Which pool is the best for Ethereum mining? Payouts and sizes

In the previous article on mining cryptocurrencies, we found out which drivers are best for mining. To understand if there is the most profitable Ethereum mining pool, there are many factors that need to be considered that determine profitability.

Different platforms may offer multiple payment plans. The most common are Pay Per Last N Shares (PPLNS) and Pay Per Share (PPS). These abbreviations indicate how much you contributed to solving math problems in a particular block.

PPLNS:

• Payment depends on the number of shares (solutions) made by the miner.
• In fact, what is paid is how much has been decided for the mined block.
• However, there is an “N” in the payment formula, which is a fixed number depending on the pool.
• For example, if N is 40,000, your salary will be based on your contribution to the last 40,000 decisions.
• Simply put, the PPLNS payment system is more profitable if you rarely change the pool.

PPS:

• The pool pays you based on the average number of shares that you have contributed to the pool when you search for blocks.
• Each share sent is worth a predetermined amount of ETH.
• The payment method completely eliminates the luck factor. Poole may or may not be able to guess the block.

By conducting comparative tests of pools in a rapidly changing environment, it is almost impossible to predict mining income due to the huge number of influencing factors. In addition, some pools may set a hidden fee.

So how do you choose then? Let's define objective criteria for selection.

Convenient statistics are also important, i.e. display of interesting and important data for analysis. By analyzing statistics, you can determine pool size, popularity, limits, block sizes, and more.

If the statistics are not enough, it is possible that the owners of the pool are not talking about something, and you should be careful.

Let's take a look at the statistics of all known pools.

Now that you know what the payment types are in pools, and you are familiar with the table, it's time to choose.

Minimum payout pools list

1. 2miners.com - 0.0005
2. ethermine.org - 0.01
3. miningpoolhub.com - 0.01
4. flexpool.io - 0.01
5. ezil.me + - 0.01
6. hashcity.org - 0.01
7. cruxpool.com - 0.01
8. herominers.com - 0.01
9. crazypool.org - 0.01
10. baikalmine.com - 0.01
11. cominers.org - 0.01
12. pool2mine.net - 0.02
13. nanopool.org - 0.05
14. hiveon.net - 0.1

On the 2miners pool, you can set the lowest payout threshold - 0.0005. Payments in ETH are made within two hours after the payout threshold is reached. Payments in BTC and NANO are issued once a day at 12:00 UTC. On the Ethermine pool, you can set the minimum payout threshold of 0.01.

Best ethereum pools

Let's take a closer look at the best pools. We will follow their hashrate rating.

Ethermine

Ethermine is the pool with the highest hash power among all mining nodes. It is one of the most popular and has a large number of servers.

Ethermine has a payment distribution system like PPLNS. A minimum of 0.01 Ether is required to withdraw funds and they charge a 1% commission.

Pros:

• Pool with the most hashrate.
• Registration is not required.
• Standard fee.
• Safe and reliable.

Minuses:

• Inconvenient setting of the minimum payout. By default, the minimum withdrawal is 1 ETH.
• Extremely inconvenient and confusing gas commission setting. For example, the default limit is 40 Gwei. However, if the blockchain commission is higher, then the payout needs to be adjusted to a higher Gwei value each time.

F2Pool

It is one of the oldest Ethereum mining pools and has been in operation since April 2013. This service is the second most important Ethereum mining pool and has more than 200TH / s computing power among all mining nodes.

F2Pool offers two payment distribution systems, with a choice of PPS with a 3% withdrawal fee and PPS + with a 2% withdrawal fee. A minimum of 0.1 Ether is required to withdraw funds.

Pros:

• The second largest pool.
• There is a mobile application.
• Longest on the crypto market.

Minuses:

• Registration required.
• The commission is higher than Ethermine.
• Confusing interface.

Poolin

Poolin is one of the fastest growing pools. One of the nice things about it is that it allows you to gauge daily profitability versus the power you provide.

Poolin has a PPS + payment distribution system and charges a commission of 1%. A minimum of 0.2 Ether is required to withdraw funds.

Pros:

• Convenient automatic payments.
• There is a rating of the profitability of miners.

Minuses:

• Registration required.
• Confusing interface.

Hiveon pool

Hiveon is a platform that offers a simple configuration system. This is the fourth largest mining pool.

Hiveon Pool offers a PPS + payment distribution system and does not charge any commission. A minimum of 0.1 Ether is required to withdraw funds.

Pros:

• Convenient automatic payments.
• Simple and intuitive interface.
• There is a referral system.
• Lots of servers.

Minuses:

• Registration required.
• Not the most stable connection.

2Miners

Quite an interesting pool that allows you to convert payments to Bitcoin and NANO. Usually the reward is received in Ether, but this pool gives us the opportunity to receive it in another currency.

The pool offers a wealth of information. It even indicates the era and size of the DAG file in Ethereum. It has a payment distribution system like PPLNS and charges a commission of 1%. A minimum of 0.0005 Ether is required for withdrawal.

Pros:

• Conversion of payments.
• Detailed statistics.

Minuses:

• Not the best reviews.

Nanopool

This is another available option that has been around for many years. It also has a counter for the next DAG of the Ethereum era.

Nanopool has servers all over the world. Principle of distribution of PPLNS awards. The minimum payment can be reduced to 0.05 ETH.

Pros:

• Convenient and intuitive interface.
• Minimum automatic withdrawal of funds.
• Safe and secure pool.

Minuses:

• Sometimes statistics can be lagging.
• You need to manually set up the minimum payout 1 time.

MiningPoolHub

The pool has been operating since 2014. In addition, it offers a huge list of supported currencies, although this pool was launched for Ethereum.

MiningPoolHub charges a low 0.9% commission and has a payment distribution system like PPLNS. A minimum of 0.01 Ether is required for withdrawal.

Pros:

• Low commission.
• Minimum automatic withdrawal of funds.
• There is an auto-switching of algorithms.

Minuses:

• Registration required.

Binance Pool

The largest exchange offers the possibility of mining through its own pool. Binance offers a very small number of cryptocurrencies to , but Ethereum cannot be absent from them.

An interesting option is to be able to calculate your ROI based on the capacity you put in. Binance offers a PPS + payment distribution system and they charge a 0.5% fee. There is no minimum amount of Ether for withdrawal - it goes to the exchange.

Pros:

• Two in one: pool and exchange.
• Minimum automatic withdrawal of funds.
• Binance supports ETH 2.0 staking.

Minuses:

• You need to go through a strict KYC.
• Registration required.
• It is dangerous to keep funds on the exchange.
• There are reviews that Binance started blocking accounts for no reason.

Conclusions

The choice of a mining pool for Ethereum depends on many factors. We must take into account the capacity of the pool in relation to the global capacity of the network. We also need to explore the various mechanisms for rewarding our work.

Another factor to consider is the fees that the mining pool charges us for withdrawing Ether, and the minimum that we can withdraw.

We must highlight which among the most interesting of the chosen ones are Ethermine, F2Pool and MiningPoolHub. Each of them offers us different options, as well as different payment methods and commissions.

This comparison of these pools helps to see what else is important, besides the power and the amount of Ether that we receive on a daily basis.

What do you think of our pick of the best Ethereum mining pools? Write your favorite pool in the comments.

Maxim Anisimov specially for the Bytwork.com cryptocurrency journal.