New mining location added: Finland
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New mining location added: Finland
More information
Market Insights
Mitchell Weijerman
May 26, 2026
A Bitcoin mining pool is a group of miners who combine their computing power to find blocks together and share the rewards proportionally. Without pools, most individual miners would wait years between payouts. With a pool, you receive Bitcoin daily.
A mining pool is a server that coordinates the work of many individual miners. Each miner contributes their hash rate to the pool. The pool combines all of this computing power and assigns each miner a portion of the work. When the pool finds a valid block, the block reward (3.125 BTC plus transaction fees) is divided among all participating miners based on their contribution.
Mining pools exist because of probability. A single ASIC miner with 200 TH/s represents about 0.00003% of the total network hash rate. At those odds, you would expect to find a block roughly once every 38 years. That is not a viable income stream. A pool with thousands of miners collectively has a much higher chance of finding blocks regularly, converting the lottery-like nature of solo mining into predictable daily income.
| Step | What Happens |
|---|---|
| 1. Miner connects | Your ASIC miner connects to the pool’s server using the Stratum protocol and your pool account credentials |
| 2. Pool assigns work | The pool sends your miner a block template with a specific range of nonces to try |
| 3. Miner hashes | Your ASIC tries billions of hashes per second, looking for results that meet the pool’s share difficulty |
| 4. Shares submitted | When your miner finds a hash meeting the pool’s threshold, it submits that “share” as proof of work |
| 5. Block found | If a share also meets the full network difficulty, the pool has found a valid block |
| 6. Reward distributed | The block reward is split among all miners proportionally to the shares they submitted |
| 7. Payout sent | The pool sends your Bitcoin earnings to your wallet (daily for most pools) |
How a pool calculates and distributes rewards varies by payout method. The method affects the consistency and size of your payouts.
| Method | How It Works | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| FPPS (Full Pay Per Share) | Fixed payout per share based on expected block reward AND transaction fees. Pool absorbs all variance. | Most miners. Predictable, includes fee revenue. |
| PPS+ (Pay Per Share Plus) | Fixed payout per share for block reward. Transaction fees distributed separately based on actual blocks found. | Miners wanting block reward stability with fee upside. |
| PPLNS (Pay Per Last N Shares) | Rewards based on shares submitted in a window around when blocks are found. Variable payouts. | Long-term miners comfortable with variance. |
| Solo (via pool) | If your share finds the block, you get the entire reward. Otherwise, nothing. | Only very large operations (100+ PH/s). |
Recommendation: For most individual miners, FPPS is the best payout method. It gives you the most predictable income by paying a fixed rate per share and including estimated transaction fees. You sacrifice a tiny amount of potential upside in exchange for eliminating payout variance. This is especially important for hosted miners who need consistent revenue to cover monthly hosting fees.
| Pool | Approx. Network Share | Payout Method | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foundry USA | ~30% | FPPS | 0% |
| AntPool | ~18% | FPPS / PPLNS | 1-2.5% |
| F2Pool | ~12% | FPPS | 2.5% |
| ViaBTC | ~12% | PPS+ / PPLNS | 1-4% |
| Braiins Pool | ~5% | FPPS | 2% |
Foundry USA is the largest Bitcoin mining pool, processing approximately 30% of all blocks. Its 0% fee structure has attracted significant hash rate, particularly from North American institutional miners. For individual miners, the choice between pools often comes down to fees, payout method, minimum payout threshold, and geographic preference.
Pool fees range from 0% to 4%, deducted from your mining revenue before payouts. A 2% fee on a miner earning $400/month in gross revenue costs you $8/month. While fees matter, they should not be your only consideration. A pool with a 2% fee and 99.9% uptime is better than a 0% fee pool with frequent downtime or connectivity issues.
Some pools also have minimum payout thresholds. If your daily earnings do not meet the threshold, your balance accumulates until it does. Most major pools have low thresholds (0.001-0.005 BTC) that even small miners reach within a few days.
Selecting a mining pool involves weighing several factors. Fee structure matters, but reliability and payout consistency matter more. A pool that is frequently offline or slow to distribute rewards costs you more than a slightly higher fee at a reliable pool.
For most miners, the decision comes down to: FPPS payout method (for consistency), competitive fees (0-2.5%), reliable uptime and low latency, reasonable minimum payout, and transparent reporting. Your hosting provider may also recommend specific pools based on their infrastructure and network connectivity. For a deeper comparison, read solo mining vs pool mining.
This is a legitimate concern. When a single pool controls 30% of the network hash rate, it raises questions about centralization. However, pool miners can (and do) switch pools freely. If a pool operator acted maliciously, miners would leave overnight, collapsing the pool’s hash rate. Pools are custodians of hash rate, not owners of it.
Additionally, individual miners within a pool maintain control of their own hardware and Bitcoin wallet addresses. The pool never has custody of your mined Bitcoin (in FPPS/PPS+ models), and you can redirect your miner to a different pool in minutes. Pool centralization is a coordination concern, not a custody concern.
Yes. Switching pools takes minutes. You simply update the pool URL and worker credentials on your miner (or ask your hosting provider to do it). There is no lock-in, no penalty, and no lost Bitcoin. Any unpaid balance at your old pool will be paid out once it meets the minimum threshold.
No. Most pools allow you to register multiple miners (called “workers”) under a single account. Each worker is tracked individually for performance monitoring, but payouts go to the same wallet address.
Most major pools pay out daily, as long as your balance meets the minimum threshold (typically 0.001-0.005 BTC). Some pools offer more frequent payouts or the ability to set custom thresholds.
If your pool goes offline, your miner stops submitting work and earns nothing until the connection is restored. Good miners and hosting facilities configure backup pools: if the primary pool is unreachable, the miner automatically switches to a secondary pool.
Last updated: 2026-05-09
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