The 10 Biggest and Best Bitcoin mining Pools 2017

Now that you have your Bitcoin mining hardware, your next step is to join the best Bitcoin mining pool.

What is a 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.

Get a Bitcoin Wallet and Mining Software

Before you join a mining pool you will also need Bitcoin mining software and a Bitcoin wallet.

The Biggest Mining Pools

The list below details the biggest Bitcoin mining pools. This is based on info from Blockchain’s pool share chart:

1. AntPool

Antpool is a Chinese based mining pool, maintained by BitMain. Antpool mines about 15% of all blocks.

2. DiscusFish/F2Pool

DiscusFish, also known as F2Pool, is based in China. DiscusFish has mined about 12% of all blocks over the past six months.

3. BitFury Pool

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.

4. BTCC

BTCC is China’s third largest Bitcoin exchange. Its mining pool currently mines about 7% of all blocks.

5. ViaBTC

ViaBTC is a somewhat new mining pool that has been around for about one year.

6. BW Pool

BW, established in 2014, is another mining company based in China. It currently mines about 8% of all blocks.

7. BTC.Top

BTC.top is another new pool. It does not appear to have a website, so it may be a private pool.

8. Slush

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.

9. Bitclub.Network

Bitclub Network is a large mining pool but appears to be somewhat shady. We recommend staying away from this pool.

10. GBMiners

GBMiners is another somewhat shady pool that should probably not be joined.

Best Bitcoin Mining Pool Comparison

POOL	LOCATION	FEES	PRIVATE POOL
BitFury	Georgia	0%	Yes
BTCC	China	2-3%	No
Slush Pool	Czech Republic	2%	No
Antpool	China	1%	No
BW	China	1%	No

The comparison chart above is just a quick reference. The location of a pool does not matter all that much. 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.

Which Countries Mine the most Bitcoins?

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

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

Georgia is home to BitFury, one of the largest producers of Bitcoin mining hardware and chips. BitFury currently mines about 15% of all bitcoins.

Sweden

Sweden is home to KnCMiner, a Bitcoin mining company based in Stockholm. KnCMiner currently mines about 7.5% of all bitcoins.

US

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. 21 Inc. mines about 3% of all bitcoins.

Other Countries

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).

If you cloud mine then you don’t need to select a pool; the cloud mining company does this automatically.

Why are Miners Important?

Bitcoin miners are crucial to Bitcoin and its security. Without miners, Bitcoin would be vulnerable and easy to attack.

Get this:

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.

Résultats du 2e tour de l’élection présidentielle - French Presidential Election 2017 Final Results 7/5/17

Résultats du 2e tour de l’élection présidentielle
Chiffres basés des sondages réalisés à la sortie des urnes par 2 instituts de sondage suisses.

Dernière mise à jour: 16h50

Marine Le Pen

50.7

Emmanuel Macron

49.3

Sondages du 1er tour à 18h:

Marine Le Pen

21.7

Emmanuel Macron

23

Jean-Luc Mélenchon

18

François Fillon

20

Nicolas Dupoint-Aignan

4.7

Benoît Hamon

6.4

Philippe Poutou

1.2

François Asselineau

0.5

Nathalie Arthaud

0.4

Jean Lassalle

1.1

Jacques Cheminade

0.18

MacronGate: Documents Link Macron to Possible Tax Evasion

      Breaking news in the French election! On May 3rd, just days before the election on May 7th, investigative journalist William Craddick posted an article stating that "Documents Indicate That Emmanuel Macron May Be Engaging In Tax Evasion."

CLICK HERE to see the video

According to these documents, French Presidential Candidate Emmanuel Macron opened a company in the Bahamas with a bank that has been previously involved in tax evasion cases.

Macron claimed he was not concealing assets or holding secret offshore accounts less than a month ago. The company was called La Providence LLC. La Providence is the name of Macron’s former high school, where he first met his wife, who at the time was his high school teacher.    

