Now that you have your Bitcoin mining hardware, your next step is to join the best Bitcoin mining pool.Mining pools are groups of cooperating miners who agree to share block rewards in proportion to their contributed mining hashing power.While mining pools are desirable to the average miner as they smooth out rewards and make them more predictable, they unfortunately concentrate power to the mining pool’s owner.Miners can, however, choose to redirect their hashing power to a different mining pool at anytime.Before you join a mining pool you will also need Bitcoin mining software and a Bitcoin wallet.The list below details the biggest Bitcoin mining pools.This is based on info from Blockchain’s pool share chart:Antpool is a Chinese based mining pool, maintained by BitMain.Antpool mines about 15% of all blocks.DiscusFish, also known as F2Pool, is based in China.DiscusFish has mined about 12% of all blocks over the past six months.BitFury is one of the largest producers of Bitcoin mining hardware and chips.BitFury currently mines about 12% of all bitcoins in three data centers across Georgia.It’s a private pool and can’t be joined.BTCC is China’s third largest Bitcoin exchange.

Its mining pool currently mines about 7% of all blocks.ViaBTC is a somewhat new mining pool that has been around for about one year.BW, established in 2014, is another mining company based in China.It currently mines about 8% of all blocks.BTC.top is another new pool.It does not appear to have a website, so it may be a private pool.Slush was the first mining pool and currently mines about 6% of all blocks.Slush is probably one of the best and most popular mining pools despite not being one of the largest.Bitclub Network is a large mining pool but appears to be somewhat shady.bitcoin dohaWe recommend staying away from this pool.GBMiners is another somewhat shady pool that should probably not be joined.The comparison chart above is just a quick reference.litecoin to euro calculatorThe location of a pool does not matter all that much.litecoin mining power cost

Most of the pools have servers in every country so even if the mining pool is based in China, you could connect to a server in the US, for example.If you just want bitcoins, mining is NOT the best way to obtain coins.Buying bitcoins is the EASIEST and FASTEST way to purchase bitcoins.Get $10 worth of free bitcoins when you buy $100 or more at Coinbase.Bitcoin mining tends to gravitate towards countries with cheap electricity.As Bitcoin mining is somewhat centralized, 10-15 mining companies have claimed the vast majority of network hash power.With many of these companies in the same country, only a number of countries mine and export a significant amount of bitcoins.China mines the most bitcoins and therefore ends up “exporting” the most bitcoins.Electricity in China is very cheap and has allowed Chinese Bitcoin miners to gain a very large percentage of Bitcoin’s hash power.It’s rumored that some Chinese power companies point their excess energy towards Bitcoin mining facilities so that no energy goes to waste.China is home to many of the top Bitcoin mining companies:F2Pool, AntPool, BTCC, and BW.It’s estimated that these mining pools own somewhere around 60% of Bitcoins hash power, meaning they mine about 60% of all new bitcoins.Georgia is home to BitFury, one of the largest producers of Bitcoin mining hardware and chips.bitcoin graph november 2013

BitFury currently mines about 15% of all bitcoins.Sweden is home to KnCMiner, a Bitcoin mining company based in Stockholm.KnCMiner currently mines about 7.5% of all bitcoins.The US is home to 21 Inc., a Bitcoin mining company based in California.21 runs a large amount of miners, but also sells low powered bitcoin miners as part of their 21 Bitcoin computer.Most of the hash power from the 21 Bitcoin computers is pointed towards 21’s mining pool.mines about 3% of all bitcoins.The countries above mine about 80% of all bitcoins.The rest of the hash power is spread across the rest of the world, often pointed at smaller mining pools like Slush (Czech Republic) and Eligius (US).Table of ContentsWhat is a mining pool?Get a Bitcoin Wallet and Mining SoftwareThe Biggest Mining Pools1.uber ethereal long warGBMinersBest Bitcoin Mining Pool ComparisonJust Want Bitcoins?Which Countries Mine the most Bitcoins?ChinaGeorgiaSwedenUSOther CountriesA Note on PoolsWhy are Miners Important?While we can see which mining pools are the largest, it’s important to understand that the hash power pointed towards a mining pool isn’t necessarily owned by the mining pool itself.There are a few cases, like with BitFury and KnCMiner, where the company itself runs the mining operation but doesn’t run a mining pool.Bitcoin miners can switch mining pools easily by routing their hash power to a different pool, so the market share of pools is constantly changing.To make the list of top 10 miners, we looked at blocks found over the past 6 months using data from BlockTrail.The size of mining pools is constantly changing.ethereum coin max

We will do our best to keep this posted up-to-date.If you cloud mine then you don’t need to select a pool; the cloud mining company does this automatically.Bitcoin miners are crucial to Bitcoin and its security.Without miners, Bitcoin would be vulnerable and easy to attack.Most Bitcoin users don’t mine.However, miners are responsible for the creation of all new bitcoins and a fascinating part of the Bitcoin ecosystem.Mining, once done on the average home computer, is now mostly done in large, specialized warehouses with massive amounts of mining hardware.These warehouses usually direct their hashing power towards mining pools.Marco Streng is a miner, though he does not carry a pick around his base in south-western Iceland.Instead, he keeps tens of thousands of computers running 24 hours a day in fierce competition with others across the globe to earn Bitcoins.In the world of the web-based digital currency, it is not central banks that add new money to the system, but rather computers like Streng's which are awarded fresh Bitcoins in return for processing blocks of the latest Bitcoin transactions.Bitcoin can be used to send money instantly around the world, using individual Bitcoin addresses, free of charge with no need for third party checks, and is accepted by several major online retailers.The work Streng's computers and others do serves two purposes: they record and verify the roughly 225,000 daily Bitcoin transactions and - because they earn new Bitcoins for the work they do - steadily increase the currency in circulation, currently worth around $10 billion (roughly Rs.

