Bitcoin Mining Pool Comparison 2026: Foundry USA vs OCEAN vs Luxor vs AntPool vs F2Pool vs ViaBTC

Foundry USA leads on raw hashrate and institutional depth, OCEAN leads on sovereignty and non-custodial payouts, Luxor leads on US compliance and data tooling, AntPool and F2Pool offer competitive FPPS+ rates at scale, and ViaBTC publishes the most transparent public fee schedule — the right pool depends on whether you are optimizing for payout smoothness, fee minimization, custody risk, or your ability to choose which transactions your miner includes in every block.

This comparison covers the six Bitcoin mining pools most frequently evaluated by D-Central’s customers: Foundry USA, OCEAN, Luxor, AntPool, F2Pool, and ViaBTC. It examines fee structures, payout schemes, Stratum V2 / DATUM support, custody model, and what each pool’s design choices mean for decentralization. All fee figures are sourced from each pool’s publicly published documentation and should be verified directly at the pool’s website before configuring hardware — pool fees change, and D-Central bears no responsibility for any discrepancy between the figures cited here and the current terms at each pool.

For a broader overview of how pools work, payout scheme mechanics, and the decentralization spectrum from custodial FPPS to solo mining, see the D-Central Mining Pools hub. For the DATUM protocol — OCEAN’s open-source gateway that lets miners control their own block templates — see DATUM Protocol: Decentralized Block Template Construction.

Methodology and data sources

Every fee figure in this comparison is drawn from one of three primary source types:

Pool’s own official documentation (FAQ pages, fee schedule pages, support docs) — these are the authoritative source and are cited inline.
Pool’s official fee schedule page (e.g. antpool.com’s fee table) — cited with the caveat “as of [month year], verify at source.”
Third-party aggregators (MiningPoolStats, Hashrateindex, etc.) where the pool’s own page does not publish a flat fee — flagged explicitly as third-party estimates.

Hashrate share figures are approximate snapshots from publicly available pool statistics (miningpoolstats.net, mempool.space pool stats, and Hashrate Index data) as of May–June 2026. Hashrate distribution fluctuates significantly over any measurement window — the figures below should be treated as indicative order-of-magnitude, not precise benchmarks. Verify current share at any real-time pool statistics tool before drawing decentralization conclusions.

Stratum V2 support status is sourced from: official pool documentation, the Stratum V2 Working Group announcements (May 2026), and Bitcoin.com News coverage of May 7, 2026 pool working group commitments. See the dedicated V2 section below for details.

Pool-by-pool profiles

Foundry USA

Foundry USA, operated by Foundry Digital (a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group), is the single largest Bitcoin mining pool by hashrate as of mid-2026, routinely accounting for approximately 24–30% of global hashrate depending on the measurement window. It was built specifically for institutional North American operators: large mining companies, hosting facilities, and public miners. It operates on an FPPS payout model, with daily settlements at 01:00 UTC for the prior UTC day’s work.

Fee: Foundry’s fee structure is not published as a simple flat percentage on a public fee schedule. The official FAQ at pool-faq.foundrydigital.com confirms payouts are calculated “net of pool fees” but does not disclose a specific rate — contact Foundry Digital directly for current terms. Third-party aggregators (miningpoolstats.net, as of mid-2026) list Foundry at 0% pool fee, reflecting either a promotional arrangement or the pool’s margin being embedded in the FPPS rate calculation rather than charged as a visible line item. Treat the “0% fee” figure as unconfirmed until you receive a written term sheet from Foundry. Source: pool-faq.foundrydigital.com, checked June 2026 — verify at source.

Custody model: Fully custodial. Foundry holds earned BTC in a pool-side account and transfers to miner wallets once per day. Minimum payout thresholds are set at the institutional level; Foundry is not designed for sub-threshold home miners checking in with a single S21.

Stratum V2: Foundry joined the Stratum V2 Working Group in May 2026 alongside AntPool, F2Pool, and others, and had made prior infrastructure preparation commitments. V2 user access was not publicly available as of the May 2026 announcement. Monitor foundrydigital.com/pool for deployment updates.

