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.

Differences between solo mining and pool mining

First, a little theory: solo mining is an independent search for a solution. You yourself collect transactions into a block, sign and receive a reward for this determined by the algorithm, and also receive commissions from transfers. But you should remember that without a found nonce value, the block will not be closed, and if another miner found this value, then he will receive the reward for the block.

Therefore, for some miners it makes sense to join a pool in which each miner, according to his power, is tasked with finding the nonce value in a certain interval. Having completed this task, the miner receives the following, and so on continuously. In the vast majority of pools, the block reward is distributed evenly among all miners according to their power.

This is roughly how you can describe the differences between pool and solo mining in simple language. Next, using specific examples, we will look at how this happens and what conditions are needed for independent mining and why it is better for a novice miner to start mining as part of a pool.

Disadvantages of solo mining

Today, only new cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrencies with low capitalization can be solo mined, since the network complexity of such cryptocurrencies has not reached prohibitive levels. The chances of finding a block on your own are with such monsters of the cryptocurrency world asor ether are practically zero. For example, if you currently have 1 Pth/s power available on the SHA-256 algorithm, then you will need about 200 days, without taking into account changes in network complexity, in order to find one block of Bitcoin with a probability of 95%, i.e. .e. It is not yet a fact that the block will be found. And for your efforts you will receive 12.5 bitcoins. This is, of course, a good reward taking into account the current exchange rate, but you will also have to invest about 150,000 - 200,000 dollars only in, not to mention the costs of electricity and other related costs for servicing miners. To be guaranteed to find blocks every day, you need 10 or even 100 times the hashrate. Therefore, to achieve a higher probability of finding a block, users with low hashrate join into pools and mine cryptocurrency through joint efforts.

Most of today's pools were created at the dawn of the cryptocurrency boom, when solo Bitcoin mining could be done from a personal computer. The power of the network grew and it was necessary to unite to increase the probability of finding a block. As a rule, the initiator was the users with the highest hashrate, which was already enough for solo mining, but they saw how quickly the complexity of the network was growing and understood that very soon even a thousand computers would not be enough to find a block with a high degree of probability, which means that the resources allocated for this very search will be spent in vain.

The situation with cryptocurrency mining on video cards and processors is similar. And although the attempt to transfer mining back to video cards was aimed precisely at returning mining to ordinary users, the availability of capital still plays a decisive role. That is why the difficulty of mining increases every day and this reduces the income of miners.

At the moment, even farm owners with 50-100 video cards mine in a pool, although the probability of finding a block is very high and, in principle, many mine on their own with a couple of dozen video cards. But due to the increasing complexity of the network, they have to constantly upgrade equipment or purchase additional capacity.

Since the beginning of 2017, the complexity of the network of major cryptocurrencies has increased several times: Bitcoin about 4 times, Ether almost 30 times, Litecoin more than 15 times, and Dash almost 150 times.

The complexity of the network is growing due to the ever-increasing number of miners, as well as due to technological progress. Every few years, new chips are developed and introduced that are faster and more energy efficient. This means that the new equipment will be more efficient and the one who can take possession of it first will get more than the rest.

Conclusion

One thing is certain: if you do not have several hundred thousand dollars that you can afford to invest in mining equipment, then you should forget about solo mining of popular cryptocurrencies with high value and capitalization. There is also no point in trying to mine using a regular desktop computer or, especially, a laptop, even in a pool. At best, you will pay for the electricity. However, you can try to mine lesser-known cryptocurrencies, such as Bytecoin or DigitalNote, in the expectation that in the foreseeable future these coins will grow 10-20 times, but even in this situation, it is easier to buy than to wear out equipment that will never pay off due to such mining.

Well, if you have a certain amount (about $3,000) that you want to invest in mining, then join the pool, and if you are not sure about mining, then and then you will be guaranteed to receive income.

Stay up to date with all the important events of United Traders - subscribe to our

Mining pools. Today, there are many types of cryptocurrency, which even professional experts can get confused about. But no less interesting are the methods of mining cryptocurrency. The most effective method is mining in pools. By uniting with other network participants in special groups, miners sum up their power and thereby increase the likelihood of finding a block. The chance of solving the problem increases noticeably, and the reward for mining a new block is divided among all participants, according to the resources spent. This review will focus on the most popular mining pools.

