When it comes to pools for mining digital currency, the English terms “mining” and “pool” should not be translated literally as “mining” and “pool”, since they have already acquired a stable meaning in the Russian language. The first type of activity is the generation of new blocks of electronic money in order to receive a reward for this. The second includes a special web service used to distribute computing power. Now let's look at this definition in more detail.

If a user starts mining tokens alone, in order to get at least some income, he will need to buy very expensive equipment. Pools are a completely different matter - the greater the number of miners who have joined the resource, the higher the hashrate it produces. In this way, not only Bitcoin is generated, but also other electronic money.

The service is designed as simply as possible and is a powerful computer (server) that divides the implementation of specific goals related to settlements between participants. Immediately after one of them manages to calculate the algorithm, a new block is created and users are rewarded with a certain amount of coins.

Mining pools provide the opportunity to generate a block payment and receive a cash reward with a higher probability than that of self-mining miners. The only drawback is that profits must be shared with all users of the resource.

The main requirement for these services is that the total computing power must be less than 51% of the entire network. This has already happened before with the Ghash pool. As a result, a certain number of its participants had to be suspended.

It was said earlier that a pool is a server that divides the calculation of algorithms among all its users. Each of them makes their own contribution, which is called a “share” (from the English word “share” - to share). It is enough for one of the balls to solve a complex algorithm for the portal to announce the generation of a new block with transactions. For this, the system accrues profit, which will subsequently be distributed among the site participants.

The payment for the created block is calculated for all shares, regardless of which of them took a direct part in solving the mathematical problem. This is how the fair distribution of earnings is determined. A miner, whose computing power may be insignificant, often carries out operations for a long time without achieving the required result. However, even though the new block was created by someone else, they will be given some portion of the total amount of coins received. He is rewarded for the existence of some probability that he could create a new block. In certain cases, it was his equipment that brought results.

It is important to know that certain balls are rejected over time. Some become outdated, due to which about 0.5-1.5% of the results are lost, and various technical errors also occur. The principle of reward distribution that mining pools use is as follows. There is a certain minimum value for the complexity of the ball (most often an integer power of two). When selecting complexity, they strive to maintain flow stability while simultaneously reducing traffic from the user. In current devices, the minimum value of this indicator ranges from 16 to 128. The optimal complexity for work is 64-512. It can be installed either manually by the miner itself or automatically by the server. The difficulty is intended only for record keeping within the pool and has no relation to its actual processing power.

Subsequently, all shares received from the participant are summed up over a certain period of time and multiplied by the operating complexity determined by the service. The final result looks like 1 miner sent a huge number of shares, each of which has an indicator of one. This principle is used to calculate earnings for each miner: the number of solutions with complexity 1 (Diff 1 shares). After solving the algorithms and receiving a profit from the resource (25 coins plus interest accrued for transactions), these funds are divided by the total number of balls with difficulty 1 that were received from all participants. The resulting value is then multiplied by the total number of solutions received from the miner.

As soon as at least 120 confirmations of the block generation are received, the reward is credited to the service account and then the coins are distributed among its participants. In some cases, a certain commission percentage is deducted. Some large mining pools pay out funds in advance and quite quickly, thereby attracting new users. When withdrawing funds, you have to pay a double commission - set by the resource, and interest for withdrawing money.

Each platform sets its own conditions and rules for transferring funds to its participants. As a service provider, the pool receives its share of the reward. The remaining funds are distributed among miners according to one of numerous schemes. Let's look at the most common ones:

1. PROP (from the word proportional). As the name suggests, the reward for the generated block is distributed in proportion to the number of shares received from the user. When it is created, the counter counting the number of shares purchased is reset to zero. Due to its simplicity, this system is practically free of disadvantages. However, there is still one thing – the instability of payments, which is usually inherent in small pools. If the mining period coincides with a long process of finding a solution to the problem, the profit may be insignificant. However, there are also so-called successful periods when the profit is significantly higher than the average according to the calculator.
2. PPLNS. Smoother proportional distribution of profits. This calculation system is one of the most complex, but at the same time one of the most effective, both for the pool itself and for miners who have been collaborating with it for a long time.