Decentralization assessment: Low. Foundry’s scale (~25%+ of global hashrate) means one operator’s block template decisions — including transaction selection — affect a substantial fraction of Bitcoin’s block production. Foundry has not published its block templates or mempool filtering policies. That said, Foundry’s participation in the Stratum V2 Working Group and its stated intention to deploy V2 is a meaningful positive signal.

OCEAN

OCEAN launched in December 2023, built by a team with deep Bitcoin development roots including Luke Dashjr (Bitcoin Knots) and Jason Hughes. It was designed from the start as a direct counterweight to the custodial, template-centralizing model of mainstream pools. Its two defining technical innovations are the TIDES payout scheme and the DATUM protocol.

Fee: OCEAN uses TIDES (Transparent Index of Distinct Extended Shares), under which fee structure is implementation-specific rather than a flat percentage charged on top of block rewards. Multiple third-party sources and the Plan B Academy tutorial for OCEAN cite approximately 0% on the block subsidy with a modest share of transaction fees in the range of 0–2%. The TIDES technical specification at ocean.xyz/docs/tides explicitly states that “specific implementations on fee structures are beyond the scope of this document.” Verify OCEAN’s current fee directly at ocean.xyz before mining. Source: ocean.xyz/docs/tides + planb.academy OCEAN tutorial, checked June 2026.

Payout model: Non-custodial. This is OCEAN’s most significant differentiator: payouts are written directly into the coinbase transaction of each block OCEAN finds. Miners receive sats from the Bitcoin protocol itself — not from a pool wallet. OCEAN never holds your BTC in custody. The trade-off is variance: TIDES distributes actual block earnings rather than a flat guaranteed rate, so payout timing and amount depend on OCEAN finding blocks. At OCEAN’s current hashrate (a small fraction of the network), inter-block intervals are longer than at Foundry or AntPool, meaning individual miners may experience more payout variability than with FPPS. For a deep technical explanation of TIDES, see Exploring TIDES: A New Era in Bitcoin Mining Pool Rewards.

Stratum V2 / DATUM: OCEAN operates the DATUM protocol — a Stratum V2 extension that allows miners to run a local Bitcoin full node and DATUM Gateway to select their own transactions, with OCEAN providing only the coinbase payout structure. DATUM is live and in active beta development. No firmware changes are required; existing Stratum V1 ASICs connect to the local DATUM Gateway normally. The gateway source is open at github.com/OCEAN-xyz/datum_gateway. Full technical guide at DATUM Protocol: Decentralized Block Template Construction.

Decentralization assessment: Very High. OCEAN is the only large-scale pool offering non-custodial payouts AND miner-chosen block templates via DATUM. OCEAN also publishes its block templates publicly for independent auditability. D-Central credits OCEAN’s team for pushing the entire industry toward higher standards of transparency — their work is standing on the foundation laid by Braiins (inventors of Slush Pool in 2010 and Stratum V2 co-authors) and extended in a meaningfully different architectural direction.

Luxor

Luxor Technology is a Seattle-based mining company, SOC 2 Type 2 certified, operating a Bitcoin pool alongside its Hashrate Index data platform, hashrate derivatives desk, and mining finance products. Luxor’s pool is designed for professional North American operators who prioritize regulatory cleanliness, detailed reporting, and access to a full-stack mining services partner beyond just pool infrastructure.

Fee: Luxor does not publish a single flat fee percentage on a public fee schedule. The official docs at docs.luxor.tech describe the model as: Luxor “purchases hashrate from you at a discount to spot FPPS (discount to spot is commonly known as pool fees).” The fee is negotiated or tier-based. Third-party sources consistently cite rates in the approximate range of 0.7–2% depending on arrangement; Sazmining has publicly described a 0.7% negotiated rate as of mid-2025. Contact Luxor directly at luxor.tech for your tier. Minimum payout: 0.001 BTC + 0.000075 BTC withdrawal fee = 0.001075 BTC total. Source: docs.luxor.tech, checked June 2026; sazmining.com blog, mid-2025. Verify at source.

Payout model: FPPS. Payouts are available daily, weekly, or monthly at miner’s election.

