A mining pool is a server that ensures the division of large computing tasks into smaller tasks with their distribution among all devices connected to the server.

What's the point of using pools?

For any cryptocurrency mined based on the proof-of-work principle, a difficulty value is provided. The smaller the number of devices involved in the mining process, and the more modest their power, the lower the complexity. Accordingly, as the number of mining participants increases, the difficulty increases to ensure that one block is found within the specified time interval. It turns out that the amount of reward for a block remains constant, but the power spent on its production increases. For miners engaged in independent mining, this situation leads to a reduction in the likelihood of receiving a reward.

Practice shows that even the estimated value of finding one block when using solo mining on high-quality home equipment will be two to three years in the Bitcoin or Ethereum network, and the actual value will be even greater.

The use of mining pools allows, by consolidating the efforts of numerous participants, to reduce the required time to find a block by hundreds and thousands of times. As a result, even with modest computing capabilities and no blocks found, the miner becomes the owner of a certain share of the reward obtained through joint efforts.

The higher the total capacity of the equipment owned by the pool participants, the higher the “pool luck” is recognized, that is, the probability of signing the next block. As a result, large bullets are much more likely than their smaller opponents to receive a set reward for the work done.

Today there are mining pools for most major cryptocurrencies:

• Bitcoin;

• Bitcoin Cash;

• Ethereum;

• DASH;

• Monero;

• Zcash;

• Litecoin and others.

The following pools are most famous today:

Pool name
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
	ltc.bw.com/pool/i

For those who are just starting to master mining, an interesting solution may be to participate in multipools that offer the opportunity to mine various digital currencies. These include, for example, the NiceHash project. This service not only allows you to change the mining cryptocurrency, but does it automatically based on the calculation of profitability indicators. As a result, in some cases such pools are able to demonstrate a higher level of profitability than traditional pools.

The advantages of NiceHash include:

• No need to configure bat files;

• Automatic sale of altcoins, making it easier to work with less popular cryptocurrencies;

• Automatic transition to mining the currently most profitable coin, which simplifies work and increases profitability.

Among the weaknesses of the multicurrency pool are:

• Fairly high commissions charged to participants;

• All payments are made exclusively in Bitcoin.

The procedure for creating a mining pool is a complex work that combines several successive stages. This requires:

• Software creation. For the pool script, it is necessary to use high-quality program code that does not contain errors, which will ensure protection against interruptions in work. Creating program code involves not only a significant investment of time, but also serious material costs. To simplify the task, many pool creators use ready-made open source templates, making minor changes to them taking into account the specifics of their own project. This practice has a right to exist, but the mediocre level of security does not allow it to be considered a basis for the development of large projects. In some cases, hidden algorithms are integrated into distributed templates, leading to the theft of the hashrate of pool participants.

• Creating a server. This stage involves significant material investments, since it will require the purchase or rental of a reliable server with high technical characteristics. Costs will also be required to create effective communication channels. We should not forget about the need to ensure the functionality of the mining pool after it is put into operation, which will require the involvement of appropriate technical support personnel with payment for their labor.

• Pool promotion. It is not enough to create a mining pool; it is necessary to bring information about it to ordinary miners, and to interest them in becoming participants in this particular association of cryptocurrency miners. This will require project promotion. In conditions of a high level of competition, especially from the already existing largest pools, it is possible to break into the market only by providing the client with unique conditions that provide increased benefits for participants. Alternatively, you can pay attention to promising coins that are not yet popular among miners.

Miners only receive advantages from the existing competition in the market. This is due to the fact that pool owners are forced to provide them with more profitable partnership offers to attract participants. In turn, choosing the optimal pool will require you to spend some time and compare existing offers.

Pool power

One of the parameters of any pool is its power, that is, the total computing power of all equipment connected to the server. The higher the power, the greater his luck is indicated, that is, the probability of finding a block. For example, in the process of Bitcoin mining using pools with a capacity of 30-50 TH/s, the first block will not be mined soon, and therefore the reward will have to wait a long time.

In the process of choosing mining pools, it is a good idea to get acquainted with reviews about them on the Internet. In most cases, it is always possible to find out about unscrupulous projects on thematic forums or in communities on social networks. Among the most respected and visited forums on the Internet are such projects as: bitcointalk.org, forum.bits.media.