In this case, the payment is calculated not for a certain period of time elapsed between the generation of 2 blocks, but for a fixed period, which is called “shift” (from English - shift). Both the duration of these shifts and their number are determined by the resource itself.

Money is credited to miners' accounts after a block is generated. The dependence of the payment amount on the time period between the generation of 2 blocks is expressed much lower. If it is not possible to create a new block for a long time, the payment level increases. In the opposite situation, when new blocks are created quite often, the reward for them decreases. However, there is a period of time during which the amount of funds given as remuneration remains practically unchanged.

1. P.P.S. This payment method is fixed and easy to understand. The formula for calculating the size of payments contains a constant - the reward for the created block, multiplied by the number of shares sent by the pool participant. The resulting product is divided by the current value of the network complexity. This method seems to be the most fair for network participants, since the amount of payment depends not on the result, but on the work done. In this case, the fact of generating (or not generating) a block does not matter. For a resource, such a calculation option is unprofitable due to the high risks associated with a long period of block generation. Often the pool gives away funds in advance, but does not actually receive a profit. To compensate for the risks, such pools set a fairly high commission percentage - from 3 to 7 percent.

Those who strive for long-term cooperation will practically not feel the difference between using one or another system. However, it is logical to believe that the platform in which the commission is minimal or absent is the most profitable.

To select the most optimal mining pools, you should consider various resource characteristics. Some parameters will be listed below, however, not all good services that have received a lot of positive reviews for their stability meet them:

1. First of all, you need to refuse to choose a recently created pool, since its capacity will not be sufficient for good earnings.
2. Requirements for a network participant. For any such resource, the computing capabilities of the user's computer matter. You should evaluate your PC hardware and determine whether it meets the established criteria. For pools, video adapters are important. If the PC has a built-in video card or it is not powerful enough, the user's profit may be negligible. However, the information presented above only applies to those sites that use participant equipment.
3. The principle of distribution of received remuneration. One of the best options is to distribute the generated coins evenly. But this approach is practically not used. The most common profit distribution model is proportional. Before choosing one or another pool, you should familiarize yourself with this issue in detail.
4. How payments are calculated. Platforms can pay earnings to the miner both directly in digital coins and in other monetary units to an electronic wallet or even to a bank card.

Important! If mining pools require the user to have a powerful video adapter, or if electricity is quite expensive in the region where he lives, their use becomes impractical. In order to save on electricity bills, it is best to mine at night, when various benefits apply.

Most of these resources are in English, which, however, does not prevent users from actively mining cryptocurrency. So, a list of the most famous pools:

1. Mininggrirentals - launched in 2014. Provides the opportunity to rent computing power. Among the advantages of the site are open statistics, a small commission and stability of work. Among the disadvantages is that you can only mine Bitcoin.
2. - a very promising platform. Unlike the previous pool, here you can mine other types of digital currencies (Ethereum, Dash, and so on). The resource has an intuitive and simple interface. All earnings can be easily transferred to a cryptocurrency exchange or your own wallet. Deductions will be 1.5% of the payment amount.
3. Zpool is a resource for mining electronic coins located in America. Conversion operations are carried out automatically, which is extremely convenient for beginners in the field of mining. In addition, there is no need to register.
4. BitClub Network - started its work in 2014. Supports a wide range of coins - Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash and so on.

In addition to the resources mentioned above, platforms such as P2pool, Bitminer and Ozcoin should be highlighted.

Independent cryptocurrency mining will not bring enough profit. After all, a significant part of the income will be spent on the constant purchase of more and more powerful equipment and paying endless electricity bills. It was the complexity of the organization and the unprofitability of this process that led to the emergence of such a phenomenon as mining pools. By choosing them wisely, you can significantly reduce your existing expenses and increase your earnings.

Hello, dear miners. In this post I recommend cryptocurrency mining pools ( mining pool), which I still use to this day. I chose them for a number of reasons: a simple and clear interface of the site, low commission, automatic withdrawal and exchange for bitcoin at will, a wide variety of supported cryptocoins, timely payments, compliance with the real speed of the miner, detailed statistics. Experienced miners probably know about these, but now is the time for beginners to find out. So, let's start reviewing the best mining pools from my point of view:

I almost forgot to explain what pools actually are. This is a server center that unites the participants connected to it into a single network, distributing the calculation task between them. As soon as the desired block is found by common efforts, all miners receive a reward proportional to their contribution (mining power) to the overall process. Different pools have different production capacity, efficiency, and operational stability.