Stratum V2: Luxor prepared V2 infrastructure prior to the May 2026 Working Group announcements, per Bitcoin.com News reporting. Luxor’s own documentation does not currently advertise V2 as a live feature for pool connections. Luxor’s subsidiary Hashrate Index has contributed extensively to V2 open-source data and tooling. Monitor luxor.tech for deployment updates.

Decentralization assessment: Low-to-medium. Luxor is custodial and uses operator-controlled templates, but its hashrate is a smaller share of the network than Foundry or AntPool, reducing systemic concentration risk. Luxor’s transparency around data (Hashrate Index), SOC 2 certification, and US-based legal structure are meaningful for operators who prioritize institutional accountability.

AntPool

AntPool is operated by Bitmain, the dominant ASIC manufacturer. As the second-largest pool by hashrate (~15–19% of global hashrate as of mid-2026), AntPool benefits from a flywheel: Bitmain sells the machines; miners point those machines at AntPool; AntPool’s scale attracts more miners. AntPool supports FPPS+ (Full Pay-Per-Share Plus, which adds actual transaction fee revenue on top of the base FPPS rate), making it a competitive option for miners who want variance-smoothed payouts with some fee-revenue upside.

Fee: AntPool’s fee for FPPS+ payouts is publicly listed at antpool.com. Multiple sources including AntPool’s own Zendesk support documentation and third-party reviewers consistently cite 2.5% for FPPS+ and 1.5% for PPLNS as of 2025–2026. Verify the current rate at antpool.com before connecting hardware. Source: antpoolsupport-hc.zendesk.com, obm.io review, and multiple 2025–2026 third-party sources. Verify at source.

Custody model: Fully custodial. AntPool holds earned BTC in pool accounts. Minimum payout: approximately 0.005 BTC (publicly listed at antpool.com — verify at source).

Stratum V2: AntPool joined the Stratum V2 Working Group in May 2026. V2 user access was not publicly available as of the announcement; Bitmain/AntPool had “prepared infrastructure.” Monitor antpool.com for updates.

Decentralization assessment: Low. AntPool’s combination of large hashrate share and Bitmain ownership creates a significant concentration point: one entity manufactures a majority of mining hardware and simultaneously operates a top-two pool. AntPool does not publish block templates. D-Central credits Bitmain for driving ASIC innovation over 12+ years — the same hardware powers the entire industry. The pool’s V2 Working Group commitment is a step toward miner template control.

F2Pool

F2Pool (Fish Pool) was founded in 2013, making it one of the longest-running pools in Bitcoin’s history. It is operated by F2Pool Global and serves a globally distributed miner base, with servers across North America, Europe, and Asia. F2Pool uses FPPS+ and has a lower minimum payout than AntPool, making it accessible to a slightly broader range of operator sizes.

Fee: F2Pool’s FPPS fee is published at f2pool.com. Third-party sources and F2Pool’s own support documentation consistently cite 2.5% for FPPS (some third-party analyses note a 2–4% range depending on product tier). The most widely cited and corroborated figure across 2025–2026 sources is 2.5%. Verify the current rate at f2pool.com before connecting. Source: f2pool.zendesk.com (“Does f2pool charge any fees?”), multiple third-party reviewers 2025–2026. Verify at source.

Custody model: Fully custodial. Minimum payout: approximately 0.001 BTC (publicly listed — verify at f2pool.com).

Stratum V2: F2Pool joined the Stratum V2 Working Group in May 2026. V2 user access was not publicly available as of the announcement. Monitor f2pool.com for updates.

Notable event: In 2023, F2Pool came under scrutiny after filtering a 19.8 BTC transaction from a Paxos Treasury wallet from block templates — a transaction that met all standard mempool criteria. F2Pool subsequently suspended that filtering policy following community feedback. This incident became a significant case study in the importance of transparent block template policies and miner template control. For full context, see Why Every Miner Should Care About F2Pool’s $520K Paxos Incident.

Decentralization assessment: Low. F2Pool is custodial with operator-controlled templates. Its V2 Working Group commitment is positive. The Paxos incident demonstrates why non-custodial, transparent-template pool designs (OCEAN/DATUM) or miner-negotiated templates (Stratum V2 job declaration) matter even for miners who do not expect any specific transaction to be filtered.

