If Bitcoin is the king of digital currencies, Monero can be considered the king of high privacy digital currencies. Also based on the Proof-of-Work (PoW), the Monero system had a problem with the increasing centralization of its network in recent months.

The latest statistics on the Hash Rate of the Monero network show that Minexmr represents 43% as of July 31, 2022:

Minexmr is the largest Monero mining pool and its total power of 1,051 MH/s guarantees it substantial profits from the distribution of mining rewards. Behind Minexmr is Nanopool at 19%, a figure that is far less worrying.

Aware of the risk this represents for the centralization of the Monero network, Minexmr has just published an announcement in which we learn that the pool will close its operations on August 12, 2022, the day before the next update of the Monero network.

The note addressed to the miners of the pool invites them to make the necessary arrangements to deploy their materials to other mining pools.

Also in the best interest of decentralization of the network, Minexmr has recommended miners migrate to decentralized mining pools. Minexmr did not hesitate to indicate its preference for p2pool:

“We regret to inform our valued miners that the pool will be closing on August 12. We thank you for being a part of the pool and for your continued support.

Please reconfigure your miners to use a different pool before this date. Any miners that are not updated before August 12 will stop working.

We recommend transitioning to the decentralized p2pool. There are no pool fees when using p2pool and the decentralized pool helps to support the Monero network.

Any remaining pending rewards left after the pool closes will be sent automatically.

Any queries please contact [email protected]

So long and thanks for all the blocks.”

With the firepower of 75.01 MH/s, p2pool currently controls only 3% of the Hash Rate of the Monero network. Seeing p2pool rise in power rather than Nanopool which already accounts for 19% of the network's Hash Rate would be a great thing for Monero's health.

Minexmr has reassured its miners that they will not pay any fees by using p2pool to support the Monero network. It also assured that it will automatically send all pending mining rewards to individual miners after the pool closes.

While larger mining pools appear to be a threat to the decentralization of a network, the end of Minexmr's activities sounds like good news for Monero. Despite Minexmr's recommendations, the community fears that migrants will choose pools with more power than p2pool to maximize their earnings, which would not be a good thing from the point of view of Monero's Hash Rate concentration.

We will have to watch carefully how the Minexmr miners will decide to redistribute their mining power in the coming weeks.

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