Last updated July 13, 2017 Now that you have, your next step is to join a Bitcoin mining pool. What is a Mining Pool? Mining pools are groups of cooperating miners who agree to share block rewards in proportion to their contributed mining hash power. While mining pools are desirable to the average miner as they smooth out rewards and make them more predictable, they unfortunately concentrate power to the mining pool’s owner.

Miners can, however, choose to redirect their hashing power to a different mining pool at anytime. Pool Concentration in China Before we get into the best mining pools to join, it’s important to note that. Many only have Chinese websites and support. Mining centralization in China is one of Bitcoin’s biggest issues at the moment. There are about 20 major mining pools. Broken down by the percent of hash power controlled by a pool, and the location of that pool’s company, we that Chinese pools control ~81% of the network hash rate. The Biggest Mining Pools The list below details the biggest Bitcoin mining pools.

This is based on info from Blockchain’s chart: We strongly recommend new miners to join despite it not being one of the biggest pools. It was the first Bitcoin mining pool and remains one of the most reliable and trusted pools, especially for beginners. Antpool Antpool is a mining pool and owned by BitMain. Antpool mines about 25% of all blocks.

F2Pool Rejects Bitcoin XT at a time when there is much turmoil in the industry over the block size debate. Kano has publicly stated on BitcoinTalk. Bitminter - bitcoin mining pool. Which, given the degree of. BTX is an incredible new crypto-currency that aims to replace Bitcoin one day. Bitcoin enthusiasts such as Bitcoin. BTC.com pool is a whole new choice for bitcoin miners. BTC.com pool is with much more stable architecture, much better user experience, much lower fees and much.

BTC.top BTC.top is a private pool and cannot be joined. BTC.com BTC.com is a public mining pool that can be joined. However, we strongly recommend joining instead. Bixin Bixin is another mining pool that is based in China.

It is a public pool, but unless you speak Chinese we do not recommend joining this pool. BTCC BTCC is a pool and also China’s third largest Bitcoin exchange. Its mining pool currently mines about 7% of all blocks. DiscusFish, also known as F2Pool, is based in China. F2Pool has mined about 5-6% of all blocks over the past six months. ViaBTC ViaBTC is a somewhat new mining pool that has been around for about one year.

It’s targeted towards Chinese miners. BW, established in 2014, is another mining company based in China. It currently mines about 5% of all blocks. Bitclub.Network Bitclub Network is a large mining pool but. We recommend staying away from this pool.

Slush was the first mining pool and currently mines about 3% of all blocks. Slush is probably one of the best and most popular mining pools despite not being one of the largest.

Bitcoin Mining Pool Comparison Pool Location Fees Private Pool BitFury Georgia 0% Yes BTCC China 2-3% No Slush Pool Czech Republic 2% No Antpool China 1% No BW China 1% No The comparison chart above is just a quick reference. The location of a pool does not matter all that much.

Most of the pools have servers in every country so even if the mining pool is based in China, you could connect to a server in the US, for example. Get a Bitcoin Wallet and Mining Software Before you join a mining pool you will also need and. Mining Pools vs Cloud Mining Many people read about mining pools and think it is just a group that pays out free bitcoins. This is not true! Mining pools are for people who have mining hardware to split profits.

Many people get mining pools. Cloud mining is where you pay a service provider to miner for you and you get the rewards. Just Want Bitcoins? If you just want bitcoins, mining is NOT the best way to obtain coins.

Buying bitcoins is the EASIEST and FASTEST way to purchase bitcoins. Get $10 worth of free bitcoins when you buy $100 or more. Which Countries Mine the most Bitcoins? Bitcoin mining tends to gravitate towards countries with cheap electricity. As Bitcoin mining is somewhat centralized, 10-15 mining companies have claimed the vast majority of network hash power. With many of these companies in the same country, only a number of countries mine and export a significant amount of bitcoins. China China mines the most bitcoins and therefore ends up “exporting” the most bitcoins.

