newsBTC has received an official press release from the folks over at GHash.IO regarding the on-going threat of the mining pool getting 51% or more of total network hashing power mere hours following the publication of a story indicating the pool had reached 42% network hashing power.
“The pool has gained significant hashing power due to the 0% pool fee, merged mining of alt coins, excellent real-time data presentation as well as quality 24/7/365 support service,” the statement reads.
Hashing power on GHash.IO is made up of 45% BitFury ASIC miners and 55% independent miners, according to GHash.IO.
GHash.IO says they recognize their recent growth as a “serious threat”.
“GHash.IO will take all necessary precautions to prevent reaching 51% of all hashing power, in order to maintain stability of the bitcoin network,” the pool says.
In order to prevent hitting the 51%, GHash.IO plans to stop accepting new mining facilities, and will allow CEX.IO users to mine bitcoins using other pools — so when they purchase cloud hashing, they can apply the hashing power to a pool of their choosing.
Perhaps more importantly, GHash.IO insists they have no plans to carry out a 51% attack on the bitcoin network.
“Our plans are to expand the bitcoin community as well as utilise the hashing power to develop a greater bitcoin economic structure,” they say. “If something happened to Bitcoin as a whole it could risk our investments in physical hardware, damage to those who love Bitcoin and we see no benefit from having [a] 51% stake in mining.”
GHash.IO notes they plan to add additional services to facilitate bitcoin’s growth, which include their own payment system, an escrow service, micro-payments aggregation (allowing users to receive small amounts of BTC from third parties), and instant bitcoin payments for merchants.