Close Menu
  • Coins
    • Bitcoin
    • Ethereum
    • Altcoins
    • NFT
  • Blockchain
  • DeFi
  • Metaverse
  • Regulation
  • Other
    • Exchanges
    • ICO
    • GameFi
    • Mining
    • Legal
  • MarketCap
What's Hot

Ethereum ETFs Shed $788M Over Four Days in Institutional Exodus

10/09/2025

China Is One Step Further Into Yuan Stablecoin: Oil Trade

10/09/2025

Binance Alpha LINEA Listing Unveils Exciting Opportunities for Early Tokens

10/09/2025
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
  • Back to NBTC homepage
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
X (Twitter) Telegram Facebook LinkedIn RSS
NBTC News
  • Coins
    1. Bitcoin
    2. Ethereum
    3. Altcoins
    4. NFT
    5. View All

    Price Breaks All-Time High Record Again – Here’s What We Know

    04/08/2025

    Bitcoin Switzerland? El Salvador to Host First Fully Native Bitcoin Capital Markets

    04/08/2025

    Bitcoin Breaks $119K, but XLM and HBAR Aren’t Impressed by Its Meager Percentage Gain

    04/08/2025

    High-Stakes Consolidation Could Define Q3 Trend

    04/08/2025

    Ethereum ETFs Shed $788M Over Four Days in Institutional Exodus

    10/09/2025

    Is $4,200 about to collapse?

    10/09/2025

    Will This Key Support Hold as ETH Prepares for Breakout?

    10/09/2025

    15,000 Ethereum Dumped on Binance by Matrixport, Ethereum Price Reacts

    10/09/2025

    The Sui Ecosystem’s Top 3 Altcoin Performers

    29/07/2025

    Floki Launches $69000 Guerrilla Marketing Challenge With FlokiUltras3

    28/07/2025

    Crypto Beast denies role in Altcoin (ALT) crash rug pull, blames snipers

    28/07/2025

    $1.6 Billion XRP Surge: Here’s What’s Unfolding

    28/07/2025

    Tokenized Pokémon Cards Are Hot. Lending Them for Crypto Is a Different Story

    10/09/2025

    Ordinals Scrapyard turns Bitcoin NFT wreckage into tax write-offs

    09/09/2025

    OpenSea Makes Big Moves in Final Sprint to $SEA

    09/09/2025

    BeatFarm Brings Music to Bitcoin With First-Ever Native NFT Protocol

    09/09/2025

    Ethereum ETFs Shed $788M Over Four Days in Institutional Exodus

    10/09/2025

    China Is One Step Further Into Yuan Stablecoin: Oil Trade

    10/09/2025

    Binance Alpha LINEA Listing Unveils Exciting Opportunities for Early Tokens

    10/09/2025

    Is $4,200 about to collapse?

    10/09/2025
  • Blockchain

    Legal expert affirms public blockchains remain regulatory standard despite corporate L1 launches

    09/09/2025

    Neurolov and Qitmeer Partner to Drive Decentralized AI Compute and Web3 Payments

    09/09/2025

    The New Libra or Ethereum Killer?

    09/09/2025

    REI Network Integrates with Spur Protocol to Boost Web3 Infrastructure Adoption

    09/09/2025

    Web3 Creative Asset Platform Ultiland Partners with StarAI to Advance Art RWA Creation, Monetization, and Trading

    09/09/2025
  • DeFi

    Kinto shutdown prompts first haircut for Wildcat lenders

    10/09/2025

    Enso and Reservoir Launch OneStable Cross-Chain Stablecoin Minting Protocol

    10/09/2025

    RWA Platform WorldAssets Partners with AutoStaking to Widen Accessibility of Tokenized Assets to DeFi Users

    10/09/2025

    Bitfinex invests in KaleidoSwap to establish the first Bitcoin-native DEX

    10/09/2025

    Blazpay and StarAI Forge Alliance to Build Creator-Centric AI DeFi Ecosystem

    10/09/2025
  • Metaverse

    CreataChain Joins LightCycle to Advance Fashion, Interoperability, and AI in Metaverse

    05/09/2025

    new institutional ‘trust’ layer to boost tokenized ESG investment

    04/09/2025

    Metaverse developer The Sandbox lays off 50% of staff and pivots to meme coin launchpad

    28/08/2025

    Meta Breaks Up AI Lab as Part of Superintelligence Push

    20/08/2025

    The Sandbox Game Maker: Unleashing Revolutionary Metaverse Experiences

    07/08/2025
  • Regulation

    China Is One Step Further Into Yuan Stablecoin: Oil Trade

    10/09/2025

    The Fed’s PCE Data Used to Measure Inflation Has Been Released! Here’s Bitcoin’s (BTC) First Reaction!