Macron denies the documents, and claims they are part of a conspiracy of "obviously Russian network" on France Inter Radio. Hillary Clinton made similar and her theories were debunked by the US Intelligence Community.

French prosecutors described the leak as “a suspected attempt to tar presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron” and have opened a probe into the origin of the leaks after Mr. Macron filed a complaint.

I found myself on the receiving end of a slew of tweets and messages all written in French! Apparently, the French media are now claiming I, Jack Posobiec, of Rebel Media, am a Russian agent, because I shared a link on my twitter account.

France Culture reporter Nicolas Vanderbiest said "we cannot be mistaken its the Russians" and shared a picture of my twitter account, with no proof, other than the fact that my name is Slavic.

Stephanie Lamy a writer for Danaides.org tweeted out that I was "conspiratorial" and that I was "brainwashing" anyone who reads the information. Interestingly, enough, despite going on a tweetstorm about it, she doesn't offer a single pice of evidence to refute the authenticity of the documents. In fact, come to think of it, neither did Emmanuel Macron.

I spoke to people on the board /pol/ at 4chan who confirmed to me that the first place they saw the documents was on the deep web. The deep web is an untracked part of the internet where many people visit to post things anonymously. Its also where the Hillary Clinton and DNC emails were first found.

On investigative journalism site GotNews.com - Jessica Gomez, a professional auditor with the Big Three accounting firms published and extensive examination of the documents.

The signature on the documents matches signatures that Macron made on books and posters and even other official documents. Minor information, such as the names, contact numbers, fax numbers of specific bank and company agents, also matches information found from other sources.

Gomez concludes, there is no reason to assume these documents are fake. She states: I would recommend that government investigators obtain a warrant to carry out further investigation into Emmanuel Macrons personal papers and correspondences, both written and digital.

Thanks to the great investigative work by Craddick and Gomez, information is now provided to the French electorate so that they can decide for themselves the authenticity of these documents.

In this day and age of gotcha journalism and fake news headlines, its all too important to conduct rigorous  investigations into all new information, especially with a presidential election, and the fate of a continent on the line.

Dernières nouvelles aux élections de France! Le 3 mai, quelques jours avant les élections du 7 mai, le journaliste d'enquête William Craddick a publié un article indiquant que «les documents indiquent qu'Emanuel Macron pourrait être engagé dans l'évasion fiscale». cLIQUEZ ICI pour voir la vidéo Selon ces documents, Candidat présidentiel français Emmanuel Macron a ouvert une société aux Bahamas avec une banque qui a précédemment été impliquée dans des cas d'évasion fiscale.Macron a affirmé qu'il ne dissimulait pas d'actifs ou détenait des comptes secrets à l'étranger moins d'un mois. La société s'appelait La Providence LLC. La Providence est le nom de l'ancien lycée de Macron, où il a rencontré sa femme, qui à l'époque était son professeur de lycée.

   Macron refuse les documents et affirme qu'ils font partie d'un complot de «réseau évidemment russe» sur France Inter Radio. Hillary Clinton a fait semblable et ses théories ont été déconsidérées par la communauté de l'intelligence américaine.

Les procureurs français ont décrit la fuite comme «une tentative présumée de lancer le candidat présidentiel Emmanuel Macron» et ont ouvert une enquête sur l'origine des fuites après que M. Macron ait déposé une plainte.

   Stephanie Lamy, un écrivain de Danaides.org, a rappelé que j'étais «conspirateur» et que j'avais «lavage de cerveau» quiconque lit l'information. Il est intéressant de constater que, bien qu'il ne soit pas questionné par une tweetstoria, elle n'offre pas une seule preuve pour réfuter l'authenticité des documents. En fait, pensez-y, Emmanuel Macron.