Electricity in China is very cheap and has allowed Chinese Bitcoin miners to gain a very large percentage of Bitcoin’s hash power. It’s rumored that some Chinese power companies point their excess energy towards Bitcoin mining facilities so that no energy goes to waste. China is home to many of the top Bitcoin mining companies:,,, and BW. It’s estimated that these mining pools own somewhere around 60% of Bitcoins hash power, meaning they mine about 60% of all new bitcoins. Georgia Georgia is home to, one of the largest producers of Bitcoin mining hardware and chips. BitFury currently mines about 15% of all bitcoins. Sweden Sweden is home to KnCMiner, a Bitcoin mining company based in Stockholm.

Currently mines about 7.5% of all bitcoins. US The US is home to, a Bitcoin mining company based in California. 21 runs a large amount of miners, but also sells low powered bitcoin miners as part of their 21 Bitcoin computer. Most of the hash power from the 21 Bitcoin computers is pointed towards 21’s mining pool. Mines about 3% of all bitcoins. Other Countries The countries above mine about 80% of all bitcoins.

The rest of the hash power is spread across the rest of the world, often pointed at smaller mining pools like (Czech Republic) and (US). • • • • • • • • • • • • • A Note on Pools While we can see which mining pools are the largest, it’s important to understand that the hash power pointed towards a mining pool isn’t necessarily owned by the mining pool itself. There are a few cases, like with BitFury and KnCMiner, where the company itself runs the mining operation but doesn’t run a mining pool. Bitcoin miners can switch mining pools easily by routing their hash power to a different pool, so the market share of pools is constantly changing. To make the list of top 10 miners, we looked at blocks found over the past 6 months using data from.

The size of mining pools is constantly changing. We will do our best to keep this posted up-to-date. Note: If you cloud mine then you don’t need to select a pool; the company does this automatically. Why are Miners Important? Bitcoin miners are crucial to Bitcoin and its security. Without miners, Bitcoin would be vulnerable and easy to attack. Get this: Most Bitcoin users don’t mine.

However, miners are responsible for the creation of all new bitcoins and a fascinating part of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Mining, once done on the average home computer, is now mostly done in large, specialized warehouses with. These warehouses usually direct their hashing power towards mining pools. Antpool Review Despite recent controversy, Antpool remains the largest Bitcoin mining pool in terms of its Bitcoin network hash rate. Antpool holds roughly 15% of the total hash rate of all Bitcoin mining pools. About Antpool Antpool mined its first block in March 2014, meaning that it emerged roughly four years after the first mining pool; Slushpool. Antpool is run by Bitmain Technologies Ltd., the world’s largest Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer, and a large portion of their pool is run on Bitmain’s own mining rigs.

Antpool supports p2pool and stratum mining modes with nodes that are spread all over the world to ensure stability (US, Germany, China etc.). Also, Antpool’s user interface is surprisingly slick considering that the underlying company thrives mostly off of hardware sales. How to Join Antpool The pool is free to join and the process is simple. First, you need to acquire.

Then you need to download. If you need help deciding, I suggest you take a look at our and guides. Hardware is important because it determines the size of your contribution to the pool’s hash rate.

Software is important because it enables you to direct your hardware’s hash power towards the pool you prefer. So make sure to make the right choice in order to optimize your rewards. Finally, sign up at to get started. What are Antpool’s Fees?

Antpool claims that it does not charge any fees for using its pool. Although there is some truth to this claim, it is not 100% correct. While Antpool does not directly charge fees, it also does not disclose the Bitcoin transaction fees that are collected. Basically, clients are left in the dark.

Currently, every Bitcoin block has a 12.5 BTC reward which Antpool does share with you when it finds a block. Lately, however, Bitcoin transaction fees have been rising and an additional 1-2 bitcoins are collected per block by pools. At this time, Antpool keeps 1-2 bitcoins form transaction fees for itself, which are not shared with miners who have hash power pointed toward the pool. It can be argued that these rates prevent the service from being usable for small-time and big-volume users.

