Japan\'s massive SBI Group, which has a portfolio of some 61 companies under its corporate umbrella, has started mining Bitcoin Cash (BCH) using the Bitcoin mining pool. Bitcoin announced the news on February 12th that SBI had begun mining the previous day. The mining process for Bitcoin is hugely competitive, since cryptocurrency coins and transaction fees are awarded to the first miner correctly to solve the algorithm puzzle. Very few individuals now have the computational power to solve these puzzles individually, which is why there are now mining \"farms\" and collaborative pools.

A pool can bring together miners worldwide to combine their hashrate (the speed at which the computers can solve the problem). A combined hashrate has higher power and greater speed, and is thus more likely to get the problem solved before individual competitors. For a corporate giant like SBI to start pool mining poses a threat to the smaller competitor, since SBI could pool all its considerable resources and not have to share the rewards.

The SBI Group, which includes companies involved in FinTech, Asset Management and Insurance, have been developing a cryptocurrency policy over recent months, and recently partnered with Ripple to form Ripple Asia. SBI Holdings has also set up an SBI AI and Blockchain Fund to invest in the emerging technology.