ViaBTC

ViaBTC is one of the most established mid-tier pools, operating since 2016 and serving miners across North America, Europe, and Asia. It is frequently cited as a beginner-friendly pool because its public fee schedule is among the clearest and most transparent in the industry: flat percentage fees are published openly for each payout mode, with no institutional-tier optics required to find the number.

Fee: ViaBTC publicly lists its fee schedule at viabtc.com. As of 2025–2026: PPS+ is 4%, PPLNS is 2%, SOLO is 1%. These are among the most consistently cited and transparent fee disclosures in the industry. Source: viabtc.com fee schedule, corroborated by viabtc.com/en/blog/Mining-what-are-mining-pool-fees… and multiple third-party reviews 2025–2026. Verify at source before mining.

Custody model: Fully custodial. Minimum payout: approximately 0.005 BTC (verify at viabtc.com).

Stratum V2: No public announcement of Stratum V2 support or Working Group participation as of June 2026. Verify at viabtc.com for updates.

Decentralization assessment: Low. ViaBTC is custodial with operator-controlled templates. Its published fee schedule is a genuine contribution to industry transparency — knowing exactly what you pay is a sovereignty baseline. At approximately 9–10% global hashrate share, ViaBTC is a significant pool but not a single-point-of-failure concentration risk at the level of Foundry or AntPool.

Side-by-side comparison table

All fee data comes from each pool’s publicly published documentation as cited in the pool profiles above. Fee structures change; always verify directly at each pool’s website. Hashrate share figures are approximate as of May–June 2026 (miningpoolstats.net / Hashrate Index) — these fluctuate daily and should be treated as indicative.

Pool	Payout scheme	Publicly listed fee	Hashrate share (approx., mid-2026)	Stratum V2 / DATUM	Custody	Min payout	Decentralization rating
Foundry USA Foundry Digital / DCG	FPPS	Not publicly listed as a flat rate — contact pool; third-party sources cite 0% (unverified; may be embedded in rate). Source: pool-faq.foundrydigital.com, June 2026.	~24–30% (largest pool)	Working Group joined May 2026; V2 user access not yet live as of June 2026	Custodial	Institutional thresholds — not disclosed publicly	Low
AntPool Bitmain	FPPS+	~2.5% FPPS+ (publicly listed at antpool.com; also 1.5% PPLNS). Source: antpoolsupport-hc.zendesk.com, verified June 2026. Verify at source.	~15–19%	Working Group joined May 2026; V2 user access not yet live as of June 2026	Custodial	~0.005 BTC (listed at antpool.com — verify at source)	Low
F2Pool F2Pool Global	FPPS+	2.5% FPPS (listed at f2pool.com; range cited by some sources as 2–4% depending on tier). Source: f2pool.zendesk.com, verified June 2026. Verify at source.	~11–13%	Working Group joined May 2026; V2 user access not yet live as of June 2026	Custodial	~0.001 BTC (listed at f2pool.com — verify at source)	Low
ViaBTC ViaBTC	PPS+ / PPLNS / SOLO	4% PPS+, 2% PPLNS, 1% SOLO (clearly published at viabtc.com). Source: viabtc.com fee schedule, verified June 2026. Verify at source.	~9–10%	No announced V2 support as of June 2026	Custodial	~0.005 BTC PPS+ (listed at viabtc.com — verify at source)	Low
Luxor Luxor Technology (US, SOC 2)	FPPS	“Discount to spot FPPS” — no flat % published; third-party sources cite ~0.7–2% depending on arrangement. Source: docs.luxor.tech, June 2026. Contact pool for current rate. Verify at source.	~1–3% (US institutional focus)	Prior V2 infrastructure preparation per May 2026 reporting; no live V2 user access announced as of June 2026	Custodial	0.001075 BTC total (0.001 BTC threshold + 0.000075 BTC withdrawal fee; source: docs.luxor.tech)	Low–Medium
OCEAN OCEAN Pool (Luke Dashjr et al.)	TIDES (non-custodial)	Approximately 0–2% range; exact fee structure is TIDES-implementation-specific (not a flat FPPS rate). Third-party sources including Plan B Academy cite ~0% on block subsidy. Source: ocean.xyz/docs/tides, June 2026. Verify directly at ocean.xyz before mining.	<2% (growing)	Yes — DATUM protocol (live beta): miners run local Bitcoin node + DATUM Gateway; full transaction-selection sovereignty; no firmware changes required	Non-custodial — payouts written directly into block coinbase; OCEAN never holds your BTC	No custodial threshold; payouts occur per block found; no pool wallet involved	Very High

