Bitcoin Mining Pool Database: Fees, Payout Schemes, Stratum V2 & Decentralization

Which Bitcoin mining pool you choose matters for more than the fee. It determines whether your hashrate reinforces decentralization or concentrates power, whether the pool holds your Bitcoin or pays you directly in the coinbase, and whether you or the pool decides which transactions get mined. This open dataset covers 18 pools — from the largest institutional operators to zero-fee solo infrastructure — so you can compare them on the dimensions that matter to a serious miner.

All fee data is sourced from official pool documentation and independent trackers. Fees change and some pools negotiate custom tiers: verify at the pool’s official site before routing hashrate. Data as of June 2026.

Understanding payout schemes

The payout scheme determines how rewards are distributed between pool members and what variance you accept in exchange:

• FPPS (Full Pay Per Share) — The pool pays a fixed rate per share submitted, covering both the block subsidy and an estimate of expected transaction fees. Variance is absorbed by the pool; fee is higher to compensate. Most large institutional pools use FPPS.
• PPS+ (Pay Per Share Plus) — Similar to FPPS but the transaction fee component is paid out proportionally from actual blocks found rather than estimated. Used by ViaBTC as its primary BTC scheme.
• PPLNS (Pay Per Last N Shares) — Rewards are distributed from blocks the pool actually finds, proportional to each miner’s recent share contributions. Lower fee but higher variance; miners absorb luck risk.
• TIDES (OCEAN) — A transparent, auditable PPLNS variant. Rewards are paid directly from the block’s coinbase transaction without the pool holding funds. Non-custodial by design.
• SLICE (DMND) — A proportional, auditable payout mechanism native to Stratum V2. Miners earn from blocks found; payouts are verifiable on-chain.
• Solo — The pool routes your hashrate toward solo block attempts. If you find a block, you keep the full reward (minus a small fee, if any). If no block is found, no payout occurs. Used by CKPool, Public Pool.
• P2P Share-Chain (P2Pool) — No central pool operator. Miners form a peer-to-peer share-chain mirroring Bitcoin’s own network. Payouts are embedded in block coinbase outputs; no custody at any layer.

What Stratum V2 and DATUM mean for miners

Stratum V2 is the next-generation mining protocol co-developed by Braiins and Bitcoin developer Matt Corallo. Its most important feature for decentralization is Job Declaration (job negotiation): rather than receiving a block template from the pool, a miner running an SV2 Job Declaration client selects transactions from their own Bitcoin node’s mempool and proposes the template to the pool. The pool distributes the work; the miner controls the content.

DATUM is OCEAN’s independently designed block-template distribution protocol. It achieves the same outcome — miner-selected transactions — through a different technical path. DATUM is not SV2 protocol, but functionally it solves the same decentralization problem. OCEAN offers a 50% fee discount (1% vs 2%) to miners using DATUM, directly incentivizing its adoption.

For home miners running open-source hardware such as the Bitaxe or NerdQAxe, solo pools (Public Pool, CKPool) and OCEAN provide the most sovereignty — though with higher payout variance.

Frequently asked questions

Which Bitcoin mining pool is the most decentralized?

P2Pool, Public Pool, CKPool, and OCEAN are the highest-scoring pools for decentralization (5/5 in this dataset). P2Pool has no central operator at all; payouts appear directly in block coinbase outputs with no intermediary. Public Pool and CKPool are solo pools where you keep the full block reward when found, with zero or 2% fee. OCEAN is non-custodial with DATUM block-template control and the lowest minimum payout (0.00001 BTC via Lightning). Braiins Pool scores 4/5: it is the only major pooled-mining service with full Stratum V2 job-negotiation in production.

What is the cheapest Bitcoin mining pool by fee?

Public Pool charges 0% — you keep the full block reward plus all transaction fees. CKPool charges 2% only when a block is actually found; if no block is found, no fee is ever paid. OCEAN charges 2% (or 1% with DATUM). Braiins Pool charges 0% for miners running Braiins OS+ firmware, or 0% PPLNS / 2% FPPS for others. For pooled mining with reduced variance, Luxor (estimated ~2–3%) and Braiins Pool are among the lower-cost options for non-solo mining. Always verify current rates at the pool’s official site — fees change.