Best mining pools

Let's look at the most famous pools for cryptocurrency mining:

• AntPool - Chinese system. It accounts for 18% of all computing power units in the world. There is support for a Russian-language interface. Payment - in different ways. Withdrawal of funds without paying a commission.
• P2Pool — This is a decentralized pool, each node of which is a component. Registration on the pool is not required. The only pool that has 100% protection against DDOS
• Bitfury - One of the best. The centers are located in Iceland. The pool earns digital currency; strangers do not have access to the system. Controls 15% of the Bitcoin system.
• BTC China – Chinese development without a Russian-language version takes up from 10 to 13% of all units of computing power. Users use this system very rarely.
• BW pool – A server from China, allows you to earn digital currency on the Internet, takes up 9% of the system’s supply. Payment is carried out by the PPLNS network, there is no commission.
• — Kryptex pool is a program that is installed on a computer. The profitability of mining depends entirely on the computer used, as well as on the current Bitcoin exchange rate. You can withdraw your earnings using the QIWI payment system, as well as by direct transfer to your Bitcoin wallet.

Key features of MinerGate:

• One of the most profitable crypto pools
• Very convenient management of the cross-platform miner
• Possibility of combined production
• Compatible with all crypto miners

MinerGate rightfully deserves its popularity, since very few services can boast of such a level of development. In addition, this is the first pool of its kind to offer combined mining. That is, you can generate several coins at the same time, and the hashrate will not decrease.

Strong miners with already equipped farms began to look at new emerging types of cryptocurrencies, without maintaining an unreasonable devotion only to Bitcoins.

The essence of the mining process itself lies in two simple words - making money. And the essence of virtual cryptocurrency is a cipher code accessible only to computers.

There is a direct pattern: the more powerful the hardware, the more coins it will accumulate, and the earlier you start mining, the more successful it will be. Not a single cryptocurrency is insured against a kind of “crash,” so timing is everything here: you have time to grab luck by the tail, it will only sit in your cage, but if not, it will fly away to please others.

Now, a kind of bank for hundreds and thousands of miners is coming into first place.

Cloud services invest huge amounts of money in purchasing the most powerful and latest equipment. Ordinary miners seem to invest their savings in a bank and after some period, similar to a deposit, receive interest on the invested amount. That is, income from mined coins with their blocks. It’s good for the miner: they save money on purchasing and upgrading hardware, on service, setup and installation. It’s good for mining “bankers” too: capital in circulation brings good dividends.

Mining Pools: Differences in Mining Reward Distribution

There are many different methods that pools use to calculate your earnings. Among the most popular are PPS, PROP and PPLNS.

• PPS pays you for every share you contribute to the pool and also provides you with some payout stability. However, there is a certain risk for the pool operator.
• PROP pays all users proportionally depending on the number of shares invested in the pool.
• PPLNS (Pay Per last N Shares - pay for the last shares) pays users according to the last number of shares added.

Find out the payout method of the pool you will be using. Otherwise, you may lose out on your potential mining profits. It is very important to choose the right pool that matches the goal you want to achieve.

If you are using an ASIC, install VARDIFF (Variable Difficulty) on your pool. This way you can achieve a more challenging goal without wasting your time on pointlessly low stakes. If you need to adjust the difficulty manually, adjust it according to your hashrate. Sometimes for this reason, some pool operators allow you to request a specific difficulty for your miner.

Mining pools: Minimum set of hardware

Just the “bare” desire to make big money from mining will not bring you success. There is an already established list of rules that would be nice for all beginners to know:

1. Iron– this is the main tool of the miner, his strength and power, “hands” and “heart”. The entire effect of cryptocurrency mining depends on the power of the farm. 5 video cards are probably the minimum for a good process.
2. RAM. The Windows familiar to many is good, but only 64-bit. 32-bit simply won’t cope, and the process of earning coins will become a complete fiction. Those who are used to Linux can stay on it, there are no significant differences.
3. Motherboard. Five video cards are far from the only requirement. You need a really good motherboard with an increased number of slots compared to simple ones. A processor of at least i5 is required if the budget is limited, but i7 will be much more efficient. You should buy a power supply with a power of at least 750 W and a capacious hard drive, or preferably three. And the amount of RAM should not be lower than 4 gigabytes.