All fee and payout data sourced from each pool’s publicly published documentation as of June 2026. Fee structures and minimum payouts change. Always verify at each pool’s website before configuring your hardware. Hashrate share figures are approximate mid-2026 snapshots — verify current distribution at miningpoolstats.net or mempool.space pool stats.

Hashrate concentration and what it means for Bitcoin

As of mid-2026, the six pools in this comparison collectively account for an estimated 60–75% of Bitcoin’s network hashrate (the range reflects measurement window variability — Hashrate Index data from May 2026 shows Foundry at ~34%, AntPool at ~14%, F2Pool at ~11%, ViaBTC at ~9%; these figures fluctuate week to week). Add MARA Pool, SpiderPool, and Braiins Pool and you account for approximately 80–90% of the network.

This concentration has two practical implications:

Transaction censorship risk: If a majority of hashrate were to follow a policy of filtering certain transactions, those transactions would be significantly delayed or in the worst case effectively censored from blocks. No major pool currently filters transactions for policy reasons beyond standard mempool rules — but the F2Pool/Paxos incident (2023) demonstrated that individual pools can and do make filtering decisions. Non-custodial, transparent-template pools (OCEAN) and miner-negotiated templates (Stratum V2 job declaration) are the technical mitigations.
51% attack theoretical risk: A coalition of mining entities controlling more than 50% of hashrate could theoretically reorganize the chain. No such attack has occurred, and the economic incentives strongly disincentivize it. The relevant observation is that pool hashrate concentration makes the game-theory calculation easier for bad actors — which is why hashrate distribution across more independent pools is intrinsically good for Bitcoin.

The practical message for individual miners: your pool choice is a vote on hashrate distribution. Adding hashrate to a pool that already controls 25%+ of the network differs in its systemic effect from adding the same hashrate to a pool at 2% or to a P2Pool node. How shares, luck, and hashrate dynamics interact covers the mathematics in depth.

D-Central’s framing: every step toward miner-chosen templates, non-custodial payouts, and hashrate spread across independent pools is one more layer decentralized.

Stratum V2 — the 2026 landscape

Stratum V2 is the second-generation Bitcoin mining protocol, developed by Braiins (the team behind Slush Pool, the world’s first mining pool, founded 2010) and Square Crypto (now Block). Its most important feature for miners is job negotiation: under V2’s Job Declaration sub-protocol, miners can propose their own block templates, removing the pool’s ability to filter or select transactions on a miner’s behalf. Full technical detail at Stratum V2: The Complete Guide.

On May 7, 2026, a significant milestone: Foundry, AntPool, F2Pool, SpiderPool, Block Inc., MARA Foundation, and DMND formally joined the Stratum V2 Working Group, representing tens of exahashes of combined hashrate. Braiins Pool and DMND were already running V2 in production at that point. This signals that V2 adoption is entering a new phase. (Source: Bitcoin.com News, May 7, 2026.)

What this means in practice as of June 2026:

Braiins Pool: Full V2 production support with job negotiation — the current leader. See Braiins Pool’s payout evolution.
Foundry, AntPool, F2Pool: Working Group members, infrastructure preparation in progress — V2 user access not yet live. Watch their official documentation for rollout timelines.
Luxor: Prior V2 testing commitments; Hashrate Index (Luxor subsidiary) has contributed open-source V2 data tooling. No live user access announced.
ViaBTC: No public announcement as of June 2026.
OCEAN / DATUM: DATUM is a Stratum V2 extension that takes a different architectural path — proxying V1 ASICs through a local gateway rather than requiring V2 firmware. Live and in beta. No firmware changes required. See DATUM Protocol.

