Antpool is the leader among pools, with a capacity of 20% of the market. It belongs to Bitmain Tech Ltd. Work in the pool is possible in Russian, but translation is not available everywhere, which can cause some difficulties.
The pool also offers cloud mining and if we usually tell our users to stay away from it, then in this case we can make an exception. Provides cloud mining service HashNest. Cloud mining, if it is not a fraudulent scheme, solves many problems, such as placement of equipment, ventilation, allocation of power grid, customs clearance for equipment, etc.
In addition, the HashNest company makes it possible not only to simply buy power in the form of a hashrate and receive cryptocurrency, but also to conclude a Pacmic contract. The advantage of this contract is that it allows you to quickly return your invested funds, i.e. at the initial stage, the computing power will be equal to 1Tx, and so on until the full return on investment. Further, the level will correspond to the indicators stated when concluding the contract for the provision of services. Work in the pool is possible in Russian, but translation is not available everywhere, which can cause some difficulties.
those. at the initial stage, the computing power will be equal to 1Tx, and so on until the full return on investment. Further, the level will correspond to the indicators stated when concluding the contract for the provision of services.
The nuances of working on AntPool
Working in AntPool differs from mining with other sites due to its wide customization options, as well as an abundance of working tools. The interface allows you to get acquainted with all the relevant information about the current level of production, speed and even the success of users. For example, the following sections are present:
- daily production level
- Bitcoin mining chart versus Bitcoin cash
Interesting! The concept of “solo mining” first appeared on Antpool. It represents the transfer of the entire reward volume to the farm that solved the block, with the participation of the pool.
Due to the large number of work settings, some users find the site quite difficult, but with practice this problem can be solved. It takes getting used to the nuances of the language design and choosing the location of some settings.
From the history of the project
February 2014 is the starting point for the service. In just a few months, the project managed to become a leader and occupy one of the highest places in crypto mining.
project developers are constantly dealing with current issues of organizing the service, where they support regular club members, as well as attract new users.
According to official statistics, AntPool covers a fairly large audience of users; the service owns up to 20% of the total Bitcoin production.
By the way, it was this site that was the first to introduce the concept and technology of “solo mining” through a service where generation is carried out in a pool, but its entire block goes to the farm that solved the issues of forming the blockchain.
You can mine both with ASIC and with the help of GPU farms, or even without having your own equipment at all.
In the latter case, you can rent power that is offered directly on the resource through the HashNest service.
Important advantages of the site include:
- Availability of English and Russian versions (in the latter case, the interface language leaves much to be desired);
- Technical support for the generation of ten cryptocurrencies;
- Miners receive daily payments;
- Three generation options are installed;
- Stable structure of the service.
The following tokens are currently available to generate:
- Bitcoin.
- Litecoin.
- Ethereum.
- ETC.
- Zcash.
- Dash.
- Bitcoin Cash.
- Siacoin.
- XMC.
- Bytom.
Thus, miners will be offered a fairly large selection of mining for the proposed cryptocurrencies.
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Setup Features: Getting Started
For users who decide to mine cryptocurrency, it is necessary to perform some AntPool settings. To simplify perception, we will divide the process itself into several component parts:
1 – Registration.
First you need to go to the official website and click in the upper right corner, near the user icon, the “registration” button:
Despite the fact that the site is partially Russified, some aspects of the work will be accompanied by English. After clicking the button, the following window will pop up in which you will need to enter primary user data:
Next, the system will send a letter to the email address you entered, which will contain a link to confirm account registration:
The letter itself looks like this:
By clicking on the provided link, the user will be transferred to the third stage of registration (each stage is represented on the screen by a circle, which, if the data is entered correctly, turns into a check mark). Next, the system will ask you to enter the country code and mobile phone number, to which an SMS will be sent later for confirmation - the message data should be entered in the “sms code” field.
After the number has been entered, to receive the code, press the “send sms” key. Please note that the code is only valid for 5 minutes, so do not delay registration, as the system may require additional time to resend it:
After this action, the system will be ready for operation:
The message will tell you about the need to visit the security center in order to familiarize yourself with the network parameters, correct them and configure the AntPool miner.
2 - Configure AntPool.
First of all, the system will ask you to log in:
After entering the login and password, the settings cabinet opens in front of the user:
In addition to the already verified data, the system will offer to log in to Google and create an additional level of protection in the form of two-factor authentication. It is worth noting that AntPool mining can only be truly safe if you go through all the available security levels, so you should not ignore them.