Mining pools: Where is the best place to mine cryptocurrency?

It is considered the most fashionable and popular. There are several reasons for this:

• It’s convenient, you don’t need to think about hardware and invest money in it;
• There are no worries about setting up equipment and maintaining it before directly mining cryptocurrency;
• The main concern of an ordinary miner is to make a deposit, and everything else is a headache for service holders.

There are many pools now, but they all do only one thing - they provide a farm for mining cryptocoins.

Beginners have no idea how to choose the right platform for collective cryptocurrency mining. In the new article, we will look at the best pools for mining, tell you how to distinguish an honest service from a financial pyramid and other scammers, explain in clear language what the specifics of different reward payment models are, and help beginners choose the optimal system.

Do not forget that solo mining has already lost its effectiveness, so pooling computing power is perhaps the only way to continue making money from mining coins in the era of factory farms.

Features of mining in pools

Pooling computing power increases a miner's chances of making a profit. Even with ultra-modern equipment, it is extremely difficult to regularly find blocks, since you have to compete with the owners of industrial farms.

I would like to highlight such an advantage as the universality of collective production. Combining computing power will benefit both beginners and experts with expensive equipment. Joint coin mining is the only way to impose competition on industrial ASIC farms.

The efficiency of coin mining directly depends on the chosen service. Each site has its own characteristic features: hash rate, method of reward distribution, additional functions, etc. It is extremely important to choose a service that matches your status. For example, for the owner of a GPU farm with a small hashrate, a medium platform is suitable.

Why is it beneficial?

Solo-mining lost its effectiveness due to the advent of farms and integrated circuits. Ordinary users are a priori unable to compete with corporate miners producing coins on an industrial scale.

The appearance of “pools” stabilized the situation. Having united, the owners of insignificant capacities again began to earn money from mining.

The main advantages of collective cryptocurrency mining:

• minimizing financial risks;
• saving money;
• decentralization and maximum reliability;
• increased chances of finding a block;
• fair distribution of rewards.

Still don't understand why team up with other users? Let's look at a specific example:

Suppose you have a farm of 6 powerful video cards, for example, Radeon RX 480. However, in 1 month you were unable to find a block: this scenario is quite real, because you are opposed by pools and industrial miners, but no one has canceled the mandatory payment for consumed electricity . The result is that you are at a significant disadvantage based on the results of your monthly work.

Mining in a pool completely eliminates the possibility of losses. Even if you did not generate the blockchain, you will still receive money for the sent shares, which will completely cover your electricity bills. In this case, the miner will remain in the black.

Pool operating systems

The compensation model determines the profitability of the job.

There are several systems used by services for collective cryptocurrency mining. Let's look at each of them in detail and highlight the most effective one.

PROP

Proportional– a proportional model, according to which the reward for the found block is distributed in accordance with the share of shares sent by the miner. At the moment the transaction is confirmed, the counter of accepted shares is canceled, and the counting process begins anew.

PROP is the simplest model, but far from the most profitable. Payouts are unstable, especially when it comes to pools with a small hashrate. If a user gets into a “long” round, and for SHA-256 and Scrypt algorithms this is a natural phenomenon, he will receive a minimal reward.

Everything is decided by chance: if you come closer to the end of a long round, then in the end you will get a really big profit. It is impossible to calculate the optimal time to enter the pool, which is why problems arise with the stability of payments. Of course, PROP is not the most convenient model for a beginner.

PPLNS

Pay Per Last N Shares– an improved version of the proportional model: the distribution of the reward for the found block is smoothed. The uniqueness of PPLNS lies in the fact that the model is beneficial to service administrators and miners.