Mining pools use different methods to calculate your earnings:

• PPS pays for every share you contribute to the pool and also provides you with some payout stability
• PROP pays proportionally depending on the number of shares invested in the pool
• PPLNS pays users based on the last number of shares added

Mininggrirentals is a popular English-language online service for miners who do not have enough of their own resources to make money effectively. The service offers to rent “drilling rigs” (ASIC devices) for a reasonable amount and produce with their help. It has been operating since 2014 and has established itself as a reliable and convenient service for renting private facilities. Those. thanks to them, you rent not ephemeral power, as with cloud mining, but a specific rig or ASIC from a person who wants to give it to other people for mining. MiningRigRentals takes its commission from each transaction, providing a convenient tool for selecting and monitoring the capacity offered for rent for many crypto algorithms. The site also provides accounting and statistics on the mining process.

Multi pools for mining - review

Minergate is the most popular reliable high-power multipool. I mine cryptonote algorithm coins on it, you can also mine ethereum, bitcoin gold, zcash and other crypto coins. The interface of the site and personal account is simple and clear, there is support for Russian and other languages. All links to mining programs and setup information are present. There is also a convenient universal miner from the creators of the service. It is installed on your PC and automatically mines the most profitable forks. I have more than once withdrawn what I got directly to the stock exchange (you can also transfer it to your personal wallet). There were no problems with this. The pool commission is only 1-1.5%.

Zpool.ca - American multipool for mining provides stable and stable operation on various algorithms and scripts. This multipool presents a colossal number of forks and algorithms. Earnings are withdrawn in BTC (satoshi). All exchange/yield transactions within a given period of time occur automatically! Very good profitability of the multipool is ensured by a unique script on which an entire laboratory of programmers worked. Switching between crypts occurs with virtually no drop in speed. Payments starting from 0.005btc are made automatically every 6 hours, payments larger than 0.0005 are paid once a week on Sundays.

Nicehash is a large mining service that has been proven over the years. It can be used as a multipool for your own or purchased capacities. Or you can rent power and connect to any others. Income for all participants is paid in bitcoin. Recently it was subject to a serious hacker attack, but has resumed work and promises to return money to users.

Important! Mining most altcoins is absolutely not profitable given the high cost of video cards and electricity!

If you live in places with high electricity bills, then I advise you to mine during the reduced tariff, i.e. at night. If you don’t have a powerful video card and the ability to significantly reduce your electricity bill, I don’t advise you to get down to business - mining pools won’t help. Get pennies, and pay back the cost of the video card no earlier than in 7-10 months!

2Miners.ru is a multi-currency pool for mining coins using the Dagger Hashimoto (Ethash) and Equihash algorithms. The pool is unique in many ways. All cryptocurrencies have the possibility of SOLO mining. 2Miners is the first pool that, in addition to detailed statistics on the site, provides Telegram bots that monitor farms and notify about new blocks. The code was written from scratch by professional developers, experts in the field of blockchain and mining. The pool is constantly being “pumped up”: existing functionality is improved and new crypto coins are added for mining. For those who rent power on Nicehash, the mining pool for each coin has a separate port that operates on a protocol that is fully compatible with Nicehash. Mining pool is officially recommended by Nicehash, Ethereum Classic, Zclassic, Hush, Pirl cryptocurrencies. Unlike most, 2Miners provides technical support 24/7 on the website, via Telegram and Slack. No registration required.

What is a mining pool and how does it work.

At the dawn of the development of mining, the complexity of cryptocurrency mining and the total hashrate of the network made it possible to mine coins even without specialized equipment. The computing power of the processor, and later the video card, was enough to sign a block and receive a reward for it. However, the development of mining equipment and the rapid increase in complexity led to the emergence of the following concepts:

• Solo mining. Cryptocurrency mining alone only on your own equipment. In solo mining, the miner keeps the entire block reward for himself.
• Mining in a pool. A pool is a combination of the equipment power of many miners at once to increase the probability of finding a block. The reward for a block mined by the pool is distributed among all participants.

