This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Andy Larkin
From garages to gigawatts – how modern mining is evolving, and why hashrate is only half the story.
Over the past decade, Bitcoin mining has transformed from a niche hobby into one of the most infrastructure-intensive segments of the crypto economy. What began with GPUs and dorm-room rigs has become a global contest of ASIC chips, power pricing, and sovereign-scale logistics.
In 2025, mining isnβt dead β but itβs a different game entirely.
Post-halving pressure
The 2024 halving cut block rewards to 3.125 BTC.
This change squeezed already-thin profit margins and forced miners to optimizeβor exit.
The result? A clear market consolidation.
Hashrate climbed past 600 EH/s, but itβs now controlled by fewer, larger players with professional setups and 24/7 uptime targets.
The role of mining pools
Solo mining is practically extinct. Todayβs miners rely on pools to smooth out income and share block rewards more predictably. But not all pools are equal β and trust, performance, and transparency matter more than ever.
Some pools are operated by public mining firms. Others by exchanges. And a few are quietly scaling through performance alone.
One such player is WhitePool, which recently surpassed 10 EH/s, securing over 1% of the global Bitcoin network. That milestone isnβt just symbolic β itβs evidence of growing trust from miners and technical readiness to compete at scale.
Infrastructure is the differentiator
Reaching 10 EH/s doesnβt happen without serious engineering.
WhitePool’s growth reflects a few deeper trends in pool evolution:
Low-latency stratum connections across geographies
Payout systems that match real-time block wins
Energy-efficient hardware optimization
Integrated services like exchange support and smart fee routing
As the mining landscape matures, infrastructure quality β not just payout percentage β is becoming the deciding factor for where miners point their hashpower.
What the future holds
The next chapter of mining wonβt be about raw hash rate alone. Itβll be about:
Geographic diversity (especially in energy pricing and regulatory regimes)
On-chain MEV and dynamic block template control
Integration between mining and liquidity venues
Resilience to market volatility and sudden drops in network fees
Mining is becoming less about brute force, and more about positioning.
Final thought
WhitePoolβs 10 EH/s moment is just one signal in a broader trend:
The age of small mining farms is closing.
The new generation of pools are leaner, faster, and deeply integrated into the crypto infrastructure stack.
If you’re watching Bitcoinβs security model β donβt just look at difficulty.
Look at whoβs still scaling when it gets hard.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Andy Larkin