The shares sent determine the size of the reward. The time elapsed between block generation does not matter. The calculation is based on fixed time intervals. Such intervals are called shifts (shift in translation from English “shift”). The number and duration of shifts is determined by pool at its own discretion.

When the pool discovers a block, miners will receive a reward. The payout amount does not depend on the time intervals between blocks. A long search for a block contributes to the smooth accumulation of rewards.

It’s not easy for beginners to understand the essence of the PPLNS model, so let’s look at a specific example.

Let's imagine that you are working with a service with 10 shifts, each lasting 60 minutes. The miner's hashrate is equivalent to 1/100 t of the total power of the pool.

The pool found 3 blocks in 10 hours, the user will receive 0.75 BTC (calculation formula - 25 BTC*3/100).

When 1 block is found during a similar time interval, the user’s profit decreases to 0.25 BTC, but compared to the PROP model, the pool will continue to pay the miner money for “unfinished” balls. In any case, the blocks found later will fully compensate for the unsuccessful period.

The PPLNS system reduces the influence of chance on the calculation of remuneration, but does not completely eliminate it. Platforms with such a payment system generally do not charge commissions.

P.P.S.

Pay Per Share– a fixed reward for balls accepted by the “pool”. Pool independently determines the amount of the reward. The payout size is determined in accordance with the reward for the found block.

In my opinion, for a miner PPS is the best option, because he receives money for the work performed (sent by share), but the service carries enormous risks, since it pays regardless of whether a block is found or not.

Pool administrators do not engage in altruism, so they insure themselves against bankruptcy by introducing a commission fee - from 3% to 7% . Funds debited from miners' accounts form a reserve from which users are paid for the found balls.

Comparison table of methods:

Way	Risk level	Suitable for beginners	Commission fee
PROP	High	—	—
PPLNS	Short	+	—
P.P.S.	Absent	+	+

When choosing a service for long-term work, miners are guided by certain criteria that allow them to evaluate the effectiveness of a site for collective cryptocurrency mining.

Hashrate is a key indicator that determines mining speed. This does not mean that owners of budget equipment should choose exclusively the most powerful “pools”. On the contrary, try to find a middle ground in this component.

Be sure to first calculate the profitability of cryptocurrency mining and take into account the costs of paying your electricity bill. Some sites are equipped with built-in calculators to calculate the profitability of work, for example, F2Pool. An alternative option is independent services (whattomine).

Consider the minimum withdrawal size. Services with too high a limit are not the best choice. Do not store coins in your internal account, transfer funds to your own wallet daily.

For owners of weak equipment, the commission fee is not of fundamental importance, the main thing is that its size does not exceed 5%. If you have a powerful farm, then on the contrary, give preference to a “pool” that does not charge a commission.

Comments from practicing miners are the most objective assessment of the service. Study reviews left by users on independent forums and thematic platforms. Only positive posts are published on pool sites.

Where can I find real reviews? Personally, I get information from English-language forums, for example, bitcointalk. On such portals, real professionals who are well versed in mining communicate; beginners will find a lot of interesting things for themselves.

Carefully study reviews regarding withdrawal of funds. Pools that delay payments are close to a scam, so it is better not to work with such services.

Work experience is another important indicator. Sites that have appeared relatively recently are not able to provide high hashrate. The low speed of cryptocurrency mining will not allow you to earn money properly. Unpromoted pools are at a nascent stage; it is possible that some of them will not attract active users, as a result of which they will cease to exist.

Trust proven portals that have been operating for at least 2-3 years.

Tip 5. Find out how profits are distributed among miners

Previously, we looked at the main methods of remuneration distribution: PROP, PPS, PPLNS. The method that's right for you depends on the power of the equipment you're using. Owners of ASIC devices or expensive GPU farms will benefit from the proportional model, since there is no commission.

For beginners with weak equipment, PPS and PPLNS are suitable. Distribution of profits for sent shares completely minimizes financial risk. Pay attention to the size of the commission fee; if the choice is between PPLNS with a zero commission and PPS with a 7% fee, then give preference to the first option.

