What Is a Mining Pool?
A mining pool is a group of Bitcoin miners who combine their hashing power and split the block rewards according to how much work each one contributed. Think of a lottery syndicate: instead of each person buying one ticket and hoping, the group buys thousands of tickets and agrees to share any prize. Each member’s expected value (what they would win on average over a very long time) stays the same, but the variance (how wildly actual results swing around that average) shrinks enormously.
Here is why that matters. On 6 November 2026 the network ran at about 1,035 EH/s (an EH/s, exahash per second, is a million TH/s; see today’s numbers). A single Antminer S21 at 200 TH/s is about one five-millionth of that. With roughly 52,560 blocks a year, its expected share is about 0.01 blocks a year: one block about every 98 years on average. The chance of finding even one block in five years is about 5%. In a pool, the same machine is credited with about 8,750 satoshis (0.0000875 BTC) every day instead, before the pool’s fee.
That is why almost all Bitcoin mining runs through pools. The exceptions are very large operations with enough hashing power to find blocks often on their own, and hobbyists who choose to play the lottery (see below).
Solo Mining vs Pool Mining
Solo Mining
In solo mining, your machine works on blocks you build yourself (usually from your own full node). If it finds a valid block, you keep the whole reward: the 3.125 BTC block subsidy (the newly created bitcoin) plus the transaction fees. No pool fee, no sharing.
The problem is variance. Expected income is the same as in a pool, but for a small miner it arrives as one huge payment that will very probably never come. The electricity bill, meanwhile, arrives every month.
Solo Mining as a Lottery
Some people solo mine on purpose with small, quiet devices, either with their own node or through a solo pool: a service that hands out work but pays the entire block reward to whichever participant finds the block, minus a small fee. Now and then a tiny machine wins a full block and makes the news; most never win. Treat it as a lottery ticket with a small electricity cost, not as income. The lesson on home mining, solo lotteries and mining scams covers the devices and the odds in detail.
Pool Mining
In a mining pool, your machine works on blocks the pool coordinates. Whenever anyone in the pool finds a block, the reward is shared among all participants according to their work. Instead of a rare jackpot, your earnings are credited in small amounts every day and paid out to you once they reach the pool’s minimum payout.
Comparison Table
| Factor | Solo Mining | Pool Mining |
|---|---|---|
| Block reward | 100% when found | Proportional share |
| Payment variance | Extremely high | Low and predictable |
| How earnings arrive (one S21) | A whole block about once a century on average; most likely never | Credited daily; paid out once you reach the pool’s minimum |
| Fees | None (or a small solo-pool fee) | Usually 0–4% of earnings |
| Setup | Run your own full node, or use a solo pool | Point the miner at the pool’s address |
| Hashrate needed for regular income | Roughly 700 PH/s or more (1 PH/s = 1,000 TH/s) | Any amount |
| Who chooses the transactions | You, with your own node; usually the operator, with a solo pool | Usually the pool operator |
Solo mining only gives a business-like income if you control enough hashing power to find blocks several times a month. At November 2026 hashrate, three blocks a month takes roughly 700 PH/s (petahashes per second; 1 PH/s is 1,000 TH/s, and 1,000 PH/s make 1 EH/s), the output of about 3,500 S21s. For everyone else, pools are the practical choice.
How Mining Pools Work
Work Distribution and Shares
The pool runs a full Bitcoin node and builds a block template: the candidate block, including which transactions go in and the coinbase transaction that pays the reward. To collect the most fees, it fills the template with the transactions paying the highest fee rates first (the fees lesson explains this auction). It sends work based on that template to every connected machine using the Stratum protocol (the standard language between pools and miners). The pool also sets each machine an easier target than the real network one.
When a machine finds a hash below that easier target, it sends it to the pool as a share: proof that it is really working, in proportion to its speed. Almost all shares are too weak to be a real block. Every so often one also meets the network’s target, and that share is a valid block for the whole pool. Shares that arrive too late to count, because the pool has already moved on to a new block, are called stale shares; a fast, nearby connection keeps them low.
