GHash.io, the Bitcoin mining pool owned by CEX.io, has been shrouded in controversy since the start of the year when it edged towards controlling 51 percent of the hashrate. If it reached this point, it would mean that one entity could control all Bitcoin transactions, thus disrupting its decentralized nature. GHash.io promised that it would never launch a 51 percent attack and vowed to keep the hashrate under 40 percent, but broke that promise in June.

Concerns were raised regarding the likelihood of a 51 percent attack, but CEX.io CIO Jeffrey Smith assured the community that his group would never launch such as attack. Doing so would not be beneficial for them as they have invested too much time, money and computing power on Bitcoin to put it in jeopardy.

GHash.io is still the largest Bitcoin mining pool to date and many in the community are concerned at this state of affairs, especially because the mining pool seems to be somewhat ‘disconnected’ from the Bitcoin community.

GHash.io recently held a round table discussion about the decentralization of Bitcoin mining, which was proof to some that the mining pool has not been in tune with the concerns of the community.

“Inter-pool discussions including addressing decentralisation of mining as an industry have been ongoing since 2012 on both mailing lists and IRC. GHash.io is the only major pool that has not been involved in these to date. It’s ironic they propose “starting” what everyone else has been doing for years,” Bitcoin mining pool operator Luke Jr. stated.

The round table, which was supposed to be attended by the top mining pools, had a turnout of five participants: GHash.io, PeerNova, KnCMiner, SpoondooliesTech, and the Bitcoin Foundation.

The round table discussion came to the conclusion that the centralization of the mining pool is best to be avoided and GHash.io promised that it will keep its control under 40 percent of the network hashrate by asking “miners to shift hashing power away from their pools when the hash rate reaches that amount.” But this just seems another hollow promise as GHash does not have a solid contingency plan to prevent this from happening, aside from sending out warnings. This is unlike mining pool BTC Guild, which has had a Mitigation Plan in place for over a year now. Its Mitigation Plan includes raising fees and halting registration if centralization becomes an imminent threat.

For GHash.io, the community can only hope it will keep its promise of maintaining its network hashrate of under 40 percent.  Though this may draw concerns for some,others believe that the community shouldn’t be worried about GHash.io.

Redditor physalisx stated that “Nobody should give a damn about their “promises”. If we wanted to trust people, we would use other third party services for money, like E-Gold… Or we could just trust the government/banks and use fiat.”

“Fact is, their intentions don’t matter. Good will doesn’t save them from being shutdown, infiltrated or abused by people with guns (and possibly in uniforms).”

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