Proof of Work Alliance Launches to Catalyze Growth Across Bitcoin and PoW Networks

The Proof of Work Alliance is a global coalition of mining pools, blockchain projects, and infrastructure providers aiming to accelerate technical progress and sustainable growth in Proof of Work systems, starting with Bitcoin. The Alliance brings together a diverse set of infrastructure leaders across four continents, committed to strengthening the future of PoW by lowering barriers for new networks and catalyzing the next wave of Bitcoin-native innovation.

Bitlayer, a Bitcoin Layer 2 solution built on the BitVM paradigm, has announced a strategic partnership with three of the world's largest mining pools—Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool—to accelerate the adoption of Bitcoin-native DeFi. The collaboration aims to enhance Bitcoin's utility and provide new economic opportunities for miners.

The partnership supports non-standard transactions (NSTs), a critical component of BitVM's deployment. These transactions, while valid under Bitcoin's consensus rules, are not relayed by the default Bitcoin Core software, making them hard to get confirmed on-chain without miner cooperation. By supporting NSTs, Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool remove a key bottleneck to BitVM's deployment, bringing the system closer to widespread use.

BitVM enables secure and reliable movement of BTC into other blockchain ecosystems without relying on centralized intermediaries. This opens the door for broader Bitcoin DeFi applications while preserving the network's robust security guarantees. The BitVM Bridge, facilitated by the mining pools, ensures NSTs are reliably included in blocks and become part of Bitcoin's immutable ledger.

The collaboration is significant for miners as it addresses dwindling income due to per-block BTC rewards being cut in half every four years. Bitlayer's BitVM can drive new economic activity and fee-based income for miners by enabling BTC to flow into DeFi and Layer 2 ecosystems.

The Proof of Work Alliance, a global coalition of mining pools and blockchain projects, aims to accelerate technical progress and sustainable growth in Proof of Work systems, starting with Bitcoin. The alliance brings together a diverse set of infrastructure leaders across four continents, committed to strengthening the future of PoW by lowering barriers for new networks and catalyzing the next wave of Bitcoin-native innovation.

The Bitlayer partnership with Antpool, F2Pool, and SpiderPool is a testament to the growing demand for secure, Bitcoin-native DeFi infrastructure that scales. Bitlayer's ongoing efforts to onboard more validators and early adopters further underscore the potential of BitVM as the cornerstone of Bitcoin's next evolution.

References:
[1] https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/05/27/bitlayer-joins-forces-with-antpool-f2pool-and-spiderpool-to-supercharge-bitcoin-defi