Commissions

Commission payments to pool owners are the norm for the mining community. Moreover, their value, that is, the fee for participation in the community, in most cases does not exceed 0.3-2%. If the project provides for higher commissions, the benefit from participation is reduced, and in some cases it may even turn out to be unprofitable.

Withdrawal limits

It is also worth taking into account the conditions for withdrawal of funds. Often, pool rules set not only the frequency of withdrawals, but also the minimum allowable transaction size. This factor is especially important for miners who use low-power equipment and cannot count on serious income.

You can check the pool by testing, connecting to it for just a few days, and taking the appropriate measurements. If the working conditions turn out to be really interesting, you can stay in the pool and continue working on a permanent basis.

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.

Bitcoin has managed to win the trust of both large and small investors from all over the world. Thanks to growing demand and the deflationary model underlying the Blockchain system, its rate is steadily growing. Cryptocurrency mining through the Bitcoin pool has become a separate large segment of the economy, in which millions of dollars circulate. To increase the profitability of mining, a special Internet resource is used - a pool for mining Bitcoins. You will learn what a Bitcoin pool is and how to choose by reading the article.

What are mining pools

Bitcoin mining involves participating in the operation of the system in order to help calculate the cryptographic keys (hashes) that sign blocks of transactions in the blockchain. For finding each key, the system issues a reward in the form of issued bitcoins. Due to the high complexity of calculations, it is impossible to find the key on your own, ahead of other participants, even with high-performance equipment. Therefore, more than 99% of miners, with the exception of those who have fantastically powerful computing power, work through these sites.

The definition of Bitcoin pool (translated from English as “bitcoin pool”) means an association of miners for the extraction of bitcoins. It refers to an Internet server that distributes computational tasks to find crypto keys among participants. After finding the required value and forming a block of transactions, the bitcoin mining pool receives a reward from the system, which is distributed in proportion to the effort expended.

Distributed computing by a group of miners is much more efficient than a single search for keys. Together they manage to find the hash faster than they would have been able to if they had worked alone. You have to pay a pool commission for using the resource, but this amount is insignificant compared to the increase in profitability due to the joint solution of computing problems.

The system imposes a limit on the maximum power of the association of miners - it should not exceed 50% of the total computing power of the network. Otherwise, he will not be allowed to search for hashes, as recently happened with the BTC pool Ghash.io.

List of Bitcoin mining pools

The most popular mining services have an English interface, which does not prevent Russian miners from successfully making money with their help. The list of the largest pools of associations for BTC mining includes the following resources:

• Antpool is a Chinese pool controlled by mining hardware manufacturer BitMain. About 15% of issued bitcoins are mined through it.
  
• DiscasFish is the second largest miner association, which controls approximately 12% of production. The second name of this Chinese resource is F2Pool.
  
• BitFury Pool is a resource controlled by another large Chinese manufacturer of integrated circuits for bitcoin mining. Three of its data centers are located in Georgia. With its help, the company mines about 12% of issued bitcoins. Outsiders are not allowed to join him.
  
• BTCC is a resource created by the owners of the third largest Chinese cryptocurrency exchange. Its participants mine about 7% of blocks.
  
• ViaBTC is another resource controlled by the Chinese cryptocurrency exchange. Despite its “youth”, more than 6% of mined coins pass through it.
  
• BTC.Top is an association that produces 6% of the total number of coins. The resource does not have its own website and does not recruit miners.
  
• Slush is a Czech Bitcoin mining pool, launched back in 2010. It has an excellent reputation and is popular, occupying 6% of the market.
  
• Bitclub Network is an Icelandic server that mines 4.5% of coins. It is positioned as an investment project and produces only at its own expense. It is impossible to join joint mining through it. You can only invest in a project to receive part of the company’s income.
  
• GBMiner is an Indian closed BTC pool, occupying more than 4% of the market.
  

The list of pools through which you can mine bitcoins is constantly expanding and updating. Like the Bitcoin rate, the ratings and statistics of pools are not stable. It is absolutely not necessary to join the Top pool to successfully mine coins.

