@Beth and I have been working with Coinbase and various mining pools to try and resolve this issue. Here’s where we currently stand:
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We spoke with ViaBTC, and unfortunately they say there’s not a lot they can do because they don’t run Zcash miners themselves and don’t want to tell their clients to move to other pools because it might negatively impact their revenues.
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We have also been reaching out to other mining pools to determine how to address and resolve this issue. So far, in addition to ViaBTC, we have spoken to Antpool, Bitmain, F2Pool, and Luxor Mining Pool.
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One idea that has come out of these conversations is doing AMAs on Twitter Spaces with mining pools like Antpool and F2Pool to promote Zcash. Bitmain is open to a Twitter Spaces event with Antpool where they will give away some free Zcash miners. These AMAs will happen in late October and early November.
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Another option is to do a promotion with a mining pool where they’d offer 0% fee for mining Zcash for a month to attract new users, and then put in a grant to ZCG for $5k-$10k to cover those costs. Representatives from the mining pools say in their experience the miners are pretty sticky after the promotion ends, so long as mining Zcash is profitable.
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ZCG has some apprehensions about this option, primarily because it is not clear the miners will actually stick to mining Zcash after the promotion ends, and it may not be worth the cost. ZCG is currently discussing this option; however, if it is further explored, it will happen after the initial AMAs take place.
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I have also messaged @artkor who knows some of the miners in Russia to see what mining pool they use, and if it is ViaBTC, to encourage them to shift to another pool.
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We’ve also asked Bitmain if they have an incentive program where they’ll subsidize the upfront costs of miners for a share in future profits. A new entrant would need to invest approximately $3 million to move 5% of hashrate.
This is definitely an urgent matter, and we’re doing all we can to try to resolve it. Please let us know if there are any other options we should explore.
Thanks!