The first open-source version of Stratum V2 has been released, named SRI 1.0.0: optimization, efficiency, and decentralization of mining.
The Stratum Reference Implementation team has announced the release of SRI 1.0.0, which will provide greater efficiency and decentralization in Bitcoin mining. The new version is already available for testing operations and integration into various mining software.
New features
The main new features offered by SRI 1.0.0 version are four:
- the ability for miners to connect to pools implementing SV2 without necessarily having to upgrade their SV1 firmware, but through the use of a Translation Proxy; a Translation Proxy, or “proxy di traduzione” in Italian, is a service that acts as an intermediary between a miner and a pool. Its main role is to translate the block template mined by the miner into a format compatible with the pool to which the miner is connected;
- the ability to connect directly to SV2 mining pools using a device equipped with SV2 firmware, such as BraiinsOS;
- the ability for miners to manage their own bitcoin nodes, build candidate block templates, and subsequently communicate them to the SV2 pool;
- the implementation of the “pool fallback” function ensures continuity in mining activities in case a pool decides to censor transactions. This function allows miners to automatically switch to alternative pools if one of them rejects their templates. A miner can configure various fallback options, and if all listed pools decide to censor, the miner will end up solo mining. A similar mechanism serves as a strong incentive for pools to act in the miner’s interest. Rejecting block templates without a valid reason could lead to a significant loss of hash power compared to competing pools.
The importance of Stratum V2
The implementation of the Stratum V2 protocol is a significant step towards increasing mining decentralization. Currently, candidate blocks are constructed by mining pools: with Stratum V1, it’s the pool that decides which transactions to include in a block. This introduces a vulnerability that could lead to two issues: transaction or address censorship and a 51% attack.
The goal of the Stratum V2 protocol is to eliminate these two problems. Stratum V2 allows each individual miner to construct their own candidate block, thereby choosing and selecting transactions to include in the block. The pool won’t be able to exclude transactions from a block, nor to write empty blocks or attempt double-spending transactions.
In addition to significantly reducing the risk of censorship and a 51% attack, Stratum V2 also improves security, as it is an encrypted protocol, unlike Stratum V1. Another improvement of Stratum V2 over the previous version is resistance to “hash-rate-hijacking” attacks: in this case, the hacker interferes with communication between the miner and the pool, takes the proof-of-work produced by the miner, and pretends to be the author of that proof, instructing the pool to send the block reward to him. Such an attack cannot occur with Stratum V2 since communication is encrypted, and thus the proof-of-work provided by the miner to the pool is not decipherable by external observers.
Moreover, SV2 enhances performance, making data transfers between the miner and the pool more efficient.
Braiins Pool and DEMAND are two mining pools that have already implemented the Stratum V2 protocol. Ocean pool had also announced its intention to implement Stratum V2 once ready.
