Event Overview
According to Documenting Bitcoin, the Bitcoin network has successfully mined its first block using the Stratum V2 protocol. This marks the most significant upgrade to the Bitcoin mining protocol since the introduction of Stratum V1.
Key Differences Between Stratum V2 and V1
Under the widely used Stratum V1 protocol, mining machines only compute hash values, while block template construction and transaction selection are entirely controlled by mining pools. Stratum V2 empowers miners to independently build block templates and choose which transactions to include, while retaining the existing reward distribution mechanism. This significantly reduces mining pools' monopoly over transaction inclusion, enhancing the network's resistance to censorship without compromising mining efficiency.
This development holds long-term significance for the Bitcoin ecosystem: by granting miners greater sovereignty—the core foundation of network security—it effectively curbs the ability of any single pool or entity to influence transaction ordering, thereby elevating the overall level of decentralization.