A mining pool is a server that divides the large task of calculating a block signature into small tasks and distributes them to connected devices. The contribution to the overall work of each miner participating in the pool is assessed using a “share” (from the English “share”).

“Share” is a small part of the work of finding a solution to the hash function for signing a block, which is issued by the pool to the miner. When collecting shares from miners, the pool server checks their validity. As soon as any “share” satisfies the current difficulty values, the pool server announces the signing of the block. After this, the pool receives the reward for the block and distributes it among the miners in proportion to the number of shares transferred, regardless of whether the block signer was among them.

Creating a mining pool is a full-fledged business. The owner of the pool makes money by charging a commission on the coins mined by the participants. As a rule, the pool commission varies from 0.3% to 1-2%. In addition to the “official” earnings in the form of a commission on income, mining pools are often noticed to underestimate the computing power expended by the miner. It’s easy to guess that a centralized pool has many opportunities to manipulate miners’ hashrate. In fact, this is an additional hidden commission for participating in the pool. Its size ranges from 0% (for honest pools) to 10% or more (for pools that deceive their participants).

Despite the relative simplicity of creating a pool, it is still a complex business. From a technical point of view, a pool is just a dedicated server with not the most complex software. To create a pool, you can use ready-made templates and step-by-step instructions. But the difficulty lies in attracting participants. Large pools were either one of the first and quickly became popular, or were built around large private farms, offering attractive conditions to participants.

For example, one of the world's largest Chinese bitcoin mining pools, Antpool, is closely associated with ASIC manufacturer Bitmain.

Why are mining pools created? Why is it harder to mine alone?

All cryptocurrencies that are issued through mining using the proof-of-work principle have a difficulty indicator. Mining difficulty depends on the number of devices involved in mining and reflects the likelihood of a miner finding a reward. The difficulty increases as new miners arrive, automatically adjusting so that a new block is added every few minutes. This means that competition is growing for the never changing size of the reward for a block attached to the blockchain. Increased competition leads to a decrease in the likelihood of receiving a reward when mining on your own.

For example, the average time to search for a signature when solo mining Bitcoin or Ethereum, even on the most powerful equipment, due to the incredible complexity, is close to several years! But this is an average estimated time, and in reality the process can take many years.

A mining pool, combining the efforts of thousands of cryptocurrency miners, significantly reduces the time to receive a reward. A miner, even with simple equipment, who spends a long time solving “balls” and not finding a single block, still receives a reward.

The greater the computing power of the pool participants’ equipment, the higher the “pool luck” indicator. Luck shows how likely the pool is to sign the next block. Large associations sign blocks (and, therefore, receive currency coins) more often, small pools less often.

Mining pools created for cryptocurrencies:

• Bitcoin;
• Bitcoin Cash;
• Ethereum;
• Dash;
• Monero;
• Zcash;
• Litecoin;
• And other altcoins;

Pool name	Link to official website
Bitcoin Pools
BTC.com	BTC.com
AntPool	antpool.com
BTC.TOP	BTC.TOP
ViaBTC	pool.viabtc.com
F2Pool	f2pool.com
SlushPool	slushpool.com
Bitcoin cash pools
Viabtc	pool.viabtc.com
AntPool	antpool.com
Ethereum Pools
Ethermine	www.ethermine.org
Nanopool	nanopool.org
Mining Pool Hub	miningpoolhub.com
DwarfPool	www.dwarfpool.com/eth
Open Ethereum Pool	www.eth.poolto.be
CoinoTron	www.coinotron.com
Monero Pools
Pool aggregator for XMR mining	moneropools.com
Zcash pools
Nanopool	nanopool.org
Suprnova	ZEC.suprnova.cc
Baikalmine	baikalmine.ru
Litecoin Pools
Antpool	antpool.com
F2Pool	f2pool.com
LitecoinPool	LitecoinPool.org
LTC.top	ltc.btc.top
ProHashing	prohashing.com
B.W.	ltc.bw.com/pool/i

For novice miners, mining on multipools can be a useful solution. One of these pools is the popular NiceHash. The peculiarity is that it automatically changes the mined cryptocurrency if profitability changes. Due to the algorithm for changing currencies, payouts sometimes exceed income from regular pools.