How to choose the best mining pool

To determine the optimal pool, you need to take into account several characteristics that determine the profitability of mining. It is worth paying attention to larger Bitcoin pools, since the profitability of mining depends on the total capacity. The presence of a Russian interface is interesting only to beginners who have not yet gotten used to English terminology. Therefore, it is not at all necessary to look for Bitcoin pools in Russian.

To make a choice and join a server, you need to consider the following factors:

Top pools by profitability and other useful information about Bitcoin mining can be obtained by studying sites and forums dedicated to cryptocurrency.

How to make money in the pool

To obtain an acceptable level of profitability, you should ensure that you have stable Internet access and an ASIC for mining Bitcoins. The amount of cryptocurrency received and electricity consumed depends on its characteristics. Taking into account the high power consumed by computing devices, it is necessary to organize an effective cooling system.

To earn bitcoins, you need to register in the system by installing a bitcoin wallet on your computer. Next, you should select a suitable server and register on it. Registration data must be entered into the appropriate fields in the settings of the mining program for ASIC.

When everything is done, all that remains is to press the “Start” button and monitor the mining statistics of the mining pool.

Cloud mining pools

Despite the fact that ASIC mining is the most profitable way to earn Bitcoin, this method has one significant drawback - a high entry threshold. The cost of the cheapest device that allows you to mine bitcoins exceeds a thousand dollars. However, it will not be possible to use it in any other way. If the complexity of calculations increases, the old ASICs will not be able to provide a profitability sufficient to at least pay for electricity.

For those who do not have enough money or do not want to take risks, there are cloud mining resources such as Bitclub Network. The owners of the service provide the capacity of their own equipment for mining Bitcoin, Ether and other cryptocurrencies for rent.

Cloud mining does not require significant investments at the entrance, which is optimal for those who want to receive passive income, but do not have enough money to purchase ASICs.

Thus, you can start mining bitcoins by investing very little money in renting equipment. The rent “eats up” part of the income, so this method is much less profitable than independent production. But all the risks are taken by the server owners.

Cloud mining is ideal for those who want to earn passive income with minimal risk. To participate in it, you do not need special knowledge about setting up software and maintaining the functionality of equipment; there is no need to allocate premises for your own “farm”. The problem of ASIC liquidity falls entirely on the shoulders of the owners of the cloud resource. If the exchange rate falls or mining profitability decreases, you can stop renting, minimizing losses.

Conclusion

At the current stage, independent mining of bitcoins can no longer bring sufficient profit. Working as a team allows you to optimize the process of calculating hashes by distributing the task among all participants. The profitability of mining depends on the total computing power of the pool, the commission and the method of distribution of the received profit.

Cloud mining pools allow you to minimize investment risks and reduce the barrier to entry into business. However, the profit from working for them is much lower.

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Alexey Russkikh

The era of solo mining is long gone. The ratio of computing power and network complexity does not allow receiving a reward for signing a block. Today, the only way to mine cryptocurrency is to join together in mining pools. However, many miners fail when choosing a pool due to a lack of understanding of the operating principles, specifics, differences and other features of mining pools.

In this article we will look at everything related to mining pools: from their differences to choosing the best servers for specific cryptocurrencies.

Definition of mining pool

A mining pool is a kind of server whose main task is to divide computing tasks into many subtasks. The latter are distributed among all participants who are connected to the pool. Initially, mining existed; their computing power was enough to independently mine cryptocurrency.

As the complexity of the network grew from attracting new participants, the sphere of “coin” mining moved to video cards. Mining on processors is a thing of the past due to minimal profitability (and later, complete lack of profit).

Subsequently, the process of increasing mining complexity led to the fact that without combining capacities, miners could no longer mine cryptocurrency. It is important to consider that a mining pool is not a completely collective mining operation with an even distribution. It is rather a division of tasks, where each participant makes a profit, depending on the effort (power) invested.

Principle of operation

The contribution is assessed by the concept of a “share” (from English share), which is part of the computational hash function for signing a block. The server's task includes not only distributing tasks, but also checking their validity. When the “share” meets the complexity values ​​required for signing a block, the operation is confirmed.

