Analysis on main Bitcoin mining-pools
By: Mattia Franzoni
Tags: Bitcoin

1. BTC.COM

This pool was launched on September 2016 and is currently owned by Bitmain Technologies Ltd., the same Chinese company that manages the second pool with the most hashrate, AntPool.

BTC.com supports the complete pay-per-share payment method (FPPS). Supporters say it is more beneficial to miners as it calculates and adds a standard transaction fee to normal block rewards, making the overall payment higher than the standard pay-per-share (PPS) payout.

Currently this pool has got a hashrate of 7621.00 PH/s with a network share of 28.1%.

In this link you can consult the statistics of BTC.COM pool: https://btc.com/stats/pool/BTC.com

2. ANTPOOL

AntPool is a mining pool based in China and owned by Bitmain. Antpool currently mines about 11% of all blocks.

AntPool is managed by the same company that manages the btc.com pool. The company is called Bitmain Technologies Ltd. based in Beijing, China. It is among the most famous companies in the mining industry. The company was created to design new-age ASIC chips that were able to mine bitcoins.

Currently, the AntPool hashrate stands at around 2,927.40 PH/s with a network share of 10.9%.

In this link you can consult the statistics of AntPool: https://btc.com/stats/pool/AntPool

3. VIABTC

ViaBTC is a mining pool of Bitcoin, Litecoin and BitcoinCash.

ViaBTC requires a 4% of commission for the PPS payment system and a 2% of commission for the PPLNS.

ViaBTC (ViaBTC Technology Ltd.) was founded in May 2016 as a start-up dedicated to cryptocurrencies. Use the PPS+ like payment method. It is suitable for the Asian market because the servers needed to connect to the pool are only in China.

Currently, the ViaBtc pool hashrare stands at around 2799.78 PH/s with a network share of 10.5%.

In this link you can consult the statistics of ViaBTC pool: https://btc.com/stats/pool/ViaBTC

4. F2POOL

F2Pool is one of the first pools created. In this pool it is possible to work on various algorithms such as: BTC, LTC, ZEC and ETH. The pool was launched on 2013 and dubbed “Discus Fish”. The service is located in China. This pool also offers the NMC + SYS mining service combined for BTC and DOGE for LTC.

This pool works with the PPS scheme being among the first to have launched it on the market.

Currently, the F2Pool hashrate stands at around 2,838.34 PH/s with a network share of 10.2%.

In this link you can see the statistics of the F2Pool: https://btc.com/stats/pool/F2Pool

5. SLUSHPOOL

Slush Pool was the first bitcoin mining pool in the world. It is managed by Satoshi Labs, a Czech technology company, which is also the creator of the first offline wallet, the TREZOR Bitcoin Safe. It was also the first company to create the world’s first map of all merchants that accept bitcoins in the world, called CoinMap. Satoshi Labs are the original developers of the mining Stratum Protocol currently used by other mining pools.

Slush Pool appeared online on November 27th, 2010 under the name Bitcoin Pooled Mining Server. However, the website was subsequently renamed and changed its name to Slush Pool (slushpool.com) and has retained the same name until today.

Currently, the Slush Pool hashrate stands at around 2,838.34 PH/s with a 9.3% of network share.

In this link you can see the statistics of Slush Pool: https://btc.com/stats/pool/SlushPool

6. BTC.TOP

BTC.TOP is a relatively new pool, created on Chinese soil, which, in less than a year since its existence, has become one of the leaders in the production of the most common cryptocurrencies.

The company started its work on December 2016, at the beginning of the Summer 2017, it has managed to gain significant market shares from the most experienced competitors and for much longer time on the market.

BTC.TOP was founded by Chinese investor Jian Gorom, the project website is only available in Chinese language. At the moment, registrations to the pool are closed.

Currently, the BTC.TOP hashrate stands at around 2,574.31 PH/s with a network share of 8.5%.

In this link you can consult the statistics of BTC.ROP pool: https://btc.com/stats/pool/BTC.TOP

7. BTCC

BTCC is a mining pool operated by the BTCC company based in China. The company also manages other services such as: an exchange, a wallet and much more.

BTCC has got servers all over the world so that anyone can use their pool in the best way. Currently, the servers are in the following states: United States, South America, Europe, China and Africa.

An interesting feature of the BTCC pool is that it shares the Bitcoin transaction fees with its miners.

Currently, the BTCC hashrate stands at around 660.08 PH/s with a network share of 2.5%.

In this link you can consult the statistics of the BTCC pool: https://btc.com/stats/pool/BTCC

8. BITFURY

BitFury is currently the eighth in the standings, but until recently it was among the top three.

The main difference with the other pools is that BitFury is a private pool. BitFury creates its own hardware and then uses it on its own pool in order to be completely autonomous.

Currently, the BitFury hashrate stands at around 792.10 PH/s with a 2.3% of network share.

In this link you can see the statistics of BitFury pool: https://btc.com/stats/pool/BitFury

9. BITCLUB.NETWORK

BitClub is BTC and ETH pool, created on October 2014. Behind this pool, there is a company that sells cloud mining contracts, through the famous network marketing methodology.

Currently, the BitClub hashrate stands at around 462.06 PH/s with a network share of 1.66%.

In this link you can see the statistics of BitClub pool: https://btc.com/stats/pool/BitClub

10. HAOPOOL

Founded on 2014, it is another mining company based in China.

Currently, the HaoPool hashrate stands at around 264.42 PH/s with a network share of 1.6%.

In this link you can see the statistics of HaoPool: https://btc.com/stats/pool/HaoPool

MINING CENTRALIZATION

An information that can make us reason through the graph data shown above, is that most of the important mining farm and mining pools are located in China. At the moment, centralizing mining in China is one of the biggest problems for Bitcoin.

CREDITS

This article was originally written in Italian by Mattia Franzoni and translated in English by Stefania Stimolo for NovaMining.