Advantages of NiceHash:

• No need to edit or configure bat files;
• Automatic sale of altcoins, which simplifies the receipt of fiat from mining unpopular currencies;
• The miner does not need to monitor changes in rate and difficulty to mine the most profitable coins;

Disadvantages of NiceHash:

• Relatively high commissions;
• All payments are in bitcoins (it will not be possible to receive promising altcoins to your wallet);

How mining pools are created. Which pool is better to choose?

The algorithm for creating a mining pool can be described as follows:

1. Software creation. Writing good pool script code requires a lot of time and money. Beginning pool creators often use ready-made open source templates with minor adjustments. But it is impossible to build a serious project on such scripts due to low security. As the popularity of the pool grows, the first difficulties will appear. Problems will most likely be associated either with hackers, or with hidden algorithms built into the code that steal miners’ hashrate.
2. Creating a server. To set up a server for a mining pool, you will need serious financial investments. To create a stable pool, dedicated servers are rented or server equipment is specially purchased. Important features of the server should be high performance and fault tolerance. A separate expense item will be a wide and stable communication channel, as well as staff salaries. The mining pool staff will include, at a minimum, a system administrator and a technical support specialist.
3. Pool promotion. Marketing, advertising and promotion costs will eat up most of the budget. This is due to high competition among mining pools. It is very difficult for a beginner to compete on equal terms with the monsters that appeared at the dawn of the crypto fever and combine 5-10-15% of the network hashrate. Moreover, the centralization of mining in several large pools is typical for all currencies. The only way out may be to provide miners with unique services and focus on working with little-known and unpromoted cryptocurrencies.

The presence of competition between pools is disadvantageous for creators, but very beneficial for miners. In pursuit of attracting new users, pool owners create favorable opportunities. When choosing a pool, a miner focuses on:

Pool power.

The luck of the pool depends on how much computing power the pool pools. The more miners mine currency in a pool, the higher the probability of finding a block. If you are mining Bitcoin and choose a pool with a hashrate of only a few tens of terahashes, then receiving your first money will take a long time.

Studying reviews of mining pools on the Internet saves time and money. As a rule, it is easy to find negative reviews about dishonest and simply scammed services. You can get free, but truthful, reviews and recommendations from experienced miners on specialized crypto sites. The following forums are popular in RuNet:

• bitcointalk.org;
• forum.bits.media;

Pool commissions.

A very important criterion for evaluating a pool. The pool commission is that part of the income from mined coins that the server owner keeps for himself. High fees make cryptocurrency mining unprofitable. On average, the pool reward is 0.3-2%.

Frequency and minimum size of payments.

Many pools limit minimum payouts and frequency of withdrawals. This nuance is important if the miner has low-performance equipment. Accumulation of the minimum amount for payment may take a while.

Pool testing.

The most reliable way to evaluate a pool is to test it yourself. Checking the pool allows you to understand how efficiently your mining equipment is working. To test the pool, connect the equipment to the service for 2-3 days and measure the results. Having performed such a simple operation with several pools, the miner selects the most profitable and interesting options.

Where can I find up-to-date information about pools?

Link	What currencies	Description
blockchain.info/ru/pools	Bitcoin (and some other forks based on the SHA-256 algorithm)	The link provides a constantly updated rating of the world's largest pools for Bitcoin mining
etcchain.com/pool	Ethereum	Rating of the largest pools for ether mining
moneropools.com	Monero	The best pools for mining monero. It is recommended to select services with more than 1000 miners.
litecoinpool.org/pools	Litecoin	Rating of the largest pools for mining the Litecoin coin
bitmakler.com/pools	All cryptocurrencies	An aggregator site that contains pools for mining most coins.

Largest Bitcoin mining pools:

The largest Ethereum mining pools:

How to connect to Ethereum mining. Step-by-step instructions with pictures.

