Seven major Bitcoin mining pools adopt Stratum V2 to boost mining efficiency and miner control.

Seven leading Bitcoin mining pools, including Foundry and AntPool, have joined the Stratum V2 working group to promote a new protocol that improves communication between pools and miners. Stratum V2 aims to make mining faster, more secure, and give miners more control over block selection, addressing the competitive and fragmented nature of Bitcoin mining. This move is significant as Foundry and AntPool control nearly half of the global mining hashrate, potentially driving wider adoption. However, miners still face profitability challenges due to rising difficulty, energy costs, and hardware expenses, so Stratum V2 may help efficiency but won't solve all cost pressures.