3 – Connect and configure the miner.
Regardless of whether you're interested in setting up your S9 on AntPool, or you prefer to work with another machine, all paths lead to the "Antpool" field:
A new page will open with welcome information, at the bottom of which the user will find the treasured “start mining” button - this is what is needed to start working:
Next, we need to enter a personal ID (it must be original):
The next step is to go to the appropriate field:
The following key will be of interest:
Next, you will need to create a worker name, which will consist of the values of the previously entered ID, supplemented by a combination consisting either entirely of numbers or letters:
After this, you need to click on the “create” button, which will complete the process of adding a worker.
Next comes the main point of connecting the AntPool miner: to do this, you need to connect it to the Internet (regardless of whether we are talking about setting up antminer on AntPool or on another device). Before starting work, you will need to clarify the IP address of the device. All data entry will be carried out in the “miner configuration” tab. First of all, you need to go to the “general settings” section. In it, the user will be greeted with the corresponding fields that will need to be filled in:
Depending on the selected operating conditions, you should enter the required values:
Interesting! Working in AntPool on a video card is possible, but in practice, electricity costs will exceed the income level.
Remuneration payments
The platform supports all standard payments, such as PPS or PPLNS. Transfers of funds occur daily, the main condition is the presence of three confirmations and the discovery of a new block. Commissions on payments are minimal.
For PPS the commission will be 2.5% of the total funds. A thorough check and assessment of the difficulty of mining takes place, as well as a recalculation of the number of coins in the block. The pool insures users against force majeure and is ready to refund funds if the transfer is unsuccessful.
By using PPLNS, the miner will not have to pay any commission. Receiving electronic money in this case will depend on a certain number of shares, and not on the total number. This method of calculation is much more profitable, because only the latest readings are taken into account when generating a new link.
To withdraw funds, you will need to enter your Bitcoin wallet address. It is advisable to use exchanges, since it is more difficult to exchange BTC for rubles or dollars on local wallets. Also remember that a local wallet takes up a lot of hard drive space. So, in order to withdraw earned coins:
- Log in to your personal account on the official website of the pool.
- Open the “Settings” tab and find the blue “Edit” button next to your account.
- In the “Wallet address” field, enter the bitcoin wallet number, in the “Payment” line, select “PPLNS”. Once saved, withdrawals occur once a day.
There is no minimum amount for withdrawal on the site, and when choosing PPLNS there is no commission (as mentioned above). The system does not crash and works quickly, and the developers take full responsibility for possible problems with payments.
Withdrawing funds from AntPool
First of all, before thinking about the possibilities of withdrawing funds from AntPool, you need to decide which coin will be mined. The choice you make determines which specific wallet you will need to create to be able to receive your earned funds. To solve the problem, you need to go to the settings section on the top panel of the pool:
Next, the user will see an ID input window with the ability to edit. In the marked fields, you can enter a pre-created number of a wallet suitable for operation.
Important! It is necessary to pay attention to the possibility of choosing a payment method. The best option is PPLNS, since if you work through PPS, the system will charge a commission of 1.5%.
After entering changes, you must save them by pressing the appropriate key. Next, the earned funds will be automatically transferred to the specified address. Typically, AntPool withdrawal is made from 17:00 to 21:00 (Beijing time), and for “solo” from 20:00 to 21:00. In fact, the output processing speed depends on the current network load level.
Also, those interested in how to withdraw from AntPool should pay attention to additional settings: the ability to select the minimum payout level, add observers and comments. They allow you to create a convenient process for transferring funds.
If there is no ASIC
Surprisingly, sometimes there are enthusiasts online who want to mine cryptocurrencies like BCC/BCH on a video card. In this case, it’s worth explaining how to mine Bitcoin Cash on Antpool using it.
To do this, first download the miner program. It has already been said above what program is needed for the corresponding video card. After this, in the folder with the miner, create a bat file in which you should specify the following data:
- launch file (cgminer or cudaminer, respectively);
- algorithm (Bitcoin Cash has SHA-256);
- pool address (enter “-o” and then one of the three addresses indicated on the site);
- worker's name ("-u" userid.1; instead of one your worker's name).
As a matter of fact, after this you can start mining. Again, do not forget to indicate your wallet number on the website.
But in fact, many believe that mining Bitcoin Cash on video cards today and in the future does not make sense. These are quite true words, since the complexity and overall hashrate of the network will ultimately lead to one of two results:
- the equipment will not withstand the load;
- there will be no profit.
