For the first time, Bitcoin miners can directly control their own Rootstock merge-mining commitments and receive rBTC rewards to their own address through DMND, a Stratum V2-first Bitcoin mining pool focused on miner sovereignty and decentralized mining infrastructure.
Announced today by DMND and RootstockLabs, this marks a major evolution in Bitcoin mining infrastructure and an important step toward greater decentralization across both Bitcoin and Rootstock.
Using Stratum V2 Job Declaration, miners on DMND can now construct their own Bitcoin block templates, choose the Rootstock merged-mining commitment themselves, and receive the resulting rBTC rewards directly, shifting both decision-making and rewards closer to the miners securing the network.
For years, mining pools have typically managed block template construction and merge-mining operations on behalf of miners. With this implementation, DMND introduces a model that gives miners significantly more direct participation in how merge mining is handled and how rewards are distributed.
Why This Matters
This development addresses one of the most important conversations in Bitcoin mining infrastructure today: decentralization at the block production layer.
In traditional mining pool setups, pools are responsible for building block templates and determining transaction selection. This has long been viewed as a potential centralization pressure point for Bitcoin network. Bitcoin developers and mining researchers including Matt Corallo have warned for years that concentrated pool-level block construction creates censorship and coordination risks for the network.
With Stratum V2 Job Declaration, miners regain greater control over those decisions.
For Rootstock, the implications are especially important. As a Bitcoin sidechain secured through merge mining, Rootstock inherits the security characteristics, and centralization dynamics, of the Bitcoin mining ecosystem above it. Expanding miner participation in merge-mining decisions helps distribute influence more broadly across the stack.
By enabling miners to directly choose Rootstock merge-mining commitments and receive rBTC rewards themselves, DMND and RootstockLabs are strengthening alignment between Bitcoin’s security model and the growing Bitcoin-native economy emerging on Rootstock.
Connecting Bitcoin Security to a Growing Onchain Economy
Rootstock combines Bitcoin’s proof-of-work security with EVM-compatible smart contracts, enabling developers to build decentralized applications secured by Bitcoin hash power.
Today, the network supports more than 200 applications across decentralized finance, infrastructure, and payments, all powered by rBTC, Rootstock’s native token pegged 1:1 to Bitcoin.
As Bitcoin-native DeFi continues to grow, merge mining creates additional opportunities for miners to participate in the expanding Bitcoin economy beyond base-layer transaction fees alone.
Merge mining Rootstock enables miners to earn additional BTC-denominated income, paid in rBTC on Rootstock, without additional energy consumption or new hardware investment. By using the same hash power to help secure both Bitcoin and Rootstock, miners can participate in a growing Bitcoin economy with no changes to their existing mining setup.
This latest integration between Stratum V2 and Rootstock merge mining strengthens the connection between Bitcoin mining and Bitcoin-based financial infrastructure, helping extend Bitcoin’s utility while preserving its security foundations.
A Milestone for Miner Sovereignty
“The miner controls the merge mining and the miner gets paid for the merge mining,” said Alejandro De La Torre, CEO and Co-Founder of DMND. “More delegation of control to miners is our key support for further decentralisation of the Bitcoin ecosystem.”
Adrian Eidelman, Co-Founder of RootstockLabs, added:
“This latest news is a critical move towards increasing decentralization across both Bitcoin and Rootstock, ensuring that the miners who secure the network can also participate more directly in decision-making and rewards. DMND’s implementation of Stratum V2 is an important evolution in mining infrastructure that expands what’s possible for miners and brings us one step closer to making Bitcoin work for everyone.”
Expanding What’s Possible for Bitcoin Miners
The introduction of miner-controlled Rootstock merge mining represents another step toward a more open and participatory Bitcoin mining ecosystem.
By combining Stratum V2 infrastructure with Bitcoin-secured smart contracts, DMND and RootstockLabs are helping create new ways for miners to engage with the broader Bitcoin economy while reinforcing decentralization across both networks.
If you’re a miner or pool, you can read more about merge mining Rootstock here.