Payment Methods
Pools divide the rewards in different ways. The most common:
PPS (Pay Per Share): the pool pays a fixed amount for every valid share, whether or not the pool finds a block. The pool takes the risk of bad luck, so it charges more. Classic PPS pays only for the block subsidy; the pool keeps the transaction fees.
FPPS (Full Pay Per Share): like PPS, but the payout also includes your share of the expected transaction fees. It gives the steadiest income and is the most common method among large pools. Fees are typically 2–4%.
PPLNS (Pay Per Last N Shares): the pool pays only when it actually finds a block, sharing the reward among the shares submitted in a recent window. Income goes up and down with the pool’s luck. Fees are lower because miners carry the risk. Your shares stay in the payout window for a while, so blocks the pool finds after you disconnect still pay you for them; the window mainly stops miners from gaining by hopping between pools.
Which Payment Method Should You Choose?
For most small miners, FPPS is the simplest: steady income that includes fees. PPLNS-type schemes suit miners who run around the clock and accept some ups and downs in exchange for lower fees.
Major Bitcoin Mining Pools in 2026
The table shows the ten pools that found the most blocks in the 30 days to 5 November 2026, with each one’s share, from mempool.space. Shares shift from month to month; check the current figures on mempool.space/mining.
| Pool | Share of blocks (30 days to 5 Nov 2026) | Main payout method | Who holds your earnings before payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foundry USA | 25.7% | FPPS | The pool |
| AntPool | 20.6% | FPPS / PPLNS | The pool |
| F2Pool | 16.9% | PPS+ | The pool |
| ViaBTC | 9.3% | PPS+ / PPLNS / solo | The pool |
| SpiderPool | 5.5% | — | — |
| MARA Pool | 5.2% | — | — |
| Luxor | 4.5% | — | — |
| SECPOOL | 4.1% | — | — |
| OCEAN | 3.4% | TIDES (a PPLNS variant) | Above its payout threshold, nobody: paid directly in the block. Below it, the pool |
| Braiins Pool | 1.6% | FPPS | The pool |
A dash means we haven’t checked that detail. Fees and minimum payouts change often and differ by payout method, so check each pool’s own fee page before you connect.
Foundry USA Pool
Foundry is the largest pool. It is run by Foundry Digital, part of Digital Currency Group (DCG), and grew quickly after China’s 2021 ban pushed mining to North America. It uses FPPS and mainly serves institutions and large operations.
AntPool
AntPool was launched in 2014 by Bitmain, the company that makes Antminer machines; Bitmain says the pool has been independent since May 2021. Owning an Antminer doesn’t tie you to AntPool; any machine can point at any pool.
F2Pool and ViaBTC
F2Pool, founded in 2013, is one of the oldest active pools and mines several cryptocurrencies besides Bitcoin. ViaBTC offers PPS+, PPLNS and a solo option, and is linked to the CoinEx exchange. PPS+ pays the block subsidy per share, like PPS, but splits transaction fees only from blocks the pool actually finds.
OCEAN
OCEAN launched in late 2023 with backing from Jack Dorsey and is built around reducing the pool’s power. Its rewards are written straight into the block’s coinbase transaction: once a miner’s earnings pass OCEAN’s payout threshold (0.01048576 BTC in November 2026), the next block the pool finds pays that miner’s share directly to the miner’s own Bitcoin address, so the pool never holds it. Below the threshold, earnings build up with the pool (or are paid over Lightning, Bitcoin’s network for small, fast payments, if the miner sets that up), so for small miners OCEAN is custodial too: one S21 needs about four months to reach the threshold. It uses its own payout scheme, TIDES, a variant of PPLNS. OCEAN chose not to wait for Stratum V2 and built its own protocol, DATUM, which lets miners build their own block templates; miners who do so get half off the pool fee.
Braiins Pool (formerly Slush Pool)
Braiins Pool was the first mining pool, launched by Marek “Slush” Palatinus in November 2010. It switched from a score-based scheme to FPPS in December 2023, with a 2.5% fee. Braiins’ founders co-designed Stratum V2, and the company also makes the Braiins OS mining firmware.
