- Binance has just launched Binance Pool, its own bitcoin mining platform.
- The platform was launched a month before “bitcoin halving” which is expected to cause the bitcoin price to go up.
- Cryptocurrency aficionados are worried Binance is creating a monopoly in the crypto universe.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance has started a bitcoin mining venture earlier this week. The Binance Mining Pool is meant to be a platform that bitcoin miners can use at “lowest rates” according to its owners.
This decision has come just a month before the expected bitcoin halving, which will reduce the reward miners get for their work. Instead of receiving 12.5 BTC, once the halving happens, they’re going to get half of that, 6.25 BTC.
This event is expected to happen in late May, after which the price of bitcoin is expected to go up significantly.
All the Advantages of Binance Pool
According to a statement published by the company at the launch of Binance Pool, the bitcoin mining platform will “empower miners and global crypto mining industry”. If you’re wondering how they plan to achieve this, it’s by adding Binance’s exchange platform to the equation.
Basically, once the miner can sell their bitcoins on the exchange as soon as they’ve mined enough of them. By using Binance Pool, the miners open doors to a plethora of other products, including Binance Staking, Binance Lending, Binance Futures, and so on.
Binance Pool comes with integrated mechanisms for proof-of-stake (PoS) and proof-of-work (PoW), which are using the computing power provided by the company.
For starters, Binance Pool deals only with bitcoin mining, but the platform is planned to expand its offer to other cryptocurrencies in the future.
What You Need to Start Mining with Binance Pool?
According to the company itself, the whole point of this platform is to make bitcoin mining as simple as possible. There are only two boxes miners need to tick to be able to start mining:
- Mining hardware
- Account with Binance Mining Pool
If you fall into this category of users, there’s an incentive to start mining at Binance Pool as soon as possible. There are no fees for miners at the moment, something which will last until the end of May. After May 31, 2020, the fees will be set at 2.5%.
Rising Concerns About Cryptocurrency Monopolism
The launch of the Binance-owned bitcoin mining platform seems like good news for individual users. However, some believe this could be a step to the monopolization of cryptocurrencies. There are some cryptocurrency proponents who are worried mining power might end up concentrated in too few hands.
Binance CEO Zhao “CZ” Changpeng has dismissed the monopolization talk. He tweeted that Binance Pool comes “only” 11th in the list of the largest bitcoin mining platforms.
Still, considering that it’s practically still a newborn, being 11th in the world is not that bad. Actually, it’s just the contrary, something which the entire crypto community seems to agree with.
There are plenty of forum posts and YouTube videos discussing the recent moves of the tech giant which have made tectonic changes in the world of cryptos. For instance, the company has recently purchased the crypto market data aggregator CoinMarketCap.com for $400M.
In addition to the aggregator website, the company currently owns many other cryptocurrency-focused products. Binance has a cryptocurrency exchange, options trading brokerage, and even its own digital currency (Binance Chain). And starting this week, the company also owns a bitcoin mining platform.