67,164 crores).The process has come to be known as "mining" because it is slow and intensive, reaping a gradual reward in the same way that minerals such as gold are mined from the ground.But on Saturday, the reward for miners will be slashed in half.Written into Bitcoin's code when it was invented in 2008 was a rule dictating that the prize would be halved every four years, in a step designed to keep a lid on Bitcoin inflation.From around 5:00pm GMT on Saturday, instead of 25 Bitcoins up for grabs globally every 10 minutes, worth around $16,000 at the current rate, there will be just 12.5.That means only the mining companies with the leanest operations will survive the ensuing profit hit."Themost important thing is to be the most efficient miner," said Streng, the 26-year-old co-founder of German firm Genesis Mining, which has "mining farms" in Canada, the United States and eastern Europe, as well as in Iceland."When the others drop out, that means that they leave the market and give you a bigger share of the pie."Solving

puzzlesThe currency was founded eight years ago by a person or group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity has not been established.It was set up to operate independently of any single authority, instead relying on a decentralised global network.Because the Bitcoin miners operate autonomously, it is hard to track their numbers and size.puters like Streng's solve complex, automatically generated mathematical puzzles to help secure each block of transactions and keep the Bitcoin network safe from hacking or manipulation.For Bitcoin users, that security is one of the currency's main attractions.After the first miner secures a block of transactions, its work is verified by the other miners in the network, and that block is added to the "blockchain" - a shared record of all the transaction data - which is virtually impossible to tamper with. and travel company Expedia.The speed and anonymity of Bitcoin transactions, and lack of a central authority overseeing the currency, has drawn in many users, including those who want to get around capital controls.

It has also attracted investors who see it as a potentially lucrative commodity in itself.Keeping coolBitcoin mining started out as a hobby for tech geeks using their home computers in the early years of the virtual currency, but has become more specialised as Bitcoin usage expands.As the Bitcoin price has risen, as transaction numbers have grown and as the computers have become so specialised that they can only perform the function of Bitcoin mining, a whole industry has emerged.It can be profitable if firms are able to keep their expenses low.But the costs of running these machines, which cost around $1,800 each, and keeping them cool are fiendishly high.Streng reckons that, on average, it costs about $200 in electricity, including cooling power, to mine one Bitcoin.Equipment, rent, wages and business running costs are on top.On Saturday, all else being equal, the halving of the reward will double that cost, to $400, leaving a small margin for profit at the current exchange rate of around $640 per Bitcoin.In the same remote region of Iceland as the Genesis mining farm, on a former Cold War US military base lies a Bitcoin mining facility belonging to US firm Bitfury.

A nearby sub-station means electricity transmission costs are minimal.In the farm's two vast buildings, tens of thousands of mining machines whir away, producing a huge amount of heat, so the buildings are open to the cold Icelandic air at either side, save for particle filters to trap dust.Fans in the ceiling allow hot air to escape, but spin so fast that no rain or snow can enter during the winter.The noise produced by computers and fans is deafening.It is no coincidence that so many mining companies have chosen to build farms in Iceland - Chinese giant Bitmain also has a huge farm there.The volcanic island's cheap, bountiful, renewable energy supply, good internet connectivity, and cool temperatures make it an ideal location.The Icelandic authorities welcome the boost to the economy that the Bitcoin miners have brought - Bitmain opened its farm after an approach by the Icelandic embassy in Beijing.Genesis's Streng says he is such a valued client that the Icelandic energy companies fly him around in helicopters.Bitfury CEO Valery Vavilov, who estimates electricity makes up between 90 and 95 percent of Bitcoin mining costs, says one way his firm stays competitive is by making its own hardware.He also says the company, founded in 2011, is prepared for the mining reward cut.

"We're prepared - we already went through one halving event in 2012," he said."You can forecast this...so you have time to prepare, and if you're prepared you can live quite easily."Vavilov,petition from ChinaDespite the fact that the halving was expected, and that the price has risen, it has already claimed one casualty: Sweden's KnCMiner filed for bankruptcy at the end of May, citing the hit to its profits that the reward cut would bring.Daniel Masters, who runs a Jersey-based Bitcoin hedge fund and who bought a part of KnC's business, said the Swedish firm, like everybody else, had faced competition from miners in China, which are estimated to make up more than two-thirds of the Bitcoin network's computing power, or "hashpower"."Itturned out that the Chinese, who really stormed into the mining market in the last couple of years, could just do this whole thing cheaper," Masters said.Some Chinese miners get hydroelectric power from disused dams, while others use cheap coal-powered electricity.Bitfury and Genesis, though, say their lean operations allow them to fight off the competition.