  Je me suis retrouvé à la réception d'une foule de tweets et de messages tous écrits en français! Apparemment, les médias français réclament maintenant, Jack Posobiec, de Rebel Media, je suis un agent russe, parce que j'ai partagé un lien sur mon compte Twitter. 
le journaliste de France Culture, Nicolas Vanderbiest, a déclaré: "on ne peut pas se tromper les Russes" et a partagé une image de mon compte Twitter, sans aucune preuve, sauf que je m'appelle Slavic.
J'ai parlé à des gens sur le tableau / pol / à 4chan qui m'ont confirmé que le premier endroit où ils voyaient les documents était sur le web. Le site Web en profondeur est une partie sans rythme de l'Internet où beaucoup de gens visitent pour publier des choses anonymement. C'est aussi là où les courriels Hillary Clinton et DNC ​​ont été trouvés pour la première fois Sur le site de journalisme d'investigation GotNews.com - Jessica Gomez, un auditeur professionnel avec les Big Three cabinets comptables publiés et un examen approfondi des documents. La signature sur les documents correspond aux signatures que Macron a faites sur des livres et des affiches et même d'autres documents officiels. Les informations mineures, telles que les noms, les numéros de contact, les numéros de télécopieur d'agents bancaires et d'entreprises spécifiques, correspondent également aux informations trouvées dans d'autres sources. Gomez conclut, il n'y a aucune raison de supposer que ces documents sont faux. Elle déclare: Je recommanderais aux enquêteurs gouvernementaux d'obtenir un mandat pour mener une enquête plus approfondie sur les documents personnels et les correspondances écrits et numériques d'Emmanuel Macrons. Grâce au grand travail d'enquête de Craddick et Gomez, des informations sont maintenant fournies à l'électorat français afin de pouvoir décider par eux-mêmes de l'authenticité de ces documents. En ce jour et l'âge du journalisme et des fausses nouvelles, il est trop important de mener des enquêtes rigoureuses sur toutes les nouvelles informations, en particulier avec une élection présidentielle, et le destin d'un continent sur la ligne.

The Gold Standard Is Emerging!

The Chinese Are Putting in Place a Link Between Oil and Gold.   The Petro-Dollar has almost completely vanished.
The Gold Standard is Emerging… A reevaluation is immanent. 

The Russians and Chinese appear to be forming the basis for the payment vehicle within the oil trade. Consider it as a formal reflection of the Iran-India gold for oil trade.

Bilateral Oil for RMB Sale + Shanghai Gold Exchange = Gold Trade Note

Russian oil & gas is being sold for Chinese Yuan, and then Yuan is traded for Gold at the Shanghai Gold Exchange. Oil for RMB for Gold, creating a transaction payment in gold terms

The Petro-Dollar system has stood for 45 years. It has decayed into tatters. Its derivative foundation is being liquidated, a long painstaking process. A new disruptive model was forged in 2014 when Iran sold India oil, which was paid in gold, but delivered from Turkey. Gradually emerging is the Gold Trade Note, first in oil payment then later in general payments in shipped goods. It is evolving within the Chinese market from Russian energy sales, all conducted outside the USDollar sphere.

The Chinese are putting in place a link between oil and gold, once again like before the Bretton Woods Gold Standard was violated by Nixon in 1971. The Gold Standard is emerging, with respect to the oil market.

PETRO-DOLLAR SYSTEM HAS BEGUN TO BREAK DOWN. The correlation between the Saudi USTreasury holdings and the crude oil price has broken down. The inverse correlation between the USDollar currency index and the crude oil price has broken down.

Following the sanctions of Iran, Iran began selling a portion of its energy products to China for RMB currency, bypassing the Petro-Dollar entirely. In turn Iran used the RMB to purchase Chinese goods and services

China then decided on a policy shift, no longer to accumulate FOREX reserves, with the finger of toxic 2blame pointed at the USGovt. The great reduction of USTBonds had commenced.

The Shanghai exchange which has rapidly become the largest physical delivery market in the world for Gold.

During the Reagan Admin, USTreasurys were backed 132% by the market value of the country’s gold reserves. Today, the amount has fallen to 4.7% only. The globe is awash in toxic USTreasurys, the infamous black hole often cited in the Hat Trick Letter. Demand has dried up for USGovt debt securities. Thus the advent of QE by the USFed, the phony demand, the US-based central bank buying the USGovt debt. Witness debt monetization, Third World style.

