Indeed, we have no direct proof that Bitmain were using their ASIC Boost mining, despite all the implications. I guess that's why this technique is labelled covert.


The closest to actual proof we can attain is more correlation without causation type of evidence: will Antpool empty & near-empty blocks suddenly stop happening once the flag day for the ASIC boost BIP becomes activated? That would increase the suspicion, and nothing more. Antpool's hashrate may drop by the vaunted 20-30%, but they could easily mask that by carefully staging future hashrate rollout that was already planned to make their hashrate appear unchanged. If that were the case, I hope they work hard on this camouflaging job