There are always interesting developments taking place behind the scenes in the cryptocurrency industry. Antpool has been engaging in some rather unusual behavior as of late, although there is a clear plan to take into account. With the mining pool burning BCH by sending mining fees to an unspendable address, the team is heading in an intriguing direction.
Antpool Is Burning BCH
A lot of people were confused and concerned when they learned Antpool was sending smaller amounts of Bitcoin Cash to an unspendable address. After all, there is no real reason for the company to do so, even though they have a clear plan in mind. More specifically, the team is doubling down on their support for BCH by taking this rather unusual approach.
The mining pool makes money from the collecting of mining fees. However, those fees are now being sent to an address over which Antpool has no control. A total of twelve percent of all transaction fees earned by the pool will be burned for the foreseeable future. This will continue to occur with every mined block discovered by the pool.
Unlike what most people might expect, this decision was entirely voluntary and not something forced upon Antpool by anyone. The company wants to further support Bitcoin Cash by actively reducing the amount of BCH being brought into circulation. While 12% of the earned transaction fees is still a very small amount, every little bit helps to ensure that demand for Bitcoin Cash continues to grow.
Moreover, the upcoming Bitcoin Cash hard fork also influenced this decision. With the expectation of more applications being built on top of the BCH blockchain, it seems safe to assume the number of on-chain transactions will continue to increase gradually. As such, Antpool feels now is the right time to start burning these fees as a way to incentive more people to hold their BCH balances for the long haul.
Whether or not that decision will have the desired outcome remains to be determined. Antpool is certainly heading in a surprising direction regardless. The team firmly believes holders should profit from the growth of BCH, and burning transaction fees earned by the pool is one way of achieving that goal. It’s an interesting train of thought, and an example other mining pools may decide to follow moving forward.
No one will deny that Bitcoin Cash has made a big mark on the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. While its market cap is still small compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and even XRP, Bitcoin Cash is here to stay. With a growing community, more platforms enabling BCH support, and the upcoming hard fork introducing some big changes, this currency’s progress throughout the remainder of 2018 will be quite interesting to keep an eye on.
