Unknown Bitcoin Cash Miners Control Almost 97% of the Network’s Hashpower

There are many peculiarities about the Bitcoin Cash network. Perhaps the biggest concern of all is an unknown entity that continues to mine the vast majority of network blocks. No one has any idea who is behind this mining effort or how many people may be involved. So far, it seems the majority of mining rewards from those blocks have been sent to two different addresses. 

Who is Mining These Bitcoin Cash Blocks?

Ever since the Bitcoin Cash network was launched, someone has been doing a lot of mining without using one of the pools supporting this chain. Instead, it appears that he, she, or they are more than happy to keep mining as an unknown entity and never reveal their identity. It is not uncommon for miners to remain anonymous, yet it is of grave concern for Bitcoin Cash. The unknown entity has been mining close to 95% of all network blocks for quite some time now.

Without knowing who is responsible for this mining activity, there is plenty of reason for concern. Whoever is mining these blocks on their own could easily perform a 51% attack against the Bitcoin Cash network at any given time. Although that has not yet happened, it is certainly something to keep in mind. Considering that ViaBTC, BitClub, and a few other pools support mining BCH, there is no reason for this unknown entity not to have joined a pool already.

With the vast majority of block rewards going to two addresses, things only get more confusing. Perhaps the most peculiar aspect to all this is how neither of those addresses shows an interest in selling coins for the time being, but merely collects BCH coins as often as possible. These two addresses combined have a total balance of over 10,000 BCH right now, which is worth around 720 BTC at current market prices.  This is a bit comforting, although it still means 10,000 coins can be dumped across exchanges at any given moment.

The Bitcoin Cash mining difficulty is scheduled to adjust in a few days from now. At that point, the new difficulty will be almost three times higher than it is now. That should hopefully result in better mining profitability of BCH, which is still 43% less profitable than Bitcoin itself. Enticing miners to switch to Bitcoin Cash pools will not be easy. Even with a higher profitability, a lot of miners will still sell off their coins as quickly as possible.

So far, it does not appear as if the Bitcoin Cash community is overly concerned about an unknown entity successfully controlling the vast majority of BCH mining power. Whoever is behind this initiative clearly has big hopes for a future BCH price increase, which has been awaited for nearly a full week now. For some reason, market makers are more than content to keep the BCH price around US$300. That is a solid value for someone who controls over 10,000 coins, but it is possible the mystery miner or miners are waiting for a much higher price.

Even though most people are not overly concerned, it is not a healthy situation by any means. Having a mining pool control 51% or more of the network hashrate is troublesome. An unknown entity mining nearly 9.7 out of every 10 network blocks represents a whole new level of uncertainty. So far, no major damage has been done. However, it would be interesting to see the miners in question expose their identity and explain their objective. Until then, all we can do is speculate about this mystery.