Rating of the best mining pools

The TOP 3 includes multipools that meet all the previously considered criteria:

Video instructions for setting up and connecting Nicehash:

My advice to you: if you don’t have powerful equipment, register on NiceHash. The official website has been qualitatively translated into Russian. Rent computing power and start mining crypto. It is more advisable to choose not Bitcoins, but Ether or Zcash. The difficulty of mining ZEC and ETH is noticeably lower, and there are prospects for growth in the value of these assets.

Independent pool statistics

Beginners do not know how to choose the top pool for cryptocurrency mining. Analyze the statistics of services for collective mining on independent monitoring sites - Blockchain.info and BTC.com.

Portal administrators regularly update information. Convenient graphs and diagrams will help a beginner compare “pools” and determine the most profitable ones. For miners from Russia, the BTC.com resource is more suitable, since it has a Russian-language version.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that independent monitoring is useful not only when choosing a site for collective mining, but also in the process of searching for cryptocurrency for mining. Here you can find up-to-date information about the complexity of computational calculations, the amount of commission costs for transactions carried out and many other important indicators.

Independent statistics are useful information. Study graphs and charts carefully and then make informed decisions.

Remember:

1. Mining pool is a server that distributes tasks among users to quickly receive rewards for confirming a transaction.

More than four years have passed since the advent of group mining technology. During this time, hundreds of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency mining pools appeared and closed, new reward distribution systems were invented, communication protocols and switching between forks were improved. Several times, situations arose where one pool or organization approached the limit of 50% of the total network hashrate and even exceeded it.

Today the situation looks more stable, and none of the major players in the mining market has a decisive advantage. Below is a list of the largest Bitcoin pools.

Chinese four

The mining of the most popular cryptocurrency has the toughest competition, in which Chinese pools have held undeniable superiority for a long time. By a wide margin, the ranking is headed by the five largest “mines”, and four of them are located in China:

F2Pool (Discus fish)

Connection string stratum+tcp://stratum.mining.eligius.st:3334.

Ghash.io

Ghash.io– just a year ago, the undisputed leader in Bitcoin mining, who repeatedly reached the level of 50% of the network hashrate, today is content with modest 2-3% . Owned by the CEX.io exchange. Previously, this pool operated a cloud mining service of the same name, which was stopped at the beginning of the year. Almost all of their own equipment consisted of miners from Bitfury, now obsolete. This giant was crippled by both the shutdown of the cloud and the creation of Bitfury’s own pool - now new equipment is going there.

However, the pool continues to operate. It operates merged mining NMC and a multipool, offering a large selection of digital currencies based on the Scrypt algorithm. The main reward system is PPLNS no commission.

Bitminter

All other pools usually mine no more than 1-2 blocks per day. Of these, it can be noted Bitminter– an old stable pool with a good reputation, operating since 2011. Basically, it runs on old miners, and many also use it as a backup. It uses OpenID user authentication. The main accrual system is PPLNS with 1% commission. There is joint mining of Namecoin. The standard Stratum port 3333 is used, as well as 443 and 5050.

We don't work for the public

Several large pools, with a total capacity of about 25% of the total hashrate of the Bitcoin network, are inaccessible to ordinary miners. They work only for a narrow circle of investors.

Bitfury

The first of them, and the third in the overall ranking, is Bitfury is the only pool in the top five that is not located in China. He holds 15-17% network only at the expense of its own capacities – the connection is closed for “outside” miners. The pool belongs to a large equipment manufacturer, Bitfury, which mainly produces it for its own data centers located in Iceland and Georgia. In addition, Bitfury is one of the leaders in terms of the volume of investments received during the year, exceeding $60 million. All these funds are used for new developments, as well as the construction and support of data centers.

KnC pool

Pool KnCMiner belongs to the Swedish ASIC manufacturer of the same name. Most of its capacity is located in Europe. The operation of the pool is ensured by the company’s own equipment and its cloud mining service. There is no public access to the pool. Average hashrate approx. 5% networks.

21 Inc

Another mysterious pool belongs to the company 21 Inc, which, according to rumors, was financed by large American venture capital funds and is located in Silicon Valley, with all that it implies. Now her pool owns about 4% networks. The company and the pool are not public; they work only for their investors.