    10/09/2025

    Tokenized alternative funds jump 47% to $1.7B in 30 days

    10/09/2025

    Fed Chair Candidate Announces Interest Rate Cut Expectations “Within 3-6 Months…”

    10/09/2025

    Dow slips as Wall Street weighs PCE inflation data

    10/09/2025
  • Other
    1. Exchanges
    2. ICO
    3. GameFi
    4. Mining
    5. Legal
    6. View All

    Binance Alpha LINEA Listing Unveils Exciting Opportunities for Early Tokens

    10/09/2025

    Backpack Opens Regulated Perpetuals Exchange in Europe After FTX EU Acquisition

    10/09/2025

    Circle Expands Hyperliquid with USDC and CCTP V2 Rollout

    10/09/2025

    4.9M Reasons Why This Binance Move is Crucial

    10/09/2025

    ICO for bitcoin yield farming chain Corn screams we’re so back

    22/01/2025

    Why 2025 Will See the Comeback of the ICO

    26/12/2024

    GameFi.org Joins Somnia to Accelerate Blockchain Gaming Advancement

    10/09/2025

    Intelligent Agents Set to Reshape Blockchain Gaming Ecosystems, Gaming Director Says

    09/09/2025

    XRPL Gamechain Testnet and Pudgy Party Launch

    08/09/2025

    SolPlex Game Launch on Epic Games Marks a New Era for Web3 Gaming

    08/09/2025

    From CPU to ASIC Era

    10/09/2025

    HIVE, Bitdeer and Cipher Drive August Hashrate Growth Among Public Bitcoin Miners

    10/09/2025

    Bitcoin Miners Surge Following Microsoft’s $17.4B AI Bet

    10/09/2025

    US Lawmaker Flags Bitcoin Mining Rig Manufacturers as National Security Threats

    09/09/2025

    Lawmakers Call for Inquiry Into China’s DeepSeek Over National Security, Data Risks

    10/09/2025

    Devastating Loss for Terraform Founder

    10/09/2025

    Congress Is Back From Break

    09/09/2025

    FBOT registry won’t bring offshore crypto exchanges to the US — Attorney

    09/09/2025

    Ethereum ETFs Shed $788M Over Four Days in Institutional Exodus

    10/09/2025

    China Is One Step Further Into Yuan Stablecoin: Oil Trade

    10/09/2025

    Binance Alpha LINEA Listing Unveils Exciting Opportunities for Early Tokens

    10/09/2025

    Is $4,200 about to collapse?

    10/09/2025
  • MarketCap
NBTC News
Home»Mining»Bitcoin mining pools struggle to make payouts in bitcoin
Mining

Bitcoin mining pools struggle to make payouts in bitcoin

NBTCBy NBTC18/01/2025No Comments5 Mins Read
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email


Operators of the world’s largest bitcoin (BTC) mining pools are quietly discussing a problem with BTC payouts. Despite mining BTC, securing BTC, and earning 100% of their revenue in BTC, pool operators are occasionally finding the currency itself to be cumbersome for paying their own workers.

Although all major BTC mining pools pay for work in BTC currently, a few are warming up to the idea of an altcoin as a superior payment method.

For months, developers and pool managers have engaged in deep discussions on technical forums like Delving Bitcoin around electronic cash (“ecash”) token alternatives to mining pool payouts. One of the discussion leaders, vnprc, has proposed a new form of eHash tokens that represent “liabilities” that can be “audited” using a so-called “Proof-of-Liabilities” protocol by Calle.

The irony of such a string of terms is apparent to any BTC maximalist: new token, new proof, and new protocol. BTC is supposed to be the preeminent peer-to-peer digital cash so why are developers busy inventing a new token to pay for pure BTC work?

How bitcoin is burdening mining pool payouts

Participating in a mining pool is normally not as simple as contributing work and receiving a percentage of the coinbase reward and transaction fees whenever your pool mines a block. (Bitcoin’s coinbase reward is currently 3.125 BTC per 10-minute block, or about $325,000.)

