According to Miningpoolstats, in 2024, the ViaBTC mining pool entered the top three in hashrate in the bitcoin network and mined the halving block #840,000, receiving a commission of 37.6256 BTC.
Together with the CEO of ViaBTC and CoinEx, Hypo Yang, we talk about mining digital gold and Kaspa (KAS) in 2024 and explain how to become a member of the pool.
Briefly about ViaBTC
ViaBTC founder Hypo Yang wrote the pool code himself. He completed the development in May 2016, and a month later ViaBTC mined its first block. On June 5, 2024, Poole celebrated his eighth birthday.
"Like most people, I initially thought the concept of bitcoin was too fantastic, but eventually I realized its value. Since 2014, I have been involved in various projects to develop cryptocurrency mining equipment and mining pool software," notes Hypo Yang.At the time of the launch of ViaBTC, a fairly competitive market had formed: about 18 mining pools were operating on the bitcoin network.
After the launch of CoinEx in 2017, ViaBTC customers were able to automatically withdraw earned assets to the exchange with zero commission. Thanks to auto-conversion support, the pool distributes profits every hour.
Currently, ViaBTC supports 10 cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), eCash (XEC), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Zcash (ZEC), Dash (DASH), Nervos Network (CKB) and Kaspa (KAS).
ViaBTC started mining the latter in 2024 and has already entered the top 5 mining pools of this cryptocurrency. At the time of writing, the computing power of ViaBTC in the Kaspa network is almost 36 PH/s.
"Kaspa is one of the most interesting PoW cryptocurrencies on the market: over the past year, the cost of the project has increased by 600%. We devoted a lot of time and resources to mining KAS, which allowed us to quickly take a leading position in mining this coin. Among the ten largest Kaspa pools, we are the only ones who offer the PPS+ payment model," said Hypo Yang.ViaBTC also charges rewards for inviting friends. The participants of the referral program receive a rate of 10% for 12 months, and the ambassadors receive 20% on a permanent basis.
The pool team explained how to become an ambassador in an article on the ViaBTC website. For this and other questions, customers can contact the Russian-speaking support service at Telegram.
Why do miners choose pools
There are two types of mining: independent and pooled. In the first case, bitcoins belong to the miner who extracted the block, in the second ― to the pool participants who combine the hashrate and divide the reward among themselves.
https://forklog.com/cryptorium/chto-takoe-majningIn 2024, almost all bitcoins are mined by mining pools and only occasionally by solo miners. The popularity of the former is ensured:
a low entry threshold. Compared to solo mining, the initial cost of creating and maintaining the pool infrastructure is much lower; income stability. The pool distributes profits more often, as its customers combine capacities and depend less on luck.Since the launch of Slush Pool in 2010, more than 15 payment models for pool participants have appeared on the market. Among them are the following:
Pay Per Share (PPS) ― instant fixed payouts for each ball, even if the block is not found. Miners receive daily rewards minus the pool commission. In this mode, profitability is relatively stable;Pay Per Last N Share (PPLNS) ― payouts only when mining a block, otherwise the profit is zero. The model is more risky, but the potential return is much higher compared to PPS."When choosing a pool, hashrate, luck, job stability, payout model and reputation should be taken into account. For example, ViaBTC has been operating steadily for eight years, ranks third among bitcoin pools with luck above 100% and offers several payment models," explains Hypo Yang.According to him, currently pools most often use PPLNS and PPS+:
"ViaBTC introduced PPS+ in August 2016 as an improvement to PPS. This is a combination of two models: the block reward is calculated using the PPS model, and the fees for transactions and pool services are calculated using the PPLNS model."ViaBTC also supports the SOLO model, when a miner mines blocks independently. If successful, he takes all the reward, in case of failure — nothing.
How to join a mining pool
The first step is to choose a cryptocurrency and suitable hardware, since blockchains use different mining algorithms.
ViaBTC regularly updates the miner profitability rating, which presents hashrate, capacity and daily profit indicators for various equipment models.
"In addition to miners, you will need a stable Internet connection, a power supply and cooling devices," notes Hypo Yang.To start the equipment, you need to download specialized software, select the payout model (PPS+, PPLNS and SOLO) and configure the miner parameters: the Stratum protocol URL, password and device ID.
Configuring the miner configuration. Data: ViaBTC.After connecting to the mining pool, you can check the operation status and profitability of the equipment, as well as choose one of four profit withdrawal options on the ViaBTC website:
auto-checkout once a day (without commission);transfer to an external wallet (with a commission);internal transfer without making a transaction (without commission);transfer to CoinEx (without commission).The ViaBTC team has published detailed instructions on mining various cryptocurrencies on the pool's website.
Conclusions
In June, Upstream Data account manager Adam Ortolf announced a "survival game" among bitcoin miners against the background of the April halving. However, at the end of last month, CryptoQuant specialists recorded a weakening in sales of digital gold by miners.
According to Hypo Yang, the market is in a phase of "post-halving consolidation": a decrease in the block reward forced inefficient players to turn off equipment and sell stocks of the first cryptocurrency to cover costs.
He is confident that after the "cleansing" of the market and the absorption of sales volumes, the prerequisites for the resumption of the bitcoin rally will be formed.