Crypto10 May, 20262 min read
AntPool, Block Inc, F2Pool, Foundry Join Stratum V2 Working Group
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AntPool, Block Inc, F2Pool, Foundry, MARA Foundation, Spiderpool, and DMND joined Stratum V2 Working Group. Stratum V2 is an open, vendor-neutral standard to decentralize mining pools.
Stratum V2 Working Group
Seven major Bitcoin mining pools have joined the Stratum V2 working group to develop an industry-wide open standard protocol for how mining pool operators communicate with individual miners. AntPool, Block Inc, F2Pool, Foundry, MARA Foundation, SpiderPool, and DMND are listed as new members of the working group, which is described as a protocol upgrade that could boost miner profitability by up to 7.4%.
The Stratum V2 working group is presented as a collaboration to overhaul the communication protocol mining pools use to coordinate with individual miners, with the goal of creating a vendor-neutral open standard. The Stratum V2 project is also described as flipping dynamics from Stratum V1 by introducing end-to-end encryption and giving individual miners the option to build their own block templates instead of accepting what pools assign.
From V1 to V2
Stratum V1 is described as sending data in plaintext and as giving mining pool operators exclusive control over block template construction, meaning the pool decides which transactions go into a block rather than the individual miners contributing hashpower. Stratum V2 is described as introducing end-to-end encryption, more efficient fleet management for large-scale operations, and a Job Declaration sub-protocol that lets miners build their own block templates.
The Stratum V2 Working Group’s official announcement is quoted as saying, "By maintaining Stratum V2 as a public, vendor-neutral specification, we remove compatibility barriers". The same announcement frames the upgrade as enabling the ecosystem to focus on "improving efficiency, privacy, security, and miner autonomy, ultimately leading to increased profitability," while describing Stratum V2 as replacing Stratum V1.
Difficulty, Costs, and Profit
The Stratum V2 transition is tied to mining economics in the sources, with one account saying the protocol’s reduced latency and improved data handling could translate to up to 7.4% higher profitability for miners. CoinWarz is cited for a projected next Bitcoin difficulty adjustment on May 15, 2026, 5:58 PM UTC, with mining difficulty increasing from 132.47 T to 135.64 T.
CoinShares is cited for saying up to 20% of Bitcoin miners are unprofitable under current crypto market and economic conditions, and for reporting Hashprice fell to levels between hit $36 and $38/Petahash-seconds per day. In that context, the sources position Stratum V2 as a potential efficiency gain for miners and for publicly traded mining companies, with one account linking the 7.4% improvement to margins in a business where profit and loss can come down to a few percentage points on electricity costs and operational efficiency.