AntPool Won’t Maintain Client Assets On Ethereum After The Merge

AntPool, which is run by mining giant Bitmain, has stated that it will not keep clients’ funds on Ethereum after the blockchain transitions to proof-of-stake next month in The Merge.

AntPool is an Ethereum mining pool in which many users can plug in their computational resources and share processing power to mine rewards. Antpool deposits mining rewards into users’ accounts.

In a blog post published on Saturday, the company stated that it will be unable to keep clients’ assets on the Ethereum 2.0 network and revealed a plan to settle with them before The Merge.

Following Ethereum’s PoS update, the firm will discontinue the upkeep of individual client assets due to the “risk of censorship.” This is because of growing concerns that Ethereum validators may be pressured into censoring transactions related to US sanctions against Tornado Cash.

“As ETH2.0 comes along with the risk of censorship among different countries, ANTPOOL, for the sake of clients’ asset security, will not be able to maintain the user’s ETH assets on the PoS chain,” it said.

Validators will process network transactions when Ethereum switches to proof of stake. Validators, on the other hand, are mostly controlled by stake providers. For example, US-based providers such as Lido Finance, Coinbase, Bitcoin Suisse, Kraken, and staked.us control around 60% of the Ethereum network’s 416,000 validator nodes.

If stake validators agree to comply with US restrictions, they can begin screening Tornado Cash transactions on the base layer. It remains to be seen whether such censorship will occur as Ethereum converts to PoS.

AntPool has requested that its customers establish their own private addresses to their accounts by September 3. The accumulated PoW mining rewards will subsequently be sent to private addresses by the company.

Meanwhile, AntPool has backed Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum Classic, which it claims rely on “decentralized PoW consensus.” Previously, AntPool not only supported Ethereum Classic but also invested $10 million in its ecosystem.

DISCLAIMER: The Information on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.

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