Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common operational and mathematical questions about solo mining with mkpool.
Do I need an account to mine?▾
No. mkpool is completely account-less. Your payout address is your username. Point a miner at the pool and you are mining. There is nothing to register, verify, or log into.
Is mkpool custodial? Do you ever hold my coins?▾
No. mkpool is non-custodial. Block rewards are paid straight to the wallet address you mine with, inside the block's coinbase transaction. We never hold balances on your behalf and there is nothing to withdraw.
How and when am I paid?▾
Payouts happen automatically on-chain. When your miner finds a block, the reward (minus the developer donation) is paid directly in that block's coinbase transaction to your address. There are no account balances, withdrawal steps, or payout delays.
How long until I can spend a block reward?▾
Freshly mined coins are subject to coinbase maturity (on most chains roughly 100 confirmations) before they can be spent. Until then the block shows as immature/pending in your history, after which the coins are spendable from your wallet like any other funds.
What does it cost? Is there a fee?▾
There is no pool fee and no withdrawal fee. mkpool runs on a flat 2% developer donation taken from block rewards to fund infrastructure and development. The rest of the reward arrives on-chain directly to you.
What is solo mining and how is it different from a shared pool?▾
Solo mining means you search for blocks on your own rather than splitting rewards with other miners. When you find a block you keep the entire reward (minus the 2% developer donation). Rewards are infrequent but whole, instead of small and steady like a shared (PPS/PPLNS) pool.
How often will I actually find a block?▾
Solo mining is high-variance: your probability of finding any given block equals your hashrate divided by the whole network's hashrate. A small miner can go a long time between blocks but keeps the full reward when one lands. Use the solo mining chance calculator to estimate the odds for your hardware and chain.
Which coins and chains can I mine?▾
mkpool supports solo mining on Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), BitcoinII (BC2), DigiByte (DGB), eCash (XEC), Zcash (ZEC), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash II (BCH2). The Litecoin pool also merge-mines Dogecoin (DOGE) at no extra cost.
Can I mine Litecoin and Dogecoin at the same time?▾
Yes. The Litecoin pool merge-mines Dogecoin, so a single Scrypt miner can win both LTC and DOGE blocks simultaneously. Each reward is paid to its own address, and merge-mining DOGE does not reduce your Litecoin hashrate.
Which pool should I use?▾
Pick the chain you want to mine. Each pool has its own stratum endpoint and dashboard:
- btc.mkpool.com: Bitcoin (SOLO)
- bch.mkpool.com: Bitcoin Cash (SOLO)
- bc2.mkpool.com: BitcoinII (SOLO)
- bch2.mkpool.com: Bitcoin Cash II (SOLO)
- dgb.mkpool.com: DigiByte (SOLO)
- xec.mkpool.com: eCash (SOLO)
- zec.mkpool.com: Zcash (SOLO)
- ltc.mkpool.com: Litecoin (SOLO)
What miners and hardware are supported?▾
Any Stratum-compatible miner works, from large ASICs to small Bitaxe, NerdAxe, and ESP-Miner class devices. Rented hashrate from NiceHash, MiningRigRentals, and Braiins is supported on the fixed-difficulty tiers.
How do I connect my miner?▾
Point your miner at the pool's stratum URL and port, set the username to your payout address (optionally address.workername to label rigs), and use x as the password. Every pool's Connect page lists ready-to-copy URLs and example configurations.
Which difficulty tier should I pick?▾
If you are unsure, use the vardiff tier, which auto-tunes difficulty to your hardware. NiceHash-style and other rented hashing rigs should use a high fixed-difficulty tier (labeled on each pool's Connect page) so they submit valid, non-stale shares.
Can I point NiceHash or rented hashrate at mkpool?▾
Yes. NiceHash, MiningRigRentals, and Braiins rentals are supported. Use the high fixed-difficulty tier shown on each pool's Connect page so the rented rig submits valid shares at its expected hashrate.
Is version-rolling (ASICBoost) supported?▾
Yes. mkpool advertises mining.configure with a version-rolling mask that is fully compatible with ASICBoost-capable firmware.
Can I mine directly to an exchange address?▾
We strongly recommend mining only to an address in a wallet you control. Some exchanges and custodial services do not credit mined (coinbase) transactions, and you would not hold the keys. Using your own wallet keeps you in full control of your rewards.
What is an orphan block, and do I still get paid?▾
Occasionally two valid blocks are found at almost the same time and the network keeps only one; the other becomes an orphan. Orphaned blocks do not pay out and are clearly marked in your blocks history. This happens in all mining and is not specific to mkpool.