Unfortunately, pool operators face various idiosyncrasies with calculating miners’ level of computation, the pool’s costs since its last coinbase reward, and the inherent 10-minute transaction delays between Bitcoin blocks.

Altogether, these factors complicate an immediate BTC payout to pool members. Consider the delays necessitated by pool payout structures like PPLNS to illustrate this frustration.

Read more: Bitcoin mining is more difficult than ever

Within some pool payout schemes like pay per last N shares (PPLNS), a member might need to wait days or weeks for the pool to find additional blocks prior to receiving their first payout. As the name suggests, pay only occurs for the last shares of work that actually earned money for the pool.

While the pool waits to win blocks, its miners must also patiently wait for their payouts.

Highly variable transaction fees also mean that affordable BTC payments might suddenly become unaffordable depending on the whims of the market, spikes in transaction fees, or hour of the day.

Worse, the BTC denomination of mining work — which fluctuates rapidly in USD price, unlike electricity — means that pools can occasionally allocate templated work to their members with a massive BTC change in USD value by the time the pool actually gets lucky enough to win its coinbase reward.

Work for generous tips, win small tips

The non-profit Bitcoin Optech illustrates this with an example of a pool that instructs its members to mine a template that would be worth 3.125 BTC coinbase plus a massive quantity of extra BTC worth of transaction fees.

(Transaction fees are “tips” from BTC users to miners that incentivize inclusion of their transaction in the earliest block possible. It’s not unheard of for transaction fees to exceed 10X the value of the coinbase reward.)

Suppose that a member contributes substantial work on this template, expending energy and computation to hash 10% of that pool’s share of that block. That member might be hoping for 10% of that block’s, say, 30 or more BTC — a great payday.

Then, infuriatingly, another pool solves the mathematical puzzle for that same block and wins all of its coinbase and transaction fees. Suddenly, the member’s hoped-for 10% of 30 BTC is worth $0.

Tragically, by the time that original member and its pool finally win their next block, transaction fees have cratered and the block they actually win is worth just four BTC — a far cry from 30.

In this case, many pool operators honor the original work assignment based on the old template that was worth 30 BTC and compensate workers from corporate reserves. (Over time, pool operators smoothe out payouts in this manner to avoid losing their workforce to other, more well-capitalized competitors.)

However, this strategy is unsustainable in the long term if the pool operator assigns high-fee, BTC-denominated work that fluctuates too often to the downside by the time the pool actually wins its blocks.

Working on ecash

One apparent solution to this problem is a non-BTC token that might take the form of a redeemable “share” of BTC pool payouts. This crypto asset derivative might take the form of a “PPLNS ecash share” that is traded on a secondary market and is linked to the BTC held by pool operators.

Other proposals are also underway that offer features like faster transaction times, better liquidity, financeability, and other value propositions.

To be clear, these tokens aren’t intended to be speculative assets like memecoins or any type of ICO, but rather simple tokens that allow pool members to redeem their share of work earlier or faster than BTC itself would allow.

In short, it is ironic yet fascinating that BTC itself is becoming an occasionally problematic payment method within Bitcoin’s own industry of mining. Active discussions are underway regarding possible tokens or iterations of ecash that might solve payout concerns of pooled miners.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
NBTC

Related Posts

From CPU to ASIC Era

10/09/2025

HIVE, Bitdeer and Cipher Drive August Hashrate Growth Among Public Bitcoin Miners

10/09/2025

Bitcoin Miners Surge Following Microsoft’s $17.4B AI Bet

10/09/2025

US Lawmaker Flags Bitcoin Mining Rig Manufacturers as National Security Threats

09/09/2025
Add A Comment

Comments are closed.

Top Posts
Get Informed

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest news from NBTC regarding crypto, blockchains and web3 related topics.

Your source for the serious news. This website is crafted specifically to for crazy and hot cryptonews. Visit our main page for more tons of news.

We're social. Connect with us:

Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn RSS
Top Insights

Ethereum ETFs Shed $788M Over Four Days in Institutional Exodus

10/09/2025

China Is One Step Further Into Yuan Stablecoin: Oil Trade

10/09/2025

Binance Alpha LINEA Listing Unveils Exciting Opportunities for Early Tokens

10/09/2025
Get Informed

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest news from NBTC regarding crypto, blockchains and web3 related topics.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.