Stratum V2 Merge-Mining Integration Gives Bitcoin Miners Direct Control Over Sidechain Rewards

Breaking News: DMND and RootstockLabs today announced the rollout of a new feature that leverages Stratum V2 to give Bitcoin miners unprecedented control over merge-mining on the RSK sidechain. The integration allows miners at the pool to both construct their own block templates and directly handle the selection and inclusion of merge-mined block commitments from Rootstock (RSK).

“The miner controls the merge mining and the miner gets paid for the merge mining. More delegation of control to miners is our key support for further decentralisation of the Bitcoin ecosystem,” said Alejandro De La Torre, CEO and Co-Founder of DMND, in an exclusive statement.

Background

Merge-mining is a process where multiple blockchains share the same Proof-of-Work from a single set of miners. A child chain structures its block headers to include the parent chain’s header hash, typically embedded in the parent’s coinbase transaction. This allows parent-chain miners to mine several blockchains simultaneously—when a block is found for the parent, it is also found for all child chains.

Stratum V2, the next-generation mining protocol, enables miners at a pool to construct their own block templates rather than receiving them from the pool operator. DMND’s integration extends this capability to merge-mining, allowing miners to autonomously include RSK sidechain commitments without pool intermediation.

How the Integration Works

With the new feature, miners can claim sidechain rewards in rBTC—Bitcoin-backed tokens managed by the RSK federation—directly on the sidechain. There is no revenue sharing and no need for the mining pool to custody the rBTC. This removes a layer of counter-party risk and streamlines reward distribution.

What This Means

While some analysts have warned that merge-mining could centralize hash power if dominant pools control multiple chains, this integration actually tests the hypothesis in a real-world environment. By giving individual miners control over sidechain block commitments, it may mitigate centralization pressure. The industry will be watching closely to see whether this empowers smaller miners or inadvertently strengthens large pools.

“This is an important development that puts the decentralization debate to a practical test,” De La Torre added. DMND and RootstockLabs are making the feature available immediately for compatible mining pools.

For miners eager to diversify their revenue streams without sacrificing autonomy, this integration represents a significant step toward a more decentralized Bitcoin mining ecosystem.