Developer: Due to mining centralization, the final confirmation of Bitcoin transactions now takes more than a week

PANews February 10th news, according to Cryptoslate, Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr raised concerns about the finality of Bitcoin transactions, saying that the widely accepted six-block confirmation rules are no longer applicable. According to him, it will now take more than a week to finalize the transaction, which challenges Bitcoin’s censorship resistance. Dashjr believes that due to the increasing centralization of Bitcoin mining pools, traditional standards are no longer applicable. He explained that he tried to update the six-block confirmation target in Bitcoin Knots, an alternative to Bitcoin core. However, his calculations show that, thanks to Antpool's significant share of network hashrate, it now takes more than 800 blocks to achieve 95% security -- equivalent to about 5.5 days.

According to HashRate Index, Antpool controls about 16.67% of the total hash rate of Bitcoin, lagging behind Foundry USA's 33.12%. Other major mining pools include F2Pool (8.87%), MARA Pool (6.06%) and SecPool (5.19%). However, Dashjr disputes the numbers, claiming several mining pools such as Braiins and ViaBTC act as agents for Antpool, making it more influential. He also noted that many miners operate under centralized mining pools unknowingly contributed to potential network restructuring. Industry experts have expressed similar concerns, warning that the growing dominance of a few mining pools puts Bitcoin at risk of potential scrutiny or even 51% attacks. Bob Burnett, CEO of Barefoot Mining, said that if a single entity controls a large portion of the network’s hash rate, it can manipulate the blockchain by restructuring transactions.

At the same time, not everyone agrees that the problem is as serious as Dashjr says. Daniel Roberts, co-founder of Iris Energy Ltd, downplayed these concerns, who believes Bitcoin’s design allows it to self-regulate over time. "Bitcoin may not be perfect, we should continue to try to improve it, but these types of problems are usually self-corrected or intentionally designed in the design," Roberts added.