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Estimated latency from Columbus, OH to each major SHA-256 pool's nearest server, sorted best-first.
Estimates from network distance — run the command below for exact numbers. If your miner lives in a hosting facility, what matters is the latency from the facility, not from your house.
Tip: your miner's latency is what counts. If it lives in a hosting facility, ask your host for the site's public IP and paste it here.
Pool not listed? Add it.
Paste any stratum host — we resolve it, locate the server, and estimate your ping to it.
| Pool | Stratum host | Nearest server | Est. ping | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F2Pool | btc.f2pool.com:3333 | Ashburn, VA · ~483 km | ~14 ms | excellent |
| Antpool | ss.antpool.com:3333 | Ashburn, VA · ~483 km | ~14 ms | excellent |
| Braiins Pool | stratum.braiins.com:3333 | Ashburn, VA · ~483 km | ~14 ms | excellent |
| Luxor | btc.global.luxor.tech:700 | Ashburn, VA · ~483 km | ~14 ms | excellent |
| Ocean | mine.ocean.xyz:3334 | US East · ~483 km | ~14 ms | excellent |
| Kryptex | sha256.kryptex.network:7777 | US East · ~483 km | ~14 ms | excellent |
| CKPool Solo | solo.ckpool.org:3333 | US East · ~483 km | ~14 ms | excellent |
| Binance Pool | sha256.poolbinance.com:3333 | US East · ~483 km | ~14 ms | excellent |
| SecPool | btc.secpool.com:3333 | US East · ~483 km | ~14 ms | excellent |
| NiceHash | sha256.auto.nicehash.com:9200 | US East · ~483 km | ~14 ms | excellent |
| AtlasPool (solo) | solo.atlaspool.io:3333 | Ashburn, VA · ~483 km | ~14 ms | excellent |
| Parasite Pool (solo) | parasite.wtf:42069 | US (approx.) · ~483 km | ~14 ms | excellent |
| SpiderPool | btc.spiderpool.com:3333 | US West · ~3,176 km | ~50 ms | good |
| ViaBTC | btc.viabtc.io:3333 | San Jose, CA · ~3,363 km | ~53 ms | good |
| EMCD | gate.emcd.io:3333 | Frankfurt · ~6,830 km | ~99 ms | fine for pooled mining |
| The pools below don't publish server locations — assumed US East, so these are rough estimates. Run the ping command below for real numbers. | ||||
| Public Pool | public-pool.io:21496 | unpublished · assumed US East | ~14 ms? | est. only |
| Pool | Stratum host | Nearest server | Est. ping | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antpool (BCH) | stratum-bch.antpool.com:3333 | US East · ~483 km | ~14 ms | excellent |
| SoloFury (BCH solo) | bch.solofury.com:7070 | Atlanta, GA · ~701 km | ~17 ms | excellent |
| ViaBTC (BCH) | bch.viabtc.io:3333 | San Jose, CA · ~3,363 km | ~53 ms | good |
| Mining-Dutch (BCH) | sha256.mining-dutch.nl:9996 | Netherlands · ~6,480 km | ~94 ms | fine for pooled mining |
| Pool | Stratum host | Nearest server | Est. ping | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MiningRigRentals (US East) | us-east01.miningrigrentals.com:3333 | Ashburn, VA · ~483 km | ~14 ms | excellent |
| MiningRigRentals (US West) | us-west01.miningrigrentals.com:3333 | Los Angeles, CA · ~3,176 km | ~50 ms | good |
| MiningRigRentals (EU) | eu-01.miningrigrentals.com:3333 | Amsterdam · ~6,480 km | ~94 ms | fine for pooled mining |
Paste this into Terminal (Mac/Linux) — or replace -c 3 with -n 3 on Windows. Includes any pools you added above.
for h in us-east01.miningrigrentals.com us-west01.miningrigrentals.com eu-01.miningrigrentals.com btc.f2pool.com ss.antpool.com btc.viabtc.io stratum.braiins.com btc.global.luxor.tech mine.ocean.xyz sha256.kryptex.network solo.ckpool.org sha256.poolbinance.com btc.secpool.com btc.spiderpool.com gate.emcd.io sha256.auto.nicehash.com public-pool.io solo.atlaspool.io parasite.wtf bch.viabtc.io stratum-bch.antpool.com bch.solofury.com sha256.mining-dutch.nl; do echo "== $h"; ping -c 3 $h | tail -1; done
Less than forums claim, more than zero. For ordinary pooled BTC mining, anything under ~120ms costs you a fraction of a percent in stale shares — pick the pool with the fees and payout scheme you like. It matters more in two cases: renting your rigs out (renters point your machine at their pool; MRR stratum proximity affects your delivered-hashrate numbers) and solo mining, where a stale block submission is catastrophic instead of trivial.
I run 7 ASICs across 5 states and track exactly what each one earns per pool — the numbers are public at /live.
For most miners: any large, established pool with an FPPS payout and a stratum server within about 150 ms — F2Pool, Antpool, ViaBTC, Braiins, or Ocean. Fees (typically 1-4%) and the payout scheme matter more than shaving 20 ms of ping. Choose a solo pool only if you understand you are buying a lottery ticket rather than income.
Under about 120 ms, barely — stale shares cost a fraction of a percent. Latency matters in two cases: renting rigs out on MiningRigRentals, where stratum proximity affects your delivered-hashrate numbers, and solo mining, where one stale block submission forfeits the entire reward. Between otherwise equal pools pick the closer stratum, but never pay higher fees just for lower ping.
As income, no: a single 234 TH/s Antminer S21 expects to find a block on the order of once in several decades at current difficulty. As a lottery it is legitimate — you keep the entire block reward if you hit, solo pools like Atlas Pool, Parasite Pool, and CKPool charge little or nothing, and a handful of solo miners do hit blocks every year.
FPPS pays the expected value of every share you submit — block subsidy plus transaction fees — whether or not the pool finds a block, so the pool absorbs the luck. PPLNS pays only when the pool finds blocks, splitting the reward across the last N shares, so your income swings with pool luck but the fee is usually lower.
Yes. Bitcoin Cash is SHA-256, so any Bitcoin ASIC (S19, S21, Whatsminer) mines it — point the miner at a BCH pool stratum and use a BCH wallet address. Per-TH profitability swaps back and forth with BTC; HashMaximizer watches that spread daily and emails a switch-or-hold signal.
It depends almost entirely on your power price and machine efficiency. A current-generation ASIC around 17.5 J/TH (Antminer S21 class) generally earns more than it burns below roughly $0.08-0.10 per kWh; older S19-class machines need cheaper power than that. Hosting typically runs $0.065-0.085 per kWh — and uptime plus hosting terms usually decide profitability more than pool choice does.
Own miners? Know when they pay for themselves.
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