Braiins is not identical to the pool Marek Palatinus founded in 2010. It became the pool’s operator and owner, while also developing Braiins OS, mining management tools and contributing to open Stratum V2.
Braiins is a bitcoin-mining company. Braiins Pool is its operated service, Braiins OS is ASIC firmware, and Stratum V2 is an open communications protocol; collapsing them into one thing misstates ownership and technical roles. [Braiins — company history] [Braiins Pool — current product page]
Jan Čapek and Pavel Moravec founded Braiins in Prague in 2011 after careers in banking IT and embedded engineering. Marek Palatinus introduced them to Bitcoin, but had independently launched Bitcoin.cz Mining Pool in December 2010. [Braiins — company history] [Original Bitcoin pooled mining announcement]
After about 3,000 BTC were stolen from the pool wallet in the March 2012 Linode breach, a specialized team became urgent. In 2013 Braiins acquired a majority stake and took over 100% of pool development and operations. [Braiins — company history] [Braiins — acquisition of the pool's remaining stake] [Trezor — Linode breach and hardware-wallet context]
Braiins strengthened infrastructure, monitoring and payouts. Bitcoin.cz Mining Pool became Slush Pool in 2016; on 1 September 2020 the company acquired Marek Palatinus’s remaining stake, then renamed the service Braiins Pool in 2022. [Braiins — company history] [Braiins — acquisition of the pool's remaining stake] [CoinDesk — Braiins and Slush Pool rebranding]
In 2018 Braiins verified overt AsicBoost on the Antminer S9, published BIP 310 for version rolling in Stratum V1, and released the first open Braiins OS. The firmware changes ASIC control; it does not change Bitcoin consensus. [Braiins — company history] [Braiins OS — current firmware page] [BIP 310 — Stratum protocol extensions]
Braiins prepared the Stratum V2 specification in 2019 with Bitcoin developer Matt Corallo and outside security review. It targets security, efficiency and job negotiation; it is an open collaborative protocol, not solely a proprietary Braiins product. [Braiins — company history] [Braiins Academy — Stratum V2 manual] [Stratum V2 specification repository]
A commercial firmware branch added autotuning in 2020 to seek chip settings for a selected power target, alongside the BOSminer mining process. Outcomes depend on hardware, cooling and electricity, so performance claims are not universal guarantees. [Braiins — company history] [Braiins OS — current firmware page]
After 2022 the brand grouped pool, firmware, proxy, Toolbox, remote management and education. The pool moved to FPPS in 2023 and added Lightning payouts in 2024; the current product set can change and each component has separate terms. [Braiins — company history] [Braiins Pool — current product page] [Braiins Manager — mining management]
A pool smooths reward variance but requires trust in accounting, payouts and block-template policy. Firmware may improve efficiency while adding licensing, fees and operational risk. Stratum V2 can reduce some dependencies but does not erase them automatically. [Braiins Pool — current product page] [Braiins OS — current firmware page] [Braiins Academy — Stratum V2 manual]
Braiins matters as Czech-operated infrastructure with global reach: taking over the first pool, developing open ASIC firmware and helping standardize mining communications. Credit must remain divided among Palatinus, the Braiins team and wider contributors. [Braiins — company history] [Braiins — acquisition of the pool's remaining stake] [Stratum V2 specification repository]
For the clearest picture, read this entry together with Braiins Pool, Mining Pool, Bitcoin, Mining, ASIC Miner, Stratum V1. The reverse links also lead from ASIC Miner, Prague Bitcoin ecosystem, Braiins Pool, Stratum V2.