The reward received by the pool is distributed to all miners, depending on the number of valid “shares” transferred (depending on the method of reward in a particular pool). Moreover, who signed the “share” block has no influence on the final distribution of the reward.

Each such server is a full-fledged business that “lives” on commissions collected from users. Mining pools may underestimate overall computing performance to obtain additional profit from “unaccounted power” (the so-called “hidden commission”), but such servers instantly end up in negative ratings and blacklists, losing all participants.

In technical terms, the design of a mining pool cannot be called complex. It is a dedicated server that distributes tasks. Moreover, the pool does not require complex configuration (if there are already ready-made templates). However, the key aspect is to attract participants, which is based on:

• Powerful advertising.
• Reputation of the mining pool.
• Security.
• Favorable conditions for participants (low commission and other privileges).

You should also remember about the “51% rule”, which is a direct threat to centralization and allows you to attack any cryptocurrency. Once this point is reached, the pool should potentially announce its liquidation unless the collection of high capacities serves specific purposes.

Types of mining and methods of reward

In the field of cryptocurrency mining, there are three mining methods:

1. Solo.
2. Collective (in Pool).
3. Cloudy.

The latter stands out noticeably from the rest, since it does not require equipment; it is often classified as an investment rather than a “digging”. Solo mining is almost completely a thing of the past. This is due to the growing complexity of networks and the demand for digital money mining.

New “coins” rely on solo mining, but as they develop and attract participants, “loners” will quickly be replaced. An example is mining Pirl coin solo without a pool. Therefore, collective mining, with the pooling of capacities, is the only way to compete in the field of cryptocurrency mining.

One of the key factors when choosing a server is the reward method that is used on a particular resource. It can affect your bottom line and can either increase or decrease your earning potential. There are more than 20 payment methods, although PPS and PPLNS are considered the most popular and widespread. The simplest PROP method is becoming less and less popular, gradually becoming a thing of the past.

P.P.S. or Pay Per Share– for participants this type of remuneration is considered the most promising. When a block is found, each participant receives income for each “ball” sent. The amount is calculated for the user based on the reward divided by the network complexity. Despite the fact that this distribution principle is the most profitable for miners, it is riskier for pool owners, which usually leads to higher commissions.

PPLNS—Pay Per Last N Shares– the method is considered one of the most profitable and does not include payments for each “ball”. Accruals are made not for searching for a block, but for so-called “shifts”, which represent certain time intervals. The method is in many ways similar to PROP, but differs in a “slow start” when calculating rewards.

That is, the calculated power indicator will increase to the maximum gradually (only after reaching the peak value will payments be full). But even if you are disconnected from the mining pool, payments will occur until the estimated capacity drops to zero.

In addition to the three above methods of remuneration, there are the following types:

Solo	CPPSRB	PPSW
PPS+	Geometric	POT
SMPPS	DGM	BPM
ESMPPS	FPPS	Eligius
Puddinpop	HBPPS	Triplemining
RSMPPS	RBPPS	Score

How to choose a good mining pool?

Choosing a mining pool for beginners can be a daunting task, especially with the huge variety of servers available. First of all, the pool must be financially profitable; this is the primary and only important criterion. The following parameters will help you choose the most profitable, safe and stable option.

Hashrate

The power of a particular pool directly affects its potential for finding new blocks, and therefore the income of participants. It is for this reason that the resources created among the first are the most popular.

Any new servers, despite their features, cannot attract as many participants, which means they will lose in power and efficiency in searching for blocks.

Commission amount

This criterion cannot be called decisive, but it also contributes to the income received from mining. Before choosing a server, make at least a superficial comparison of different pools in terms of commission size. In the long term, this may affect your earnings.

Reward system

An important indicator that needs to be correlated with your own capacities in order to extract the most favorable conditions. For example, with proportional profit sharing, in the case of low capacity, the level of income will be unusually low due to the insignificant contribution.

Therefore, the choice of a reward system will be important if it meets the conditions (for ASICs or large centers it is different and selected individually).

Location

An important parameter. In this regard, there is an opinion that it is best to choose servers that are located as close as possible to the equipment. This will ensure a stable connection and minimal ping.