How to Join a Mining Pool
Step 1: Choose Your Pool
- Location: servers close to you mean fewer stale shares
- Payment method: FPPS for steady income, PPLNS-type for lower fees
- Fees: usually 0–4%. On one S21 earning about $6.65 a day (November 2026; the profitability lesson shows where that figure comes from), each percentage point is about $24 a year; it adds up across many machines
- Custody: custodial pools hold your unpaid balance; coinbase-payout pools like OCEAN pay you inside the block once your earnings pass their payout threshold, and hold smaller balances until then
- Minimum payout: a lower threshold means less money sitting with the pool. But every on-chain payout becomes a separate coin in your wallet, and a very small coin can cost a large share of its value in fees to spend later, because fees are charged by size, not by amount (see how fees work and UTXO management). Pick a threshold that balances the two, or take payouts over Lightning if the pool offers them
- Transparency: does the pool publish its blocks and, if it holds balances, prove it has the funds to cover them (proof of reserves)?
Step 2: Prepare a Payout Address and Create an Account
You need a Bitcoin address that you control. If you don’t have a wallet yet, start with what a Bitcoin wallet is and, for anything you plan to keep, a hardware wallet. Pool payouts are public on the blockchain, so many miners use a separate wallet account just for mining, and use a fresh address where the pool allows it (see why new addresses protect your privacy).
Most pools ask for an email address and your payout address. Some, like OCEAN, need no account at all: you use your Bitcoin address as the username.
Step 3: Configure Your ASIC Miner
Open the miner’s settings page in a browser (by typing its local IP address) and enter:
- Pool URL: the Stratum address your pool gives you (for example
stratum+tcp://pool.example.com:3333) - Worker name: the label the pool uses to show this machine on your dashboard, usually your username plus a name for the machine (for example
username.worker1) - Password: often just “x”; most pools ignore it
Set a backup pool in slot 2 or 3. If your main pool goes down, the miner switches automatically instead of sitting idle.
Step 4: Monitor
Check the pool’s dashboard to confirm that:
- Your machine is sending shares (its hashrate appears)
- The reported hashrate matches what the machine should do
- Stale and rejected shares stay below 1–2%
- Payouts reach your address on schedule
Most pools can email you or send an app alert if a machine goes offline.
Pool Centralization Concerns
When a few pools find most blocks, a few operators decide which transactions go into most blocks. That is the main way mining can drift away from the decentralization that makes Bitcoin valuable.
The Current Concentration
In the month to 5 November 2026, the three largest pools (Foundry, AntPool and F2Pool) found about 63% of blocks, and the top four about 72%. Independent analysis also suggests that several smaller pools use the same block templates and the same payout custodian as AntPool, which would make real control more concentrated than the pool names suggest. That conclusion is inferred from template and payout data, not proven ownership. If a few operators coordinated, they could censor transactions or, with a majority, attempt a 51% attack.
What Limits Pool Power
Pool operators don’t own most of the machines; individual miners do, and they can switch pools in minutes. That has happened: in 2014, when GHash.io approached 50% of hashrate, miners left until its share fell.
Can a pool steal the reward? In most pools (PPS, FPPS and many PPLNS pools) the coinbase transaction pays the pool’s address, and the pool pays miners later. Your unpaid balance is therefore held by the pool, and you depend on it to pay. In coinbase-payout pools such as OCEAN, miners whose earnings are above the payout threshold are paid inside the block itself, so the pool has nothing of theirs to hold back; smaller miners’ earnings wait with the pool until they pass the threshold. In either case a pool cannot touch coins already in your own wallet.
Stratum V2 and DATUM: Giving Template Control Back to Miners
Under the original Stratum protocol (V1), the pool builds the block template and miners just hash it. Stratum V2, designed by Jan Čapek and Pavel Moravec (the founders of Braiins) together with Matt Corallo, adds encryption and lets miners build their own templates when the pool supports it. OCEAN’s DATUM is a separate protocol with the same goal. Both are still used by a minority of hashing power. The more miners pick their own transactions, the less a pool operator can censor, and the more the pool becomes just a way of sharing rewards.
