Zettahash — A Decentralized Bitcoin Mining Collective

In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the world to a new kind of money. This money could be exchanged without the need for financial intermediaries or a centralized ledger. To make this new kind of money possible, Satoshi implemented a mechanism called Proof-of-Work. Proof-of-Work enables computers to use energy to secure the network. In the early days, bitcoin mining was done on personal computers. Today, specialized computers known as ASICs are kept in industrial-scale data centers, using hundreds of megawatts of power. Instead of a bunch of hobbyists running mining rigs in their homes' basements, massive publicly traded companies dominate the hashrate and narrative.

But for all the revolution that bitcoin brought to p2p money, bitcoin mining is stuck in the old financial system that bitcoin promised to challenge. Today, the biggest miners are publicly traded on traditional finance systems known as stock markets. Worse, the poster child for the worst aspects of the existing financial system, Blackrock, owns a significant percentage of shares in 4 out of 5 of the biggest public companies. Blackrock owns over 8% of Marathon's shares.

Public mining companies dilute their shares as a way to raise more capital. CleanSpark, Marathon, and Riot have all entered into agreements that make this possible. Diluting shares reduces shareholders' ownership and share value. This is a fiat mindset. Printing shares is philosophically no different from printing money to raise capital. Public companies might argue that while nation-states print money to fund wars, they're doing so to fund mining expansion to remain competitive. They might even argue that they're doing it because it's the only way...But there's another way.

Bitcoin mining is not just trending toward centralization. It has major risks of centralization attacks right now. Many mining pools are acting as sub-pools feeding into the biggest pool operating right now, AntPool, empowering it with the majority share. Before, bitcoiners argued that in the case of a mining pool controlling 51% of the hashrate, miners would leave the pool and move to a different one to course correct and re-decentralize the hashrate. But with pressure from boards of directors and majority shareholders (when will Blackrock take over?) and the pursuit to make them happy, how do we know that the public companies will do the right thing? In the last epoch, Marathon tried to censor non-OFAC-compliant transactions, but thankfully caved to public pressure. What's to say they'll cave this time? Especially when Marathon and other public companies are rooted in the US where regulatory crackdowns are coming fast and hard. Let's not forget that public companies control a significant portion of the hashrate (around 20 percent). There's another way.

We've made it through four halvings. The time when they fight you is here. This epoch is about fighting for the soul of bitcoin. Bitcoin isn't about pumping Microstrategy's bags. It's not about funneling normies into traditional finance investment products like Blackrock's ETF. It's about censorship resistance, it's about privacy, it's about fighting back against money printing and centralized financial power. Bitcoin is resistance money until it isn't. We don't have to let Wall St and governments force bitcoin into a safe box where it can be controlled and used as nothing more than a place for the Davos crowd to store their wealth. It doesn't have to be this way. There's another way.

The power they took from the people must be returned to the people.

There is only one way. We must decentralize mining governance. Zettahash is the world's first bitcoin mining collective. Building on the long history of successful cooperatives and collectives, we will create an operation that is run sustainably, fairly, and transparently. Together, we can take back the hashrate.No CEO bonuses.

No share buybacks.
No diluted stocks.
No deals behind closed doors.

Arise, you have nothing to lose but your Wall St masters!