Antpool Begins Burning BCH Network Fees Increasing Digital Scarcity

On Friday, April 20th the mining operation Antpool explained that the public may have recently noticed a fraction of bitcoin cash being sent to an unspendable address every time Antpool mines a block. Antpool says that it is burning the funds sent to the “black hole address” voluntarily for the good of the BCH economy.

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Mining Operation Antpool Burns 12% of BCH Network Fees Found in Mined Blocks

Antpool is one of the oldest mining pools in the cryptocurrency ecosystem and is operated by the company Bitmain Technologies. Just recently it was discovered that the mining pool was sending bitcoin cash (BCH) to an unspendable address utilizing a process known as “burning.” Burning means the coins sent to the address can never be spent again and some people believe this process increases digital scarcity. Antpool states this Friday that BCH is nearing a “tipping point of becoming a widely used public blockchain,” and the decentralized currency has a “wave of innovation” forthcoming.



The mining pool mentions the latest Memo application and the many other platforms being built on the BCH chain. Further, the organization mentions the upcoming hard fork taking place on May 15 which aims to increase the block size to 32MB. Additionally, Antpool says that “more and more useful applications will be enabled on BCH” because of the enlarged OP_RETURN spaces, and re-enabled OP_codes. Antpool explains that it understands that BCH will be a cryptocurrency that will be widely used and spent but holding investors are also critical to the economy.

“Some bitcoin cash investors may have noticed that Antpool has recently begun burning BCH by sending mining fees to a black hole address with each block mined — Twelve percent of the transaction fees earned by the mining pool are burnt — This is voluntary and we want to explain why this burning might be good for BCH as a whole,” Antpool states. “While having active users spending BCH is very important for the ecosystem, having investors who hold BCH is also a fundamental requirement for maintaining a strong economy — Without these holders, BCH’s exchange value loses significant support.”

We believe that they too should profit from the growth of BCH by their continued stake in the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem — The transaction fees earned by miners are an important growth indicator of the BCH ecosystem, and if a portion of the fees are burnt, it is effectively miners sharing revenue with the entire BCH network.

Antpool Denounces Maximalism and Asks Other Mining Pools to Join the Burning Sessions

Antpool also details that the BCH ecosystem and community needs to keep its current passion going. The burning announcement also denounces cryptocurrency ‘maximalism’ and says that type of idealism is “dangerous” thinking. This is because Antpool believes the community benefits from the advancement of application tokens which will bring forth an arrangement that pushes the growth of an “on-chain transaction explosion.” Furthermore, Antpool is asking for other mining pools to join in on the bitcoin cash burning session.

“We call for other miners to join us in burning 12% of the transaction fees collected,” the pool concludes.

What do you think about Antpool sending 12% of its mined BCH fees to an unspendable black hole address? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, Pixabay, and Bitcoin Cash and Antpool logos.

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