Binance, the Malta-based crypto exchange, has rolled out its mining pool dubbed ‘Binance Pool’ Monday.
Binance Pool will operate with no fees until 31 May, and then the rate will be defined at 2.5%.
In a press release, the company stated that major miners can contact the exchange to negotiate extending the period of free fees.
There are nearly 15 out of the company’s more than 1000 employees are working on the pool.
Since it is integrated with Binance’s platform, the pool allows miners to transfer money from the pool to Binance’s various platforms.
Lisa He, head of Binance Pool, said:
“We aim to establish a comprehensive platform for miners that will bring more possibilities to the mining industry by bridging traditional mining to financial services.”
On the other hand, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Binance CEO, said:
“As an integral part of the global crypto market, empowering miners will therein enable significant growth and scale in the larger industry.”
CZ said on his Twitter account that the pool has mined the first block on 24 April.
Community’s reaction to the move
The move has received mixed reactions from the crypto community. Some expressed their worries that the pool may lead to further centralization of BTC hash rate.
Another commentator ‘HsakaTrades’ shared on Twitter a chart of BTC’s hash rate distribution:
“This hash distribution chart is soon going to be composed of just one colour.”
Another user said:
“This either ends super good for Bitcoin with multiple competing mining pools offering mass decentralisation or…. well I guess you can figure out the flipside of the coin.”
Commenting on the responses, Lisa said:
“In 2018, the mining pool of a mining machine manufacturer owned nearly 51% hashing power of the whole Bitcoin network, and the security of the Bitcoin network was doubted.”
She added:
“With industry players like Binance continuing to enter the mining space and contribute computing power to the industry, the mining industry is actually getting more decentralized than it was two years ago. The largest pools have less than 20% of the computing power of the whole network, and the assets on the Bitcoin network become more secure.”
