Which mining pool should I use?
Short answer: tiny miners like a Bitaxe usually go solo, heater miners usually join a shared pool, and a hybrid pool sits in between. Here's how the popular Bitcoin pools compare.
1. Three kinds of pool
- Solo: your miner works alone. Find a block and you keep the whole reward; otherwise you get nothing. A lottery ticket.
- Shared: thousands of miners split every block the pool finds, minus a fee. Small, steady payouts.
- Hybrid: the miner that finds a block gets a big prize, and everyone else shares the rest.
The pool never changes your odds of finding a block. It only decides who gets paid what. Solo vs pool, in plain words.
2. Popular pools side by side
| Pool | Type | Fee | How you get paid | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Pool | Solo (also a shared mode) | No fee | Solo: if your miner finds a block, the reward goes straight to your Bitcoin address. | Bitaxe-class solo miners who want zero fees |
| Solo CKPool | Solo | 2% of a block you find | Only if your miner finds a block, paid to your address. No account needed. | Solo miners who want a long-running service (since 2014) |
| Parasite Pool | Hybrid | No fee | The miner that finds a block gets 1 BTC. The rest is split by work done since the pool's last block, paid over Lightning. | Small miners who want a lottery shot plus a share |
| OCEAN | Shared (TIDES) | 2% (1% with DATUM) | Paid from blocks the pool finds, once you pass about 0.0105 BTC. | Bigger miners who want payouts straight from the block |
| Braiins Pool | Shared (FPPS) | 2.5% | Steady daily payouts whether or not the pool found a block. Lightning payouts from 1 sat. | Heater and home miners who want small, steady sats |
Fees and payout rules as each pool states them on its own site, checked . Parasite Pool's rules are as reported by CoinDesk (Apr 2026). Pools can change their terms, so check before you switch. Bitcoin only.
3. What each choice means for your miner
How many sats a shared pool would pay each miner, how long it takes to reach OCEAN's payout threshold, and the average wait for a solo block.
| Miner | Stated hashrate | Shared pool, per day | To reach OCEAN's payout | Avg. wait for a solo block |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitaxe Gamma | ≈1.2 TH/s | ≈46 sats | about 62 years | about 16,000 years |
| NerdQaxe++ | ≈4.8 TH/s | ≈186 sats | about 15 years | about 4,100 years |
| Avalon Nano 3S | ≈6 TH/s | ≈232 sats | about 12 years | about 3,300 years |
| Avalon Mini 3 | ≈37.5 TH/s | ≈1,450 sats | about 24 months | about 520 years |
| Avalon Q | ≈90 TH/s | ≈3,481 sats | about 10 months | about 220 years |
Live estimate from mempool.space network data (BTC ≈ $80,382, network ≈ 1,026 EH/s). Shared-pool sats use Braiins' 2.5% fee, the OCEAN column its 2% fee, both with a 10% safety margin, so real payouts can be a bit higher or lower and change every day. The solo wait is an average: a block could come tomorrow or never.
Example: a Bitaxe Gamma has about a 1 in 16,000 chance a year of finding a block. Solo, that win is the whole reward, about $250,000 minus any fee. On Parasite Pool the same win pays 1 BTC, and each time the pool finds a block you also get a small share of it. Same odds, different prize.
4. Which should you pick?
- Bitaxe or another tiny miner: solo on Public Pool or Solo CKPool, or Parasite Pool if you'd like a few sats along the way. A shared pool pays these miners only pennies.
- Desk miner (5–10 TH/s): either. Solo is still a long shot; a shared pool like Braiins pays a small amount every day over Lightning (see the table).
- Heater miner: a shared pool, so your heat earns a little back. Braiins for daily payouts, OCEAN if you're fine waiting for its threshold.
5. Safety tips
- Use your own Bitcoin address from a wallet you control. Never type in an address someone sends you.
- Set a fallback pool. New pools sometimes go offline, so give your miner a second pool to switch to.
- Watch for hidden fees in firmware. Some modified firmware on used miners sends part of your hashrate elsewhere. Stick to the maker's firmware or open-source builds.
- Be wary of "pools" that sell tokens or cloud contracts. A real Bitcoin pool just needs your miner and your address.
Still picking a miner?
Bitaxe Gamma: the usual first solo miner. From €100.00 at Power Mining today.
Go to Power Mining ↗affiliate linkAvalon Nano 3S: a quiet desk miner and small heater. From $219.00 at Solo Satoshi today.
Go to Solo Satoshi ↗affiliate linkAvalon Mini 3: a room heater that pool-mines. From $789.00 at Altair Technology today.
Go to Altair Technology ↗
Questions
What is the best mining pool for a Bitaxe?
Most Bitaxe owners mine solo, because a shared pool pays a tiny miner only a few sats a day. Public Pool (no fee) and Solo CKPool (2% of a block you find) are the common solo picks. Parasite Pool is a middle ground: 1 BTC if your miner finds the block, plus a share of every block the pool finds.
Which pool should a heater miner use?
Usually a shared pool, so the heat you'd pay for anyway earns a little back each day. An FPPS pool like Braiins pays daily whether or not it found a block. OCEAN pays from the blocks it finds, once you pass its payout threshold.
Does the pool change my chance of finding a block?
No. Your chance depends on your miner's hashrate versus the whole network. The pool only decides how a block's reward is shared and what fee you pay.
Can I switch pools?
Yes, anytime. It's a setting in your miner (the pool address and your Bitcoin address). Most miners also have a fallback pool setting in case the main one goes down.
Do I need an account?
Not for Public Pool, Solo CKPool or OCEAN: you use your Bitcoin address as the username. Braiins Pool uses an account.
Keep reading
Not financial advice. We're not paid by any pool. Earnings aren't guaranteed and change with Bitcoin's price and network difficulty.