Key distinction — V2 Working Group commitment vs. live V2 access: Joining the Stratum V2 Working Group is a public statement of alignment; it does not mean miners can currently point their ASIC to a V2 endpoint at Foundry, AntPool, or F2Pool. The Working Group commitment and live deployment are separate milestones. Verify current deployment status at each pool’s documentation before expecting V2 connectivity.

DCENT_OS (D-Central’s closed-beta firmware for the S9, GPL-3.0, public beta summer 2026) is tracking Stratum V2 and DATUM protocol support. See DCENT_OS documentation for the current feature set.

Which pool for your situation

There is no universally correct pool choice. The following guidance maps typical situations to pool characteristics — it is not a recommendation, and you should read each pool’s current documentation before configuring hardware.

You are a large institutional operator (multi-PH/s, North America)

Foundry USA or Luxor are the most common choices in this segment. Foundry offers the largest network (and correspondingly the most block-find frequency), while Luxor adds SOC 2 compliance, detailed reporting, and access to hashrate derivatives and financing products that are relevant to public companies and large private operations. AntPool is appropriate if you have an existing Bitmain hardware relationship and prefer a pool from the same ecosystem.

You want competitive FPPS+ rates with global server coverage

AntPool (2.5% FPPS+) and F2Pool (2.5% FPPS+) are the standard choices at this profile. Both have global server infrastructure and a long track record. F2Pool’s 0.001 BTC minimum payout is lower than AntPool’s 0.005 BTC, making it slightly more accessible for smaller operations. ViaBTC at 4% PPS+ is at the high end of the fee range for PPS-style payouts, but its published fee transparency is a genuine advantage for operators who want no surprises.

You want non-custodial payouts and transaction-selection sovereignty

OCEAN with DATUM is the only pool in this comparison that delivers both non-custodial payouts and miner-controlled block templates. The trade-off is payout variance (TIDES vs FPPS) and requiring a local Bitcoin full node for DATUM. If you do not want to run a full node but want non-custodial payouts, OCEAN without DATUM still delivers non-custodial coinbase payouts. See DATUM Protocol and the full OCEAN setup guide.

You run a Bitaxe or small home miner

At Bitaxe hashrate levels (1–15 TH/s), standard FPPS pool minimum payouts may take weeks or months to reach. Community-standard options: (1) CKPool solo proxy (no pool, direct-to-node, no custody); (2) OCEAN (non-custodial TIDES payouts, no custodial threshold); (3) Braiins Pool (Lightning payout option at ~1,000 sat minimum). For a full breakdown see the Mining Pools hub and winter mining: pools with low payouts for home miners.

You want to use Stratum V2 today

As of June 2026, Braiins Pool is the primary large pool with live, production V2 support including job negotiation. Of the six pools in this comparison, only OCEAN (via DATUM) offers live miner-controlled templates. V2 access at Foundry, AntPool, F2Pool, and Luxor is in development — monitor each pool’s documentation. Using a V2 pool also requires firmware that speaks the V2 protocol; BraiinsOS+ is the primary open-source firmware with native V2 support as of mid-2026.

Calculate your pool decision numbers: Solo Mining Probability Calculator · Mining Profitability Calculator · Power Cost Calculator · Open Mining Data API

Frequently asked questions

Which Bitcoin mining pool has the lowest fee?

Among the six pools compared here, Foundry USA is most commonly cited as a 0% fee pool — but its fee structure is not published as a flat rate on a public fee schedule, and “0% fee” in Foundry’s case may mean the margin is embedded in the FPPS rate calculation rather than charged separately. OCEAN’s TIDES fee is implementation-specific and cited by third parties as approximately 0% on block subsidy. Luxor’s fee is tiered and not publicly stated, with third-party sources citing a range of approximately 0.7–2%. AntPool and F2Pool each publicly list 2.5% FPPS+. ViaBTC publicly lists 4% PPS+ and 2% PPLNS. Any “lowest fee” comparison should be made against the current live fee schedule at each pool’s website — rates change and embedded-in-rate structures are not directly comparable to explicit percentage fees. Verify at source before connecting hardware.

What is the difference between FPPS and TIDES payouts?

