week.
An earlier Miner Weekly issue two weeks ago introduced you to Fractal Bitcoin merged mining, a method hailed by its developers as a way to boost Bitcoin mining profitability. Now, nine days post-launch, how has the Fractal Bitcoin merged-mining economy fared?
According to blockchain data analyzed by TheEnergyMag, merged-mining Bitcoin and Fractal Bitcoin theoretically increased daily mining revenue per unit of mining compute power by approximately 10% over the past week. For those unfamiliar with the concept, we recommend revisiting the previous issue for a comprehensive introduction.
To summarize, Fractal Bitcoin is a fork of Bitcoin, utilizing a novel merged-mining mechanism called Cadence Mining. In this system, only one-third of the Fractal Bitcoin blocks can be mined alongside Bitcoin. The remaining two-thirds require hashrate exclusively dedicated to Fractal Bitcoin.
TheEnergyMag analyzed data from about 30,000 Fractal Bitcoin blocks mined since September 9, categorizing blocks based on whether they were produced through merged mining or mined solely for Fractal Bitcoin.
Above is a chart illustrating the total daily Fractal Bitcoin block rewards generated via merged mining with Bitcoin’s hashrate. Block rewards are broken down into block subsidies (check out ‘Block Rewards’ here to learn more) and fees (measured in Fractal Bitcoin’s native token, FB), alongside the corresponding daily hashprice—a key metric representing miners’ revenue per unit of hashrate.
Since September 9, the total hashrate for merged-mining Bitcoin and Fractal Bitcoin has remained steady at approximately 220 EH/s. This figure represents the combined hashrate of the three major mining pools supporting Fractal Bitcoin merged mining: Antpool, F2Pool, and Spiderpool. However, that could increase in the following days as ViaBTC, another Asia-based mining pool, announced the support for Fractal Bitcoin merged mining on Thursday.
Fractal Bitcoin’s token, FB, was initially without a spot market price until its listing on centralized exchanges like Gate.io and CoinEx on September 13. Following the listing, FB surged to nearly $40 but has since fallen to around $22 as of this writing, according to data from CoinGecko.
For each petahash per second (PH/s) of hashrate, Bitcoin’s hashprice averaged $41/PH/s over the past week. Participating in merged mining with Fractal Bitcoin could yield an additional $3.90 in daily mining revenue, boosting the total hashprice by roughly 9.5%.
But that means pointing your hashrate to Antpool, f2pool, ViaBTC, or Spiderpool and exchanging coins on platforms like Gate.io and CoinEx to realize these gains. The Fractal Bitcoin ecosystem, which has established strong ties with Asian partners, now faces the challenge of proving the sustainability of its economic model.
Regulation News
- Bitcoin Mining Shutdown Sparks 20% Hike in Norwegian Town Energy Bills – TheEnergyMag
Hardware and Infrastructure News
- Bitfarms to Fast-Track 2.2 EH/s Deployment via Stronghold Merger – TheEnergyMag
- Bitdeer to Auction S19 Bitcoin Miners Starting at $1/TH/s – TheEnergyMag
- Merkle Standard Expands Bitcoin Mining to Memphis with 45MW – TheEnergyMag
- CleanSpark Snags More Bitcoin Mining Sites in Mississippi – TheEnergyMag
- Hut 8 (NASDAQ: HUT) to Host 15 EH/s for Bitmain with Its New Bitcoin Miner U3S21EXPH – TheEnergyMag
Corporate News
- Another Bitcoin Miner Adopts MicroStrategy’s Playbook of Buying BTC in Open Market – CoinDesk
- ‘We’ve got the power and land’: IREN taps Morgan Stanley for US ‘hyperscaler’ deal – CapitalBrief
Financial News
- Bhutan, Tiny Country With $3B GDP, Holds Over $780M in Bitcoin – CoinDesk
Feature
- Bitcoin Miners Are Still Buying New Hardware Despite Headwinds—Here’s Why – Decrypt
- The Current State of the ASIC Miner Market With Ian Descoteaux – The Mining Pod
