How to Joining A “Mining Pool” for Bitcoin, CryptoCurrency
In previous chapters, I mentioned the term mining pools but never got the chance to elaborate upon them appropriately. Thus, let me explain the concept briefly.
Mining pools are parties created by miners to work and mine Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies together. Thus, their combined power results in sharing the rewards based on the hash rate contributed by all miners. For an individual miner, it will be tough to find blocks, unless that particular miner is filthy rich to set up a super powerful mining farm. So, to increase the probability of finding blocks, miners mine together to achieve results at a much faster rate. So, your most feasible step to mine Bitcoins is by joining a mining pool.
How Are You Rewarded In A Mining Pool?
It depends on the speed of generating hash rates. Hash rates are directly proportional to the chances of finding a new block, which in turn will bring out better rewards. Do note that each mining pool website that you are planning to join will ask for a particular pooling fee. So, expect to pay that as well.
Which Countries Are Mining The Most Coins?
Bitcoin mining gives more weight to countries with cheap energy consumption, such as electricity. Apparently, this has led to the centralization of the mining industries to only 10 to 15 major mining companies, which have taken over a considerable amount of hash power present in the blockchain network.
As most of the companies are concentrated in a few countries, only these few countries mine and export Bitcoins. Here is an insight into the major ones:
China
China is the leading miner of most of the Bitcoins, and hence acts as the major exporter of cryptocurrency coins as well. China owns many major pool-mining communities, which have been estimated to own around 60% of the hash power. This also means that 60% of newly mined Bitcoins come from China.
Georgia
Georgia is the residence of the famous Bitcoin mining company, BitFury, which not only controls 15% of the mining activities but is also one of the biggest manufacturers of Bitcoin chips and mining hardware.
Sweden
Sweden’s Stockholm is where KnCMiner, one of the significant Bitcoin mining players, has spread its roots. It contributes to 7.5% of the mining of Bitcoins.
U.S.
21 Inc., located in the U.S., is a BTC mining company situated in California. The firm not only executes a considerable amount of mining activities but also produces and sells low-powered miners for Bitcoin, which is a product of their 21 Bitcoin computer line. The majority of hash power generated from the 21 Bitcoin systems targets the mining pool owned by the company. Their mining power can contribute 3% of the total mining activities.
Rest Of The World
The companies mentioned above take care of 80% of the Bitcoin mining processes. The remaining 20% is spread out around the rest of the countries.
China’s Mining Pool Concentration
In later sections, I will discuss the best pool mining communities to join. But, before we proceed, you should know that China is the leading region for major pool mining activities. Also, most pool websites are in Chinese only. This may be a big issue, as the major part of centralization for mining is in this country.
This is possible because of the low electricity costs in its region, which has attracted more mining activity than any other country. Not to mention, China is the major manufacturing hub and can produce the hardware units needed for computations at a much lower price than other countries.
It’s rumored that some Chinese power companies point their excess energy towards Bitcoin mining facilities so that no energy goes to waste. Currently, 20 mining pools stand out as the most famous ones. Out of these almost 81% of the hash rates from the mining pools are controlled by Chinese regions.