Let's consider a step-by-step algorithm for starting mining using the Ethereum cryptocurrency as an example. To mine ether you will need:

• Ethereum wallet;
• Video cards with memory from 4 GB;
• Mining pool;

In our example, we will consider mining on the Ethermine pool, which is consistently among the top five largest in Ethereum mining. In fact, the choice of pool does not play a big role, since the process of connecting to mining is very similar across different pools.

1. Installation of the miner.

Special programs – miners – have been developed for the extraction of cryptocurrency. In Ether mining, one of the following miner programs is most often used:

• Claymore (official program thread with current updates on the Bitcointalk forum https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1433925.0);
• Ethminer (the latest version can be downloaded on GitHub at https://github.com/ethereum-mining/ethminer/releases);

These miners work with all pools.

2. We are looking for information to connect to the pool.

To connect to a mining pool, you need to specify the pool server data in the miner program. This information is located on the pool website. For example, the creators of Ethermine placed the data on the main page in the “how to connect” section:

3. Set up the miner program.

The setup principle for the two programs is similar. Let's look at the setup using the Claymore miner as an example. After downloading the archive with the program to your computer, we find the start file with the extension .bat.

Open the file in Notepad and copy the connection data from the pool site into it.

100 % %

From the article you will learn about which mining pools top the 2017 rating, the features of mining cryptocoins in them, and how to choose a profitable pool for mining bitcoins.

Mining pools: mining features

It is believed that mining digital coins is more profitable than buying them. If we consider the most popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin, then the current level of difficulty in its mining is so high that it is no longer possible to make a profit in solo mining. Modern group mining technologies allow users to pool resources to increase the probability of mining satoshi by jointly solving blocks. As a result, the received reward is divided between participants depending on the payment system used by the service.

How to choose a profitable pool: instructions for the user

In 2017, there are more than 1,500 cryptocurrency mining pools. All of them differ from each other not only in interfaces and information content, but also in power, types of currencies that can be mined, reward distribution system and service commissions.

Before choosing a profitable Bitcoin mining pool, you should first look at its reputation. Experts do not recommend joining little-known services that have appeared relatively recently, even if the working conditions with them are much more attractive. There is a risk of running into scammers. It is better to trust resources that already have a proven reputation over the years and positive user reviews.

There are both multi-pools providing the possibility The importance of mining different types of cryptocurrencies, as well as services that work with the mining of only a certain type of virtual currency, as a rule, these are the popular digital coins Bitcoin or LiteCoin. The first option allows you to switch to mining certain types of coins if their profitability increases. The second option is suitable for those who have the appropriate equipment and want to bypass the commission of exchangers.

Another criterion that I recommend you pay attention to is the types of payments. Otherwise, you may lose out on potential profits. In 2017, pools offer up to 13 different payout methods. But they are more popular three main options:

• PPS – the service pays for each share of a pool participant;
• PROP – payments are made proportionally, depending on the participant’s share;
• PPLNS – participants receive profit relative to the last number of invested shares.

Another rule for choosing a pool that is beneficial for yourself is that it matches the goal that the user sets for himself. For example, if the appropriate equipment is available, it would not be advisable for you to waste time on low fractions.

Also, when choosing a service, you should be guided by the distribution of hashrate over the Bitcoin network and monitor popular pools.

For some users, the platform on which the pool is created is important. As a rule, these are P2pool, NOMP, MPOS. Lists of pools operating on a particular platform can be found in the general ratings.

TOP 8 pools for Bitcoin mining

Since the advent of the possibility of joining a group of users to receive cryptocurrency, hundreds of pools have been created and ceased to exist, reward distribution systems and communication protocols have been changed and improved. Today the picture is much more stable. For quite a long time, the leading positions have been held by the five largest resources for joint coin mining, and by the way, they do this by a wide margin. The largest pools for Bitcoin mining as of 2016 are located in China. And this year they hold the leading position. It is with them that it is worth starting a short review of popular pools for mining Bitcoin coins.

F2Pool (Discus fish)

A Chinese project that has been operating since 2013. This is the only leading service that works with the PPS payment system, the resource commission is 4%. It is this leader that currently holds about 20% of the network hashrate. If possible, it is best to withdraw profits immediately. In accordance with the terms of the service, all funds stored on the internal balance for more than 90 days are written off without warning in favor of the project.

