Merged mining is essential to maintaining the decentralization of Bitcoin

Mara Holdings and Riot Platforms are diversifying into AI and Global Energy trading, but independent Bitcoin (BTC) miners are fighting to keep the lights up. This gap highlights the unsettling reality. The long-term sustainability of Bitcoin is at risk. Bitcoin’s steadily rising hashrate, even in turbulent markets, is often celebrated as a sign of network health, but it tells half of the story. Equally important and far more concerning is how its hash power is distributed.

As the bear market continues, small and medium-sized miners face pressure from rising costs, geopolitical uncertainty and relentless competition with well-capitalized mining giants. In this environment, mining was merged. This is a technique that allows miners to simultaneously protect other blockchains using the same infrastructure, making it an important lifeline. By unlocking new revenue streams without additional energy or hardware costs, merged mining maintains profitability for independent miners and, in turn, maintains the decentralized foundation on which the Bitcoin network relies.

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Major mining companies vs. small miners

Large mining companies use size and company reach to ensure significant advantages over small businesses and independent miners, especially when it comes to survival in tough market cycles. While independent miners often rely on thin margins of razors, major mining companies are sequestering size, capital, geographic reach, and their ability to pursue sophisticated financial management and hedging strategies from the entire market cycle.

Take, for example, the huge Mining Mala Holdings. The company has actively expanded its use of renewable energy, acquired large Texas facilities, entered into landmark partnerships with the government of Kenya, strengthened renewable energy production, and established a renewable energy driven mining business. By diversifying across jurisdictions and ensuring access to cheaper and renewable electricity, marathons can hedge the kind of energy price shock that could close down smaller mining outfits.

Some companies are taking it a step further and expanding into a whole new industry. In February, Riot Platforms announced plans to build an AI data center. It pivots into artificial intelligence infrastructure to take advantage of the burgeoning demand for high-performance computing. These new revenue streams, largely disconnected from the Bitcoin and crypto markets, give Riot additional buffers during recessions, reducing Bitcoin’s reliance on price performance.

Large mining companies are also independently set up to negotiate direct partnerships with electricity producers. Often they can receive tax credits from local governments who are eager to ensure favorable energy rates or attract high-tech infrastructure. For example, the Riot Platform has collected nearly $136 million in electricity units from Texas Grid operators since 2022. These benefits, combined with operational scale, allow for a catastrophic economy to be mitigated for independent miners with fewer options and thin margins.

Independent miners do not enjoy such luxuries. They face sudden electricity costs, volatile energy prices and expensive tariffs on mining hardware. This will be exacerbated by ongoing market volatility and the looming trade war. These increasing pressures have threatened to extinct independent miners, integrate hash power among several appropriate companies, and question the decentralization of Bitcoin.

Merged mining provides a lifeline for independent miners

Merged mining quietly emerged as a powerful tool for independent miners seeking to remain competitive. Merged mining allows miners to reuse the same computational work they perform to protect Bitcoin to minify other Bitcoin-compatible blockchains without the need for additional energy or hardware. This process effectively creates parallel revenue streams, allowing miners to earn rewards from multiple networks simultaneously.

For small, independent operators, this additional income can be the difference between shutting down and staying online. It mitigates the effects of Bitcoin’s fluctuating block rewards and provides a more stable financial foundation during long-term slump or post-harving squeezes. By increasing revenue without increasing operational overhead, merged mining helps level the playing field.

Small miners also have clear working edges. They are usually more agile than the institutional players and are able to adopt a merged strategy faster and faster without bureaucratic drag. While major mining companies need to navigate complex infrastructure, independent miners can pivot faster. You can reconfigure the setup and test the new protocol directly.

Often these small players are closer to metal, focusing on practical, experimental and all-value. Its agility allows them to quickly iterate, fine-tune merged mining configurations and capture returns that large operations can overlook.

In environments where every margin is important, merged mining is not just an optimization, it is a lifeline. And in distributed networks like Bitcoin, the resilience of smaller, independent miners is not only competing. It is essential for the health of the ecosystem.

Key factors for Bitcoin’s long-term sustainability

The participation of diverse miners is the strongest defense against Bitcoin centralization. When mining control concentrates on the hands of several large corporate institutions, networks become susceptible to censorship, manipulation and external political influences.

As price volatility continues and competition intensifies, it is time for the Bitcoin community (developers, miners, and advocates) to fully embrace merged mining as the core pillar of network sustainability. Supporting small miners is not just about fairness and emotional issues. It is essential to the long-term viability of Bitcoin as a truly decentralized global financial system.

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