Russia has been adding to its official gold reserves, selling off their USTBonds during the conflict over Ukraine. In doing so, Russia fortifies its Ruble currency with actual hard assets, namely gold. Also, China has been adding to its official gold reserves, under similar circumstances

During the first seven months of 2016, China imported about 30.5 million metric tons of Saudi oil, a 0.4% decrease over the previous year. By comparison, China imported about 29.5 million metric tons of Russian oil as an impressive 27% increase over the previous year. China moved toward the Russian energy embrace, while both nations added to their gold reserves.

The strong oil price decline in the last two years indicates that crude oil is in the process of being priced in gold terms. Availability of gold in Shanghai has changed the paradigm. The pendulum that swung hard for over 40 years is about to swing back in the other direction. Consider the three major asset classes, namely gold, oil, and USTBonds.

With an annual production of $170bn, gold is by far the largest metal market by value. However, that figure is overwhelmed by the oil market which is 10 times larger at $1720 billion, on an annual production basis. The USGovt in collusion with the USFed produce a ripe $1200 billion each year, plus another $400 odd billion in covered redemptions. The paper asset is in huge abundance. Such is the nature of the USTreasury Bond black hole. The conclusion is simple, that the gold market is under-valued, that the gold price suffers from a scarcity in value. In time, expect an eventual refusal by Eastern producing nations to accept USTreasury Bills in payment for trade.

The New Scheiss Dollar will arrive in order to assure continued import supply to the USEconomy. It will be given devaluation out of the gate, then many more devaluations of similar variety. The New Dollar will fail all foreign and Eastern scrutiny. The USGovt will be forced to react to USTBill rejection at the ports.

The US must accommodate with the New Scheiss Dollar in order to assure import supply, and to alleviate the many stalemates to come. The United States finds itself on the slippery slope that leads to the Third World, a forecast that has been presented since Lehman fell. The only apparent alternative is for the United States Govt to lease a large amount of gold bullion (like 10,000 tons) from China in order to properly launch a gold-backed currency. Doing so would open the gates for a generation of commercial colonization, but actual progress in returning capitalism to the United States.

 United States will be vulnerable from a $550 billion annual trade deficit. Its settlement after one year would exhaust all 10,000 tons, since at $1300/oz, such gold tonnage would be worth $420 billion. The United States is truly trapped in an economic insolvency situation, with inadequate industry and a huge unresolved trade deficit.

Failure to produce a legitimate bonafide gold-backed currency, together with an adequate industrial base, would mean the United States will be confronted with a real big nasty currency crisis.

Any new currency, even with gold backing, would be subjected to a series of devaluations due to the enormous trade deficit. The result would be heavy powerful painful price inflation from the import front. The effect would be to reverse a generation of exported inflation by the United States. The entire USEconomy would go into a downward spiral with higher prices, supply shortages, and social disorder.

However, the rising prices would come from the currency crisis, and not so much from the hyper monetary inflation. That flood of $trillions has been effectively firewalled off. During the crisis that comes, the gold price will find its true proper value between $5000 and $10,000 per ounce.

The oil market is easily 10 times the size of the gold market.  Just doing the math there is nowhere near the amount of gold available to buy oil. either oil needs to be around $6 / barrel.  Or if oil was steady around $60 barrel then gold would need to be at least $12,500 to $15,000 / oz

Obviously there is not enough gold to pay for oil unless the gold rigging stops and the oil rigging stops. Eventually it would strike a balance that the free market sets.

The dollar is not going to be replaced immediately as 50% if all trade settlement is still in dollars and 75% of all international financial transactions are done in dollars. More so it will be replaced gradually before the weight balance flips and everything goes fairly quick. Foreign entities have borrowed trillions in dollar denominated loans and this always creates demand for dollars, atleast while the loans remain relevant.