AntPool

A service owned by the largest Chinese company Bitmaintech, which produces computer equipment for mining. AntPool is on par with F2Pool, its power is about 18%. There is a Russified interface. Uses PPLNS without commission; if desired, you can choose PPS, while the service commission is 2.5%. The project attracts many participants with additional features, such as solo mining and a node with F2Pool.

BTC China

The owner is a Chinese corporation of the same name. Has 10-12% of the network hashrate. Only a client of the exchange can become a participant. It does not have a Russified interface, even translation into English is limited, so the amount of information for the user is small.

BW pool

Mining pool of Bitcoin coins, having 7-9% of the network capacity. The interface is partially Russified. PPLNS profit accrual system, no service commission.

Bitfury

The only project in the top five that is not located in China. The owner is a company of the same name, which produces equipment for its own data centers located in Iceland and Georgia. Third-party access to the service is closed. It accounts for about 15% of the Bitcoin network hashrate. In addition, Bitfury leads in the number of investments received. For the year the amount exceeds 60 million dollars. Almost all of them are used for the development, construction and maintenance of data centers.

The top five own more than 50% of the power of the Bitcoin network, the rest of the pools included in the TOP 2017 have a hashrate of no more than 5%. But according to user reviews, they are no less reliable, and also have an expanded range of functions, so they deserve attention.

Slush

The world's first mining pool, which has been operating since 2010. At the moment, it accounts for about 5% of the total hashing power of the network. Since Slush did not strive to make the project commercially viable, its share among similar resources has recently decreased significantly. Despite this, the developers are constantly working on improvements; Zcash support was recently added. Uses its own payment system combining PROP and PPLNS. Service commission – 2%. Supports mining of Bitcoin and Namecoin cryptocurrencies. During its work, it has earned an excellent reputation and has never let users down.

Eligius

It accounts for about 4% of the network capacity. To mine coins, you do not need to create an account on the service. The Bitcoin wallet address is used as a login, and profits will be transferred to it. Payment system – CPPSRB, modification of PPS. There are no commissions, since the peculiarities of the payment system remove risks from the operator.

Ghash.io

This multicurrency pool is available in the bookmarks of most miners. He has been working not so long, but has already managed to gain trust. It has repeatedly reached the 50% level, but today it has only 2-3% of the network hashrate. The reason for the decline was largely the creation of our own pool and the stop of cloud mining (which worked previously). Participants have the opportunity to change the coin generation setting at any time and continue mining in real time. Convenient exchanger for mined cryptocurrency. PPLNS reward system, no service commission.

Bitminter

An old pool that has been operating steadily since 2011. For authentication, you can use your social network account. Ideal for beginner miners. The reward is calculated using the PPLNS system, the resource commission is 1%.

It is also worth saying a few words about projects that account for about 20% of the Bitcoin network hashrate, but are closed to ordinary users. They work only with a certain circle of investors. These include:

• KnCMiner– it accounts for about 5% of the network hashrate. It belongs to the Swedish company of the same name, which produces mining equipment, but currently positions itself as a supplier of Bitcoin transaction processing technology. The pool continues to expand its potential. Not long ago, KnCMiner announced the start of construction of new data centers. There is no public access to the service. Essentially, it is a private pool in which the company that owns it mines cryptocurrency for itself.
• 21 Inc- a closed pool, which, according to rumors from users, was created with funds from large American venture funds and is located in Silicon Valley. Today it accounts for 4% of the network's capacity.

In addition to standard services for mining electronic crypto coins, you can use pools for mining bitcoins on mobile gadgets with CO Android. To do this, just download the application on the Play Market and start the Satoshi mining process.

Mining crypto coins alone is quite a profitable activity, but for most miners this option is unacceptable. With this approach, you do all the work yourself, and all the block rewards belong to you. The problem is that the miner relies heavily on luck, meaning if your computing power is not strong enough, you may never get the reward. When mining as part of a pool, this probability is reduced to zero, since you receive a reward proportional to the work done.