Consequently, some users on heed that the undisclosed fees make the service unwise to use for the time being. What is the Payout Threshold? The pool to have a payout threshold and pays out every day around 10 AM UTC. The minimum withdrawal amount is 0.0005 BTC (other say 0.001 BTC). Can you do Solo Mining on Antpool? Solo mining means you mine for bitcoins without joining a pool. So if you use Antpool you are not solo mining by default.

Generally, you will receive more frequent payouts by joining a pool. What is the Controversy around Antpool? Antpool has arguably beneficial upgrades to Bitcoin for reasons based on claims that have been largely disproved.

Notably, this has taken place with somewhat of a vindictive attitude. More specifically, the controversy revolves around Segwit – a feature that requires miner activation to be enabled.

Efficient Vertcoin VTC Mining. Despite the fact that most Bitcoin users want this feature activated, Antpool, among other pools, appears to be blocking this feature. Antpool began signalling for Bitcoin Unlimited in early March 2017 for reasons that have not been elucidated by Bitmain CEO (and cofounder Jihan Wu). That it will only signal for Segwit if there is a hardfork, which is a proposition that most users oppose. Furthermore, allegations that the owner refuses to sell hardware to Segwit supporters have also begun to circulate. By using Antpool, you allow the pool to decide your hardware’s approach to these matters, meaning that the pool that you used dictates the type of Bitcoin protocol that your hardware employs.

If you wish to decide which implementation your hardware should signal for, you can use a pool that leaves the choice to its users, like the Slush mining pool. Bitfury Information According to, is the third largest Bitcoin mining pool and mines about 11% of all blocks.

The main difference between the Bitfury pool and other mining pools is that Bitfury is a private pool. Bitfury, the company, makes its own and runs its own pool. So, unlike Slush or Antpool, Bitfury cannot be joined if you run mining hardware at home. Bitfury 16nm ASIC Chip Unrelated to its pool, a 16nm ASIC mining chip. Although Bitfury controls a large portion of the Bitcoin network hash rate, its committed to making Bitcoin: BitFury is fundamentally committed to being a responsible player in the Bitcoin community and we want to work with all integrated partners and resellers to make our unique technology widely available ensuring that the network remains decentralized and we move into the exhash era together. Valery Vavilov, CEO of BitFury BTCC Mining Pool Review is run by BTCC, a Bitcoin company based in China.

The company also runs a Bitcoin exchange, wallet, prints physical bitcoins and more! Worldwide Servers BTCC all over the world so your mining hardware can connect easily to the BTCC pool.

So even though BTCC is based in China, don’t be worried that you can’t use or join the pool: Our mining pool currently has customers from the United States, South America, Europe, China, and Africa. Bobby Lee, BTCC CEO Shared Transaction Fees One great thing about BTCC pool is that it shares Bitcoin transaction fees with its miners.

In every Bitcoin block, around 1-2 BTC worth of transaction fees are also rewarded to the pool. Some pools keep these fees for themselves and DO NOT share with their miners! BTCC evenly splits the transaction fees among its miners, just like it splits the 12.5 BTC reward. Slush Pool Review is run by and was the world’s first ever Bitcoin mining pool. It’s advanced yet also a great pool for beginners. How to Join and Use Slush Pool Slush Pool is easy to join. • Configure your to point your to Slush Pool.

• Enter your address that will receive the payouts. Slush Mining Pool URLs According to, there are the current URLs for the mining pool. You will want to point your software towards the URL location closest to you.

This will maximize your mining profits. USA, east coast: stratum+tcp://us-east.stratum.slushpool.com:3333 Europe stratum+tcp://eu.stratum.slushpool.com:3333 China, mainland stratum+tcp://cn.stratum.slushpool.com:3333 stratum+tcp://cn.stratum.slushpool.com:443 Asia-Pacific/Singapore: stratum+tcp://sg.stratum.slushpool.com:3333 What are Slush Pool’s Fees?

Slush Pool charges 2% of all payouts. This may seem like a lot but unlike other pools it shares the transaction fees with its miners. At current levels, these amount to 1-2 BTC more per block. Satoshi Labs Satoshi Labs runs Slush Pool. They also make the Bitcoin TREZOR hardware wallet and Coinmap.org.