Hi all,
I’m interested in a technical discussion around Bitcoin-style Proof-of-Work chains and miner participation at very low hashrates.
Specifically, I’m curious whether modern PoW networks still meaningfully support small-scale / hobbyist miners, or whether hashrate centralization is effectively unavoidable due to variance, economics, and infrastructure requirements.
From a protocol and network-design perspective:
– Does PoW still provide a real participation path for low-hashrate miners, or is it mainly symbolic today?
– At what point does variance dominate so strongly that pooling becomes mandatory for most participants?
– Are there protocol-level or ecosystem-level design choices that could preserve decentralization at the miner level, without sacrificing security?
I’m asking this from a technical and system-design standpoint rather than an investment or price perspective.
Looking forward to hearing informed views.
Question: Do Bitcoin-style PoW chains still meaningfully support small-scale miners, or is hashrate centralization inevitable?
byu/angelaki79 inCryptoTechnology
Posted by angelaki79
2 Comments
Great questions. Today, most PoW chains make it tough for small miners to earn meaningful rewards solo – variance and costs push nearly everyone into pools. True decentralization at the miner level is hard unless protocols lower difficulty or add incentives for smaller nodes. Some altcoins experiment with these ideas, but on large networks like Bitcoin, centralization seems inevitable without major design changes. Would love to hear if anyone’s seen successful models that really support small miners.
Take a look at Monero. [extra characters]