FPPS (Full Pay-Per-Share) pays miners a fixed, pre-calculated rate for every valid share submitted — block subsidy and transaction fees — regardless of whether the pool actually finds a block in that round. The pool absorbs all variance, so your income is smooth and predictable. The pool retains custody of your earned sats until you reach a minimum payout threshold and issues a wallet transfer. TIDES (Transparent Index of Distinct Extended Shares), used by OCEAN, distributes actual block earnings proportionally to recent contributors when blocks are found, but introduces no pool custodial layer: payouts are written directly into the coinbase of each found block. This means more payout variance than FPPS (because payouts only happen when OCEAN finds blocks), but no custody risk — you receive sats from the Bitcoin protocol itself, not from OCEAN’s wallet. See Exploring TIDES and Mining Pool Payout Methods Explained for technical detail.

Which pool supports Stratum V2 today?

As of June 2026, Braiins Pool (not included in this six-pool comparison but important context) is the primary large pool running full Stratum V2 in production with job negotiation — the feature that lets miners choose their own transactions. OCEAN provides equivalent transaction-selection sovereignty via DATUM, a Stratum V2 extension that doesn’t require V2-capable firmware — your existing Stratum V1 ASIC connects to a local DATUM Gateway, which handles template construction and pool communication. Of the six pools in this comparison, Foundry, AntPool, F2Pool, and Luxor joined the Stratum V2 Working Group in May 2026 and have preparation infrastructure in place, but had not yet opened V2 user access as of this writing. ViaBTC has made no public V2 announcement. Verify current V2 support at each pool’s documentation before expecting V2 connectivity. See the complete Stratum V2 guide and DATUM Protocol.

Does it matter which pool I use for Bitcoin decentralization?

Yes, materially. As of mid-2026, two pools (Foundry and AntPool) together control approximately 40–50% of Bitcoin’s global hashrate depending on the measurement window. Adding more hashrate to the largest pool increases that pool’s influence over transaction selection, block production timing, and — in a theoretical extreme — chain reorganization capability. Choosing a smaller pool with transparent block-template policies, or a non-custodial pool like OCEAN that publishes its templates and lets miners select their own transactions via DATUM, redistributes that influence. No individual home miner’s routing decision changes the network, but pool choice is one of the few non-financial levers a miner has on Bitcoin’s censorship resistance. D-Central’s framing: each step toward miner-chosen templates and hashrate spread across independent pools is one more layer decentralized. See D-Central Mining Pools hub for the full decentralization spectrum discussion.

Which pool is best for Canadian home miners?

For Canadian home miners with one or a few machines, the most important considerations are: minimum payout (can you reach it in a reasonable time?), custody risk, and fee transparency. F2Pool’s 0.001 BTC minimum payout makes it easier to collect earnings from a single machine than AntPool or ViaBTC (both ~0.005 BTC). OCEAN offers non-custodial payouts with no minimum threshold (payouts happen directly when blocks are found). For Bitaxe or sub-1 TH/s miners, CKPool solo or OCEAN are community-standard. For seasonal miners using ASICs as space heaters in Quebec or other Canadian provinces with low power rates, a pool with a low minimum payout or Lightning settlement is preferable to holding out for a 0.005 BTC payout that may take months. CRA treats pool payouts as business income taxable at fair market value at receipt — keep records. See Canada electricity rates by province and D-Central’s Mining Profitability Calculator for Canadian-specific numbers.

What is DATUM and how does it relate to pool choice?

DATUM (Decentralized Alternative Templates for Universal Mining) is an open-source gateway protocol built by OCEAN Pool that lets miners run a local Bitcoin full node and select their own transactions rather than using the pool’s block template. A lightweight DATUM Gateway software layer sits on your local network: your ASICs speak standard Stratum V1 to the gateway, the gateway fetches your node’s transaction list, and OCEAN provides only the coinbase payout structure for share accounting. The pool never learns which transactions you chose. When a block is found, your node broadcasts it directly to the Bitcoin network — not through OCEAN. DATUM works with any existing Stratum V1 hardware without firmware changes; you only need a Bitcoin full node and the DATUM Gateway running on a local machine (a Raspberry Pi 4 is sufficient). As of June 2026, DATUM is available exclusively at OCEAN in active beta. Full guide: DATUM Protocol: Decentralized Block Template Construction.