Best Bitcoin Mining Pools - Legit Sites

MORE IN THIS CATEGORY Bitcoin Mining

What is a Mining Pool?

Mining pools are groups of cooperating miners that agree to share Bitcoin block rewards in proportion to their contributed mining hash power.

Mining pools are desirable to the average miner as they make miner rewards more predictable.

Miners can, however, choose to redirect their hashing power to a different mining pool at anytime.

Key Takeaways

  • The main benefit of a mining pool is to generate more consistent payouts from your miner.
  • Braiins and Luxor are some of the best mining pools.
  • You'll need mining software, hardware and a Bitcoin wallet before you join a mining pool.

Bitcoin Mining Pool Comparison

Pool Fees Payout
antminer s19 Foundry USA 2% FPPS
antminer s19 Antpool 1.5-4% PPLNS and PPS
antminer s19 F2 Pool 2.5% PPS+
viabtc ViaBTC 4% PPS+
binance mining pool Binance 4% FPPS
binance mining pool Luxor 2-3% FPPS
PPS
btc.com mining pool BTC.com 2.5% PPS+
sbi crypto mining pool SBI Crypto 0.5% - 1.5% FFPS
PPLNS+
antminer s19 Braiins Pool 0-2% Score
whatsminer m30s+ Poolin 2.5% PPS+

Largest Mining Pools - Mining Pools List

The list below details the biggest Bitcoin mining pools:

mining share per pool

1. Foundry USA

Foundry USA is based in America. It mines about 30% of all Bitcoin blocks.

➤ MORE: Bitcoin mining profit calculator

2. Antpool

Antpool is a mining pool based in China and owned by BitMain. Antpool mines about 23% of all blocks.

3. F2Pool

F2Pool is based in China and mines about 10% of all blocks.

4. ViaBTC

ViaBTC is a public pool which mines about 9% of all blocks. They are based in China, but have a website fully available in English.

5. Binance Pool

Binance Pool is a fast growing pool owned and operated by Malta-based exchange Binance.

Binance is already one of the largest crypto exchanges on Earth and they are moving aggressively to expand their reach in mining as well.

Binance mines about 8% of all blocks

6. Luxor

Luxor is a US based pool. They account for 3% of all hashing power.

7. BTC.com

BTC.com is a public mining pool that can be joined and mines about 6.5% of all blocks. We strongly recommend joining Slush Pool or Poolin instead.

8. Poolin

Poolin is based in China and mines around 1.5% of all blocks.

9. SBI Crypto

This is a Japanese pool that currently mines about 1.5% of the blocks.

10. Braiins Pool

Braiins Pool, previously known as Slush Pool, was the first mining pool and currently mines almost 1.24% of all blocks.


Some other pools are:

➤ MORE: Bitcoin mining machines & hardware

Legit Sites & Scam Sites

Any site claiming “free consistent payouts” or similar is likely a scam.

A real mining pool will only pay you if you have your own mining ASIC or hardware.

How to Join a Mining Pool

mining pool

Here are the exact steps to join a mining pool:

Step 1: Get an ASIC Miner

An ASIC/mining hardware are computers designed for Bitcoin Mining. You’ll need to connect your ASIC to your mining pool.

Step 2: Get mining software

Mining software allows you to connect your miner to the Bitcoin network. Your mining pool will tell you what to put into the software so that you can connect to the pool.

Step 3: Get a bitcoin wallet

A Bitcoin wallet allows you to receive your mining rewards. Your mining pool will ask you for a wallet address.

Step 4: Pick a mining pool

Once you have done steps 1-3, you can join a mining pool.

Braiins pool is a good pool to start with.

braiins mining pool

It was the first mining pool and has helped people mine more than 1.3 million BTC since it started in 2011.

You’ll need to create an account, connect your miners, and add a wallet to get payouts.

This is what the dashboard will look like once you join:

mining share per pool

And this is how it will show your payouts and earnings from mining:

braiins mining payout

Free Bitcoin Mining Pool

As far as we can tell, there is currently now mining pool that’s free.

All mining pools charge a fee, as you can see in our comparison table above.