The immediate geographical location is of secondary importance. To select the best connection, use the "ping" command with the server address.

TOP 5 pools for Bitcoin

Let's look at the largest Bitcoin mining pools, which provide the best conditions for cryptocurrency mining.

BTC.com

The undisputed leader, which, according to statistics, occupies a huge part of the total network hashrate (16.8% in monthly terms and 18.3% in annual monitoring). Its peculiarity lies in its low commission (1.5%) and the use of a modified and unique reward system. For this, a more advanced version of PPS is used, which involves full payment per ball (FPPS). Specializes in algorithm.

Opened in 2016, although the brand was known earlier for creating a popular wallet. The main servers are located in China and Germany, and the company is also planning to expand to Canada and Switzerland.

Another largest pool that stands out thanks to its functional panel and the ability to choose a reward method. Part of the Bitmain concern, a company that produces ASICs. According to annual statistics, it is in second place, occupying 13.1% of the total capacity.

Low payouts are considered a disadvantage; the use of peer-to-peer connections is also considered a disadvantage.

The third largest and one of the very first pools that were created (2010). Great for beginners due to its simple interface and navigation. A huge advantage is that the servers are located all over the world, which ensures good ping.

According to annual statistics, it occupies 10.6% of the total hashrate. It is distinguished by high stability, a reliable reputation and a program for demo mining (familiarization with the process for novice miners). Conditional disadvantages include the commission, which is slightly higher than that of its closest competitors - 2%.

A popular resource that allows you to mine BTC, Litecoin and 8 other major cryptocurrencies. In terms of annual hashrate, it ranks 7th (6.8%). The downside is the increased commissions for major cryptocurrencies – 4%. The minimum commission on the server is only for Dashcoin, ETN and LTC, it is 2%.

Large mining pool, occupies 10.2% of the total network hashrate according to annual statistics. Does not require mandatory registration and supports the two most popular reward systems: PPS and PPLNS. The pool is registered in China and has been operating since 2013, during which time it has gained a reliable reputation and a huge number of participants.

TOP 3 pools for Ethereum

Let's look at the top of the largest and most famous pools that make it possible to effectively mine Ether.

One of the largest pools, the second most powerful among all servers (24-26% of the total annual hashrate). The number of participants exceeds 140 thousand people. It also allows you to mine “coins” without registration. The only significant disadvantage can be considered an additional commission of 0.001 ETH, which is charged when withdrawing less than 1 ETH.

The undisputed leader, which ranks 1st in terms of power for Ethereum (28.7% of power according to the average annual indicator). Supports the production of 5 “coins”, including the quite rare Beam and Grin. Reward system – PPS+ (combines the advantages of PPLNS and PPS). For all “coins” the withdrawal commission is 1%.

One of the largest resources for mining ether, as well as Zcash and several other “coins”. Supports PPLNS reward system. It ranks 4th in power among all servers for ETH (almost 11% of the total hashrate). Also considered one of the best RVN mining pools, it supports 8 cryptocurrencies in total.

The pool charges a commission of 1%.

TOP 3 pools for Monero

Among the pools that are very popular in Monero mining are the following servers.

mineXMR

One of the main pools for Monero mining, with a share of the total network hashrate of 17-19%. It is considered one of the very first servers for Monero, which was launched in 2014. Reward system – PPLNS, fixed commission – 1%.

supportXMR

The peculiarity of this pool is that it supports mining exclusively Monero. It also stands out with the lowest commission among all major servers - 0.6%. It also occupies a leading position in terms of uptime, the value reaches 100%.

A popular cloud mining service, which is also one of the leaders for Monero and Bytecoin. Supports up to 11 popular coins, including Etc, Bitcoin Gold and others. Withdrawal commission – 1%.

List of other popular servers

Many popular pools support several cryptocurrencies, and large multipools even allow you to mine more than 10 “coins”. Giants such as NiceHash work with all algorithms: from popular ones and SHA-256, to less popular ones, like DGB on Qubit.

In addition to the number of cryptocurrencies, pools are often classified according to requirements and operating conditions, where the main place is occupied by the registration process. For some servers it is mandatory, while others allow access without registration.