Therefore, save up for an ASIC, configure it for the specified pool and start mining.
AntPool Commission
It is already known that AntPool’s commission for withdrawals via PPLNS is 1.5%. In addition to additional fundraising, you can charge 1% when working in the “solo” category.
- Bitcoin
PPLNS (0% Fee) PPS (-5% Fee) PPS+ (4% PPS Fee + 2% TX fee) SOLO (1% Fee)
- Litecoin
PPLNS (0% Fee) PPS (1.5% Fee)
- Ethereum
PPLNS (0% Fee)
- Zcash
PPLNS (0% Fee) PPS (5% Fee)
User reviews
Next, you need to pay attention to AntPool reviews. Due to the fact that the project team was not initially focused on Russia, users avoided the problem of finding honest opinions among heaps of custom ones. The main advantages include the following:
- Information about current network indicators is displayed very correctly.
- The pool extremely rarely shows signs of technical “illness” - work always proceeds according to schedule.
- Representatives of the pool management team are truly interested in development. User wishes quite often become the basis for any changes for the better.
- The pool monitors the general situation of commissions in the field of crypto mining, and varies its own indicators in order to support demand.
- Technical support shows sufficient response speed. However, there is one “but” - for Russian-speaking users, the application will have to be written in English.
- The opportunity to receive daily payments is not present on all sites, and the pool under discussion, against their background, benefits significantly.
In addition, the rather long history of the pool adds an additional note of optimism - after all, it began in the distant year 2014, by the standards of the world of cryptocurrencies.
Accordingly, AntPool has a certain amount of trust from users. Speaking about the negative component of working in a pool, users highlight the following points:
- It is quite difficult for beginners to get started without the appropriate tips. When trying to independently find ways to solve problems, miners most often “stumble” over incorrect translation, substitution of the actual meanings of words, and a lot of terms incomprehensible to a layman. Problems with Russification should also be included in this paragraph: a pool of this level could pay attention to the inconvenience of work, since solving such problems is a sign of respect for its users.
- If the network is overloaded, payments may be delayed. In defense of the pool, it can be noted that this happens extremely rarely.
BTCChina
The pool with 10-12% of the network ranks fourth in the overall ranking and third in China. This Bitcoin pool belongs to the Chinese exchange of the same name, one of the largest in the world. In this way, it expands the range of its services and also conducts its own transactions without relying on third-party services. The pool is open only to exchange clients; in addition, it has significant in-house capacity. Unfortunately, its interface is very poorly translated even into English, not to mention other languages. Therefore, information on it is extremely limited.
Antpool Servers
BTC
stratum+tcp://stratum.antpool.com:3333 stratum+tcp://stratum.antpool.com:443 stratum+tcp://stratum.antpool.com:25
ETH
stratum-eth.antpool.com:8008 stratum-eth.antpool.com:443 stratum-eth.antpool.com:25
ZEC
stratum+tcp://stratum-zec.antpool.com:8899 stratum+tcp://stratum-zec.antpool.com:443 stratum+tcp://stratum-zec.antpool.com:25
LTC
stratum+tcp://stratum-ltc.antpool.com:8888 stratum+tcp://stratum-ltc.antpool.com:443 stratum+tcp://stratum-ltc.antpool.com:25
Let's sum it up
AntPool is one of the five pools that control approximately 4/5 of the total level of cryptocurrency production on the market. Thanks to an early start and feasible support for the level of service to its users, the project was able to achieve success. An additional support for development is the famous name of the founders of the pool, as well as the production of their own devices for mining. Thanks to a combination of advantages, AntPool managed to occupy a fairly high position, which would be extremely difficult for other market representatives to reach.
A little theory
Before you engage in mining and look for any services, you need to know at least the general theory. What is a pool, how to connect to it, how to mine cryptocurrency - if you don’t yet know the answers to these questions, then don’t rush to load your computer: in case it won’t be profitable for you.
So, a pool is a platform for joint cryptocurrency mining. In the case of Bitcoin Cash mining, it is simply necessary. Users combine all their powers into a kind of giant and direct them to solving blocks. The higher the hashrate, the faster the search for solution options, the less the load on each miner separately.
How does he pay? Based on what benefit the miner brings. The reward can be paid in proportion to the percentage of shares, for each share separately, or based on the number of shares contributed over a period of time.
