Measure first
Claims require evidence and an equivalent-work baseline.
Bitcoin Proof-of-Work LaboratoryOpen research into
Open research into
Bitcoin Proof-of-Work.
We investigate Bitcoin mining from first principles — SHA-256, search structure, ASIC behavior, mining protocols and computational efficiency.
Everything is measured. Results are published. Negative results included.
How a PoW candidate is evaluatedconceptual diagram
01Build candidate
→Block header + nonce
nonce: changing value02Compute hash
→Apply double SHA-256
SHA256(SHA256(header))03Compare with target
Hash ≤ target: valid
otherwise: reject Live infrastructure / BTC PoW Lab Pool
BTC PoW Lab Pool is now online.
BTC PoW Lab's Hybrid Solo pool now has a public website and an open Stratum endpoint. If our experiments demonstrate a genuine, reproducible and end-to-end profitable mining advantage, we will incorporate it in a controlled way and exclusively within our own pool.
The research lab and production engine remain separate: a strategy enters only after passing validation, never merely because it is experimental.Foundational scientific question
Could exact Bitcoin mining ever require less total work?
No general proof establishes that every mathematically exact alternative must cost at least as much as the conventional full double-SHA-256 search in every valid mining context. That absence of an impossibility proof is not evidence that a cheaper method exists. It is the open, falsifiable question that motivates these experiments.
We test whether lawful structure can reduce expected end-to-end cost per valid result after setup, memory, control, verification and hardware overhead are counted. Some studies close quickly; others require continuous runs, replication and ASIC measurements lasting weeks or even months.
Research principles
Research without hype.
We separate mathematical interest, statistical signal and operational mining advantage. They are not interchangeable.
Publish negative results
A failed hypothesis is still useful knowledge.
Reproduce
Results should be independently verifiable when safe.
End-to-end economics
A local shortcut is irrelevant if overhead destroys the gain.
ASIC reality
Real hardware is the final benchmark, not simulation alone.
Current programs
All research ↗Active research.
01ACTIVE↗02ACTIVE↗03ACTIVE↗04EXPERIMENTAL↗05PLANNED↗
Advantage Decomposition
Separating exact local structure from full implementation cost.
Exact SHA-256 constraints
Testing deterministic relations and their composability.
S9 Live ASIC Experiments
Preparing stock-hardware validation and telemetry.
Header / candidate scheduling
Studying legal job fields and contextual capability classes.
Quantum PoW
Classical baselines first; hybrid experiments only when measurable.
Research journal
Results, including the inconvenient ones.
Every publication carries an explicit claim status. A statistical signal is never labeled as faster mining.
LOWSET-01EXPERIMENTAL
Search
Low-set statistical signal and operational gate
A repeatable statistical signal survived audit, but its implementation did not pass the preregistered operational cost gate.
Audited hashes68.72B
Observed ratio1.515×
Operational gateFAILED
PRED-01NEGATIVE
SHA-256
Forward prediction of early hash outcomes
A preregistered early-prediction model performed at random discrimination on held-out data.
Validation AUC≈0.5025
Test AUC≈0.4998
VerdictNEGATIVE
REL-01VALIDATED
SHA-256
Exact A3/E3 modular relations
One million checks confirmed exact modular relations around the W3-dependent state.
Checks1,000,000
Discrepancies0
RelationEXACT
Canonical experiment logSeventy-five experiments.
Seventy-five experiments.
One evidence trail.
The first 75 Advantage Decomposition experiments are published with hypothesis, scientific basis, mathematics, method, outcome, validation and limitations.
Read the experiment log