Pool concentration is a real concern, but it isn’t permanent: miners can move, and protocols like Stratum V2 and DATUM spread the power over transactions. If you mine, choosing a pool that lets you build your own templates is the most direct way to help. More on how mining and security fit together is in how proof of work secures Bitcoin.
Key Takeaways
- A pool combines many miners’ hashing power so rewards arrive regularly; expected earnings stay the same (minus the fee), but the swings shrink.
- One S21 mining alone would find a block about once a century on average (November 2026). Solo mining with small machines is a lottery, not income.
- FPPS gives the steadiest payouts, including transaction fees; PPLNS-type schemes cost less but vary with luck.
- Most pools are custodial: the block reward goes to the pool, which pays you later. Coinbase-payout pools like OCEAN pay you inside the block once your earnings pass their payout threshold; below it, they hold your balance too.
- In the month to 5 November 2026, the top three pools found about 63% of blocks. Miners can switch pools, and Stratum V2 and DATUM let miners choose their own transactions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to join a mining pool to mine Bitcoin?
No, but without one a small miner will almost certainly never be paid. Solo, a single Antminer S21 would wait about a century on average for a block. Solo mining only gives a regular income with roughly 700 PH/s or more: about three blocks a month on average, and even then some months bring none.
How much do mining pools charge?
Usually 0% to 4%, depending on the pool and payout method. FPPS pools charge more because they carry the risk of bad luck; PPLNS-type pools charge less because miners carry it. At November 2026 numbers, a 2.5% fee on one S21 costs about $0.17 a day, roughly $60 a year.
Can a mining pool steal my bitcoin?
A pool can’t take bitcoin from your wallet. But most pools are custodial: they hold your unpaid balance until it reaches the payout threshold, and if the pool disappeared you would lose that balance. To limit the risk, use established pools and set a payout threshold low enough that little sits with the pool, but not so low that each payout is a tiny coin that is expensive to spend. Coinbase-payout pools pay you inside the block, but only once your earnings pass their payout threshold; at OCEAN that is about four months of output for one S21, and until then the pool holds your balance too, unless you take its Lightning payouts.
What happens if my mining pool gets hacked?
The worst case is losing unpaid balances and some downtime. Your machine is unaffected; you point it at another pool, which is why a backup pool should already be set. The blockchain itself isn’t affected by a pool hack.
Should I choose a small pool to help decentralization?
It helps, and it doesn’t reduce your expected earnings. What changes depends on the payout method. With FPPS, the pool pays you steadily whatever its size. With PPLNS-type schemes such as OCEAN’s TIDES, a small pool finds blocks less often, so your payouts are less frequent and larger. A pool that lets you build your own templates (Stratum V2 or DATUM) helps decentralization more than size alone.
Check Your Understanding
1. A pool and solo mining give the same expected earnings. So why does almost every small miner use a pool?
Answer
Because of variance. One S21 alone would find a block about once a century on average, so in practice it would most likely never be paid while its electricity bill arrives every month. A pool turns that tiny chance of a big prize into small, steady daily earnings of about the same average value, minus the pool’s fee, paid out once they reach the pool’s minimum.
2. Your FPPS pool shows an unpaid balance of 0.004 BTC. Whose bitcoin is it right now, in practice?
Answer
It is owed to you, but it sits in the pool’s wallet: in custodial pools the block reward goes to the pool’s address and is paid out later. If the pool failed, you could lose that balance. A lower payout threshold reduces this risk, as long as each payout stays large enough to be worth spending later. Switching to a coinbase-payout pool such as OCEAN would not help at this size unless you take its Lightning payouts: 0.004 BTC is below its on-chain threshold of about 0.0105 BTC, so without Lightning OCEAN would be holding it too.
3. Why does it matter who builds the block template, if the pool can’t steal your coins?
Answer
Whoever builds the template decides which transactions get into the block. If a handful of pool operators build the templates for most blocks, they could exclude certain transactions. Stratum V2 and DATUM let individual miners build their own templates, spreading that power out.