Bitcoin Mining Milestone: GoMining Uses Stratum V2 to Build First Miner-Controlled Block

GoMining has mined the first Bitcoin block in which the miner, not the mining pool, selected the transactions included in the block, marking a significant milestone in the adoption of Stratum V2, the long-awaited mining protocol designed to reduce pool centralization.

Working with DMND mining pool, the company used Stratum V2’s Job Declaration feature to build its own block template and prioritize GoBTC Pay transactions.

The achievement demonstrates one of the protocol’s core promises: allowing individual miners to decide which transactions enter the blocks they mine while still benefiting from the stability and predictable rewards of pooled mining.

The milestone comes as Bitcoin mining enters another period of transformation, with operators simultaneously embracing protocol upgrades and expanding into AI infrastructure to diversify revenue streams.

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Stratum V2 Gives Miners Control Over Block Construction

For more than a decade, Bitcoin mining pools have largely determined which transactions appear in the blocks mined by their participants. While individual miners supplied computational power, pool operators retained control over block templates, creating what many Bitcoin developers have viewed as an overlooked point of centralization.

Stratum V2 aims to change that.

The open-source mining protocol introduces Job Declaration, a feature that lets miners construct their own block templates instead of relying on pools to assemble them. Pools continue coordinating hash power and distributing rewards, but miners regain control over transaction selection.

GoMining said its latest block represents the first production deployment of that capability.

Rather than selecting transactions based solely on fees, the company prioritized payments generated through GoBTC Pay, its Bitcoin-only payment protocol. According to GoMining, the demonstration shows how miners can directly support payment applications while maintaining decentralized mining.

The company describes GoBTC Pay as a non-custodial, base-layer payment protocol that settles directly on Bitcoin without relying on layer-2 networks, wrapped assets or stablecoins.

Merchants pay a 0.2% fee, which GoMining says is split equally between participating miners and wallets that originate transactions.

Chief Executive Mark Zalan said the block demonstrates what becomes possible when miners regain authority over transaction selection.

“For years, pools decided which transactions made it into Bitcoin blocks. With Stratum V2 we can now prioritize the transactions that matter to us,” he said.

Mining Pools Take a Step Toward Greater Decentralization

Supporters of Stratum V2 have long argued that mining pool concentration represents one of Bitcoin’s most significant structural risks.

Although thousands of miners contribute hash power globally, a relatively small number of pools determine the contents of most Bitcoin blocks. Critics contend that such concentration creates potential censorship risks and limits miners’ independence.

DMND co-founder and CEO Alejandro de la Torre described the latest block as an important step toward reversing that trend.

“A handful of pools deciding what goes into Bitcoin blocks has always been the quiet centralization point in the sector,” he said, adding that broader adoption of Stratum V2 could gradually return block creation to miners themselves.

GoMining acknowledged that a single miner-controlled block does not fundamentally change Bitcoin’s mining environment. However, the company argued that successfully deploying Stratum V2 outside a testing environment proves the protocol is ready for wider commercial adoption.

If additional pools implement the standard, miners could increasingly customize transaction selection while preserving the operational benefits of pooled mining.

Bitcoin Miners Increasingly Diversify Beyond Mining

The Stratum V2 milestone arrives as Bitcoin mining companies expand far beyond their traditional role of securing the network.

According to CoinShares, public Bitcoin miners are rapidly building AI infrastructure businesses that could account for roughly 80% of their revenue by the end of 2026.

The firm’s analysts estimate that listed miners have already signed about 20 AI-related contracts worth approximately $85 billion in future revenue.

Mining companies already operate many of the assets AI developers need, including large-scale data centers, high-capacity electrical infrastructure and industrial cooling systems. Those existing capabilities have made miners attractive partners for hyperscale computing projects.

CoinShares also notes that Bitcoin miners possess unique flexibility as electricity consumers. Unlike many industrial operations, mining facilities can rapidly scale power usage up or down, allowing them to monetize stranded or underutilized energy resources while supporting increasingly power-intensive AI workloads.

For GoMining, however, the immediate focus remains Bitcoin itself.

The successful deployment of a miner-controlled block provides an early demonstration of Stratum V2’s practical benefits, showing that miners can regain control over transaction selection while supporting new payment applications built directly on Bitcoin’s base layer.