Cryptocurrency is in a way shaping our future better and secure as it brings in the notion of decentralization. The decentralization comes into picture when blockchain is introduced. And then related to blockchain comes mining. Mining is probably the oldest activity of cryptocurrency which started when in 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto added the first block to the bitcoin network. Let’s look into some analytics with reference to Blockchain.info.

TOP 5 BITCOIN MINING POOL

• There are around 114 mining countries

• More than 1 lakh miners

• Miners revenue is $4.1 billion

• 13% Electricity consumed

• 9965 nodes in the network

It is said that more than 80% bitcoin mining has been done but it will exhaust only by 2140 as the calculations are getting complex and also mining is consuming more energy and time. In fact, around 30 to 60 percent of profit gained is spent on electricity.

The crypto-world is currently seen gain huge enthusiasts which are paying heed to mining pools. The top 5 mining pools are mentioned below:

BTC.com – 26.8%

The highest position in mining pool goes to BTC.com which is a web wallet and is owned by BITMAIN technologies. It was launched on 13 September 2016 with a settlement mode of pay-per-share (PPS). This is a whole new choice of Bitcoin miners as it is simple to use, with a good architecture, much more stable and with a better experience.

Antpool – 15.5%

Antpool is also owned by Bitmain technologies and is based in China. 25% of all blocks are mined by Antpool. However, Antpool is received a lot of hatred after the AntBleed scandal in which malware was added intentionally in the mining equipment they sell so that they can shut down their competitor’s computers and thus increase their profits.

EMCD

An inclusive mining pool with options for small solo-miners and high-hashrate pros with a low 1.5% fee and a user-friendly ecosystem. EMCD is the largest Bitcoin pool in Eastern Europe and one of the top-7 pools in the world. The company’s been operating and growing for 6 years, and in addition to mining services, EMCD provides users with a built-in ecosystem.

Features

• Pool Size: More than 200 000 users in 120 countries worldwide, with an active online community
• BTC Pool Hashrate: 13.22EH/s offers one of the best computing power to fee ratios on the mining market, with miners having the option to boost their hashrate with additional firmware
• Active Workers: 50+  workers power the pool, with numbers constantly rising
• Pool Fee: Just 1.5% – a competitive fee that allows miners to enjoy the entire EMCD ecosystem at a competitive rate
• Minimum Payout Threshold: The withdrawal limit stands at just 0.001BTC, allowing miners easy access to rewards
• Payout Frequency: Daily payouts offer a stable passive income for miners with options to automatically send rewards to a savings account with up to 8% APY in BTC
• Supported Platforms: EMCD offers miners the option to mine via the site and the iOS or Android app, all supporting the full mining and other features

Pros
●    A built-in ecosystem, including storage & P2P exchange
●    Savings account features with up to 14% APY
●    Live 24/7 support
●    User-friendly interface

Cons
●    Primary mining community located in Eastern Europe
●    Limited built-in fiat withdrawal options

ViaBTC – 10.2%

This is a new mining pool which is targeted towards Chinese miners. Their PPS+ methods ensure higher stability and security. It started 2 years ago in May 2016 and is doing great and mining the blocks.

SlushPool – 10%

SlushPool started its operation in December 2010 and is the first Bitcoin mining pool in the world. It has over 1 lakh BTC mined since December 2010 and has a long history of stable and accurate payouts. Many people still recommend investing in Slush as it is very trusted despite not being the largest.

F2Pool – 9%

F2Pool is also known as DiscusFish and is also based in China. It allows users to mine BTC, ZEC, ETH, ETC, DASH, XMR, XMC, SC, DCR, LTC, XZC, and XVG. It is quite easy and effortless. It was opened on May 5, 2013. However, its user interface is Chinese making it difficult for English users.

The above information is just estimated and keeps fluctuating as the bitcoin mining pools are not stable and are changing each day.

COUNTRY-WISE COMPARISON OF BITCOIN MINING POOL

After glancing at the top 5 mining pools it is clear that China has the most mining pools in the world. Statically around 81% of mining pools are in China which is a huge ratio. Around 20 biggest mining pools in China make mining centralization a big issue at the moment.

So, let us have a rough estimate of the country-wise distribution of Bitcoin mining pools in the world.