If you want to join a mining poolor other coins, there are several factors to consider, such as the block reward distribution method and the size of the pool management fee.

Let's look at some aspects of shared mining to help you choose the most suitable pool.

Mining pool fee

The main thing to consider is the commission. It may differ depending on the reward distribution scheme used and determines which party assumes the risks - the miners or the pool operator. If the risks fall on the operator, the commission will be higher, and if on the miner, it will be lower.

Typically, the commission ranges from 0% to 4%. Usually it is 1%. If you see that a pool is asking for more, take a closer look at its payment distribution scheme and other characteristics. If there is another pool with similar characteristics and distribution scheme, but with a lower commission, choose it.

Sometimes pools apply zero commission. This happens infrequently and means that you are dealing with a new pool that, due to the lack of commissions, is trying to attract customers. However, someactually exist through donations. If you see a 0% commission, be careful: it may change over time.

Pool payment system

The model, in which the mining pool operator assumes all the risks, assumes that the miner is guaranteed to receive payment for each proof of work, i.e., for each possible hash solution. For example, if the total network is 100 GH, the PPS pool has a hash rate of 10 GH, and the block reward is 25 BTC, then the estimated return will be 2.5 BTC per block.

The pool will give money to its miners, even if the block is not successfully mined, that is, the risks are borne by the operator, so commissions in this case are higher and can reach up to 10%. Thus, miners will only receive 2.25 bitcoins per block, which will be distributed among them in proportion to the contribution of the hashing power used for hashing.

When the risks are transferred to the miners, the commission is usually lower. In this case, the block may not be mined for a long time, and users will not receive a reward.

To maintain stable pool hashing power, different distribution schemes are used:

Proportional is the simplest scheme, in which the reward for each block is distributed among miners in proportion to their contribution to the hashing process.

Pay for last N shares (PPLNS) - takes into account the last N shares, not just the last block. This model is designed to smooth out the profitability of operators, if for some reason they did not work. If such an operator made the main contribution to the mining of blocks 1-6, but then did not participate in the mining of block 7 (for reasons beyond his control), then he is still due a reward for the last block, and its size will depend on the contribution to the previous N blocks .

You can also find other, more complex distribution schemes. For example, the double geometric DGM method, in which the operator receives payment at short intervals and distributes it at longer intervals. In some cases, more recent proofs of work may be given higher weights, which affects the distribution.

Some pools apply an additional fee on top of the PPS, but the total fee ranges from 0% for PPLNS to 10% for PPS. Some pools make it possible to mine two different currencies at the same time, for example.

Thus, many different payment systems have already been developed. Most pools that mine “alternative coins” (not Bitcoin) use a proportional system.

Among other things, it is necessary to take into account the minimum payment amount. This is the minimum number of coins that can be withdrawn. Some pools allow you to set a limit value for automatic withdrawal (above the minimum), which makes it possible to save on transaction fees. When choosing a mining pool, you need to find out the minimum payout size, the payout period, and who pays the withdrawal transaction fee - the user or the pool.

The most important criterion for choosing a pool is the type of currency you are going to mine. The most popular currently are, Ethereum and Ethereum Classic. Their extraction is now the most profitable.

Some pools allow the so-called merge mining (Merge Mining), in which the user can mine two cryptocurrencies at the same time, without compromising the performance of each of them. But not all algorithms allow you to do this.

Another type of pool that is worth mentioning is multipool. It allows you to choose one of several cryptocurrencies for mining and automatically exchange the profits for bitcoins. If you need Bitcoin but would like to mine other currencies, this is the option for you.

Pool location

If you are in Europe but mining on a Chinese server, the results will not be the best. Find out if the pool you choose has servers in your country or region. If yes, then use the addresses of these servers. This will make the mining process more efficient.

Variable difficulty (Vardiff)

Vardiff is short for Variable Difficulty. This term refers to the regulation of work difficulty. This benefits miners with both high and low hash rates, as the difficulty is adjusted to the capabilities of the individual user. While some pools use Vardiff, others simply run multiple ports for different difficulty levels. If your chosen pool doesn't have Vardiff, it makes sense to try different ports to find the difficulty that's best for you.

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