Mining Pools vs Software

Mining pools are a way to join with other miners.

By joining with other miners, you’re able to mine more Bitcoin blocks, which means you’ll get paid more consistently.

Mining software is simply software that allows you to connect your mining ASIC to the Bitcoin network.

What Are Cloud Mining Pools?

bitcoin mining pool

Cloud mining is usually a scam.

Cloud miners claim to have mining hardware that mines for you. However, in Bitcoin’s history, these have mostly been scams.

Do Bitcoin Mining Pools Work for Ethereum?

Some websites offer mining pools for both Bitcoin and Ethereum miners. You’ll have to check with your specific pool if they offer both or only Bitcoin mining.

Pool Concentration by Country

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, here are our estimates on which countries have the most mining pools:

China - 47%
The United States - 34%
Malta - 8%
The Czech Republic - 2%
Japan - 2%

Keep in mind, this is just hashrate by pool.

Miners can easily switch their hashrate from one pool to another in a few minutes.

➤ MORE: Is bitcoin mining profitable in 2023?

Get Mining Hardware (Also Called a Bitcoin ASIC)

What is mining hardware/ASICs?

Mining hardware is specialized computers, created solely for the purpose of mining bitcoins. The more powerful your hardware is–and the more energy efficient–the more profitable it will be to mine bitcoins.

You’ll need one of these before you join a pool.

Miner Hash Power Price*
antminer s19 Bitmain Antminer S19 XP 140.0 TH/s $3,000-4,000 USD
antminer s19 Pro Whatsminer M53 230.0 TH/s $3,000-6,000 USD
whatsminer m30s+ WhatsMiner M30S+ 100.0 TH/s $1,000-2,000 USD

*BuyBitcoinWorldwide.com averages prices from various online sources. Actual prices may vary depending on seller.

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 confused with cloud mining. Cloud mining is where you pay a service provider to mine for you and you get the rewards.

Important Mining Pool Terminology to Understand

Pay Per Share

The Pay-per-Share (PPS) method immediately rewards miners for their work towards helping the group find a block. The payment comes from the group’s current funds, and miners can take out their earnings right away.

Pay Per Last N Shares

When a block is discovered, each miner’s reward is determined by how much they contributed to the last N shares of the pool. So, if the round was quick, all miners earn more, but if it took longer, they earn less.

Full Pay Per Share or Pay Per Share+

In the PPS method, the miner receives a payment based on the predicted block reward. However, miners earn not just from this block reward but also from transaction fees. FPPS is like PPS, but it includes both the expected block reward and the transaction fees in the payout.

Latest Mining Pool Developments

We’ll use this section to keep track of the latest mining pool industry news we learn.

El Salvador Launches Its Own Mining Pool

Volcano Energy and Luxor Technology launched Lava Pool, El Salvador’s first Bitcoin mining pool powered by renewable geothermal energy. This aims to advance El Salvador’s Bitcoin-integrated energy efforts, with mining profits reinvested in the nation’s energy infrastructure, fostering economic growth, technological progress, and sustainability.

Article Sources

BuyBitcoinWorldWide writers are subject-matter experts and base their articles on firsthand information, like interviews with experts, white papers or original studies and experience. We also use trusted research and studies from other well-known sources. You can learn more about our editorial guidelines.

  1. Pool Detective: Mining Pool Monitoring - MIT, https://dci.mit.edu/pool-monitoring
  2. The brutal truth about Bitcoin - Brookings, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-brutal-truth-about-bitcoin/
  3. Mining Pools - Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_pool
  4. Bitcoin Magazine - Volcano Energy Bitcoin Mining Pool Goes Live, https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/volcano-energy-bitcoin-mining-pool-goes-live

About the Author

jordan tuwiner

Jordan Tuwiner is the founder of BuyBitcoinWorldwide.com. He studied computer science at Towson University and holds an online degree in trading & cryptocurrency. Jordan has been writing about Bitcoin since 2015. His work has been featured in The Guardian, International Business Times, Forbes, VentureBeat, CoinDesk and many other top Bitcoin media outlets.



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