So you are looking at mining Ravencoin and want to increase your profitability? It may make sense to join a Ravencoin mining pool.
Ravencoin remains popular and profitable, and ASIC resistant thanks to its use of the X16R proof-of-work mining algorithm. This is actually 16 different algorithms that are used randomly during the mining process. It’s this random use of so many algorithms that makes Ravencoin ASIC resistant.
However, even though it is ASIC resistant, it is also difficult enough that most home rigs won’t be successful with solo mining. One of the few remaining ways that you can increase your mining returns is if you join a Ravencoin mining pool. In this piece, I will give you some of the best pools to consider.
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Top 7 Ravencoin Pools
There are literally dozens of pools available for Ravencoin, but nearly all the hash rate is concentrated in the top three pools. Concentration of hash power is often seen as a concern especially for those coins with lower market caps.
That said, the network still remains quite decentralized, and the largest pool, Suprnova.cc has less than 20% of the total hash rate. Keep in mind that it is best if you choose a small to medium pool to keep the network as secure and decentralized as possible.
Now let’s have a look at some of the best Ravencoin mining pools:
Suprnova
Suprnova.cc is the largest Ravencoin mining pool by far, controlling 19.65% of the network hash power. When I looked there were 17,962 workers on the pool and it has found 224 blocks in the past 24 hours. They have an average mining fee of 1% and servers located around the world.
Suprnova Ravencoin Mining Pool Statistics
Suprnova is well known and respected in the cryptocurrency community, which is why it is so popular for Ravencoin mining. Suprnova does require you to register, but only with your email address. However, once done you have a unified login that can used across nearly all of the other pools they operate (which is quite a few).
BeePool
BeePool is a mining pool based in China, making it best for miners based in Asia. It is the third largest Ravencoin mining pool and when I looked it had 593 workers and found 106 blocks in the past 24 hours.
Beepool Network stats and Hashrate
They control 9.5% of the network hash power and have a larger than usual fee of 2% for PPS mining, although PPLNS mining is just a 1% fee. The minimum payout is a very small 0.1 RVN and there is no registration required to use BeePool.
Ravenminer.com
Ravenminer is the fourth largest Ravencoin mining pool, controlling 5.4% of the network hash power. They are a global mining pool, so you can use them from anywhere in the world. They also have a small 0.5% fee and use the PROP payout system.
Ravenminer Statistics over different time periods
When I checked they had 7115 workers and 58 blocks found in the past 24 hours. They also have a 5 RVN minimum payout (0.5 RVN on Sundays), which could mean you have to wait for some time for a payout. No registration is required to use the Ravenminer.com pool.
Nanopool.org
Close behind Ravenminer is Nanopool, with 4.7% of the network hash power. They have 6154 workers in the pool and found 60 blocks over the past 24 hours. Currently, the pool has about 473.1 Gh/s in total hash rate mining RVN.
The fee is an average 1% and they have servers located around the world, making this a suitable mining pool for anyone, no matter where they are located. There is a 100 RVN minimum payout, the pool supports CPU mining, and there is no registration required.
Minermore
The Minermore pool has 2.8% of the network hashing power, putting it at the lower end of the medium-sized Ravencoin pools, or possibly at the top end of the small pools. In any case, it has 6960 workers in the network and found 30 blocks in the past 24 hours.
There is an average 1% PPLNS mining fee and servers located globally (U.S., Canada, Europe, Hong Kong). There is no registration requirement at Minermore.
Coinblockers
Coinblockers is one of the more popular small Ravencoin mining pools, controlling 1.1% of the network hash power and finding 10 blocks in the past 24 hours with just 415 workers. The mining fee is the average 1% with a PPLNT payout scheme.
Online stats at Coinblockers Ravencoin Pool
The minimum payout here is only 0.05 RVN, making it easy to get your first payout. There is no registration requirement and servers are globally located.
BSOD.pw
Lastly I’d like to mention the BSOD.pw pool. It has 0.8% of the hash rate and with 1606 miners it found 19 blocks in the past 24 hours.
They have servers located around the world, making it a good choice for any location, and the 0.1 RVN (0.01 RVN on Sunday’s) minimum payout is small enough everyone should get paid quickly. There’s also no registration required at BSOD.pw and the mining fee is slightly below average at 0.9% PROP.
So, although this is the smallest pool that you can join on on the network, when blocks are mined, you will have a larger share of the block reward. Of course, it will take much longer for this pool to find blocks than some of the larger ones.
What Pool is Right for You?
When it comes to choosing the best Ravencoin pool, you have to consider a number of factors that could have a direct impact on your profitability. These include the following:
- Pool Uptime: Pretty fundamental requirement. You can only earn RVN hashing with a pool when the pool is running. Mining pools are also prime targets for DDoS attacks and are hence subjected to long periods of downtime. It therefore makes sense to use a mining pool that has a good record when it comes to historical up-time (preferably close to 100%). Suprnova is one of the few Ravencoin pools that disclose their up-time so that is indeed quite a positive sign.
- Fees: Another really fundamental factor that will impact your profitability is the fee that the pool will charge. From the above pools, it seems that Ravenminer has the lowest fees to mine RVN.
- Hashpower: Pool hash-power is a bit of a tricky one. Although a pool with higher hash-power is more likely to find blocks, it also means that you will probably have to share the block rewards with a greater selection of miners. However, if the pool has less hashing power you can keep more of the reward but you are less likely to find blocks as a Ravencoin pool with higher hash power.
- Server Location: Distance is important when it comes to choosing a pool as this will impact on the latency between your rig and the server itself. Hence, you will generally want to join a pool that has servers closer to you.
- Payout Conditions: As we have seen above, there are numerous different options when it comes to payout structure at the pool. Some RVN pools will also have minimum payout requirements so these are an important consideration to think about before you start hashing there.
So, from the above, it looks like Ravenminer and Suprnova could be strong contenders (depending on where you are located). Of course, you also need to consider that many of these requirements are a tradeoff with each other. The cheaper pools may not always have the best up-time and server location.
Conclusion
As competition heats up in the mining of RVN, so too will the difficulty in mining it. As more hashpower joins the network, adjustments take place in order to account for it. This can only mean that solo home mining will become less practical and hence more reason for using one of the Ravencoin pools above.
There are other smaller pools you can join, but most find less than 1 block per day. You could join one of these smaller pools to help promote decentralization. And maybe with your hash power that smaller pool will begin finding a block a day.
If you do choose to go with one of the pools I’ve listed above its usually best to choose a smaller pool, but there’s enough decentralization in Ravencoin that it wouldn’t hurt if you decided to use Suprnova.cc as long as their hash power remains below 25%.
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