Is Foundry USA Pool really free?

No, and this is a common source of confusion. Third-party trackers such as MiningPoolStats list Foundry at 0%, but Foundry’s own FAQ confirms a tiered pricing model evaluated each quarter by your group’s average hashrate. Industry reporting in 2024 noted Foundry transitioning from a zero-fee model to tiered institutional pricing. Contact Foundry directly at foundrydigital.com for your current tier rate before routing hashrate.

What is the difference between custodial and non-custodial pool payouts?

In a custodial pool (most FPPS and PPS+ pools), the pool operator accumulates block rewards and transaction fees, then distributes to miners on a schedule. You trust the pool operator to pay you correctly. In a non-custodial pool like OCEAN, miners are paid directly in the coinbase transaction of each block the pool finds — the Bitcoin never enters OCEAN’s wallet. P2Pool embeds payouts in coinbase outputs with no pool operator at all. Solo pools (CKPool, Public Pool) are also non-custodial: the full block reward goes to your address directly when found.

Can I mine Bitcoin with a Bitaxe or NerdQAxe on these pools?

Yes. The most popular options for home miners with low hashrate (Bitaxe Gamma, NerdQAxe, and similar) are Public Pool (zero fee, easy setup), CKPool Solo (2% on finds), and OCEAN (non-custodial, 1–2% fee, Lightning payouts). Braiins Pool also accepts any hashrate. For a detailed comparison of options for open-source home miners, see the best mining pools for Bitaxe guide.

How is network hashrate share calculated in this dataset?

Hashrate share percentages are approximate 7-day trailing averages from HashrateIndex and MiningPoolStats as of June 2026. They will differ when you read this — hashrate shifts constantly as miners switch pools, new capacity comes online, and pools experience luck variance. Use these figures for relative scale only, not as current operational numbers.

What does block template control mean and why does it matter?

In most pools, the pool operator builds the block template — choosing which transactions to include from the mempool. This gives the pool operator the ability to censor or prioritize transactions. Stratum V2 Job Declaration, DATUM (OCEAN), solo mining, and P2Pool all move template construction to the miner: you run a Bitcoin full node, select transactions yourself, and submit the template to the pool or network directly. Block template control is a key component of Bitcoin’s censorship-resistance. The Templates column in the table above shows whether the miner or the pool controls template selection.

Should I mine with a pool that has a high network hashrate share?

From a purely financial standpoint, a larger pool produces more frequent (smaller) payouts, reducing variance. From a network health standpoint, concentrating hashrate into a single entity increases the risk of a 51% attack and reduces transaction censorship resistance. The community has historically treated 33% as a meaningful warning threshold — above that, an entity can cause significant disruption. Foundry USA Pool’s ~30% share is widely discussed in this context. If all hashrate-equivalent miners opted for smaller or decentralized pools, the network would be more robust; routing even a fraction of hashrate to pools scoring 4–5 in this dataset moves the needle.

Cite this dataset

This dataset is published under CC BY 4.0. You are free to share and adapt it with attribution.

Suggested citation:
D-Central Technologies. Bitcoin Mining Pool Database (v1.0, June 2026). Retrieved from https://d-central.tech/data/mining-pool-database/. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

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Provenance: Fee and payout data from official pool documentation (pool-faq.foundrydigital.com, f2pool.io help center, viabtc.com/pricing, antpool.com, pool.braiins.com, docs.luxor.tech, emcd.io, ocean.xyz, pega-pool.com, solo.ckpool.org, web.public-pool.io, en.bitcoin.it/wiki/P2Pool, dmnd.work). Hashrate share figures from HashrateIndex Top 10 Mining Pools 2026 (7-day trailing average). Verified June 2026. Data changes frequently; verify at source before routing hashrate.

Shoulders of giants: This dataset acknowledges and credits the foundational work of Marek Palatinus (Slush Pool / Braiins, first mining pool, 2010), Dr. Con Kolivas (CKPool), Luke Dashjr and the OCEAN team, the P2Pool open-source community, the Public Pool maintainers, Matt Corallo (Stratum V2 co-author), and the Braiins engineering team (SV2 production implementation). Every pool listed here has contributed to the infrastructure layer that makes Bitcoin mining accessible.