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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/mempool/mempool/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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Overview

The Mining Dashboard provides comprehensive insights into Bitcoin’s mining ecosystem. Track network hashrate, difficulty adjustments, mining pool dominance, block rewards, and more.

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What is Bitcoin Mining?

Bitcoin mining is the process of:
  1. Collecting transactions from the mempool
  2. Creating a block with those transactions
  3. Finding a valid proof-of-work by computing hash values
  4. Broadcasting the block to the network
  5. Earning the reward (block subsidy + transaction fees)
Miners compete to find blocks, with probability proportional to their share of total network hashrate.

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Key Mining Metrics

Network Hashrate

Total computational power securing the Bitcoin network, measured in exahashes per second (EH/s).

Difficulty

How hard it is to find a valid block. Adjusts every 2,016 blocks (~2 weeks) to maintain 10-minute block times.

Block Reward

Payment miners receive for finding a block: subsidy (currently 3.125 BTC) plus transaction fees.

Pool Dominance

Market share of different mining pools, showing concentration of mining power.

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Network Hashrate

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Understanding Hashrate

Hashrate represents the network’s mining power:
  • 1 Hash/s: One hash computation per second
  • 1 TH/s (terahash): 1 trillion hashes per second
  • 1 PH/s (petahash): 1,000 TH/s
  • 1 EH/s (exahash): 1,000,000 TH/s
Real-Time EstimateThe dashboard shows estimated network hashrate based on:
  • Recent block discovery rate
  • Current difficulty
  • Statistical smoothing (7-day average)
Example: 400 EH/s means the network performs 400 quintillion hashes per second.

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Why Hashrate Matters

Security

Higher hashrate = more expensive to attack the network

Decentralization

Distribution shows how concentrated mining power is

Mining Economics

Helps estimate mining profitability and difficulty trends

Network Health

Growing hashrate indicates confidence in Bitcoin

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Difficulty Adjustment

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How It Works

Bitcoin automatically adjusts mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks:
1

Measure Block Times

Calculate average time for the last 2,016 blocks.
2

Compare to Target

Target is 2 weeks (20,160 minutes).
3

Adjust Difficulty

  • If blocks were faster than 10 minutes → increase difficulty
  • If blocks were slower → decrease difficulty
4

Apply New Difficulty

Change takes effect at the next block.

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Difficulty Dashboard

The dashboard displays: 
┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Current Difficulty: 62.46 T          │
│ Next Adjustment:    +2.5% (in 850)  │
│ Time to Adjustment: 5 days 23 hours │
│ Average Block Time: 9m 42s           │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘
“T” represents trillion. Current difficulty around 60-70 trillion.

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Adjustment History

View past difficulty adjustments:
  • Date and block height
  • Percentage change
  • New difficulty value
  • Average block time during period

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Mining Pools

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Pool Rankings

See which pools are finding the most blocks: For each pool:
  • Pool name and logo
  • Blocks mined (24h, 1 week, 1 month, all-time)
  • Estimated hashrate
  • Market share percentage
  • Average luck (actual vs. expected blocks)

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Pool Analysis

Market ConcentrationPie chart showing pool distribution:
  • Top pools highlighted
  • Smaller pools grouped as “Other”
  • 51% attack risk visualization
  • Decentralization metrics
If any pool exceeds 51%, they could theoretically attack the network. Bitcoin has never had this occur.

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Notable Mining Pools

Foundry USA

Large US-based pool, often the largest by hashrate

AntPool

Operated by Bitmain, major mining hardware manufacturer

F2Pool

One of the oldest pools, based in China

ViaBTC

Major pool supporting multiple cryptocurrencies

Unknown

Solo miners or pools not identifying themselves

Braiins Pool

Stratum V2 early adopter, transparency-focused
Unidentified miners (“Unknown”) help with decentralization.

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Block Rewards

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Reward Components

Each block reward consists of:
  1. Block Subsidy (fixed per block):
    • Started at 50 BTC (2009)
    • Halves every 210,000 blocks (~4 years)
    • Current: 3.125 BTC (after 2024 halving)
    • Next halving: ~2028 (1.5625 BTC)
  2. Transaction Fees (variable):
    • Sum of all fees from block transactions
    • Depends on mempool congestion
    • Ranges from 0.1 to 5+ BTC
Total Reward = Subsidy + Fees

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Halving Schedule

1

2009-2012

50 BTC per block10,500,000 BTC mined
2

2012-2016

25 BTC per block5,250,000 BTC mined
3

2016-2020

12.5 BTC per block2,625,000 BTC mined
4

2020-2024

6.25 BTC per block1,312,500 BTC mined
5

2024-2028

3.125 BTC per block656,250 BTC mined
After ~32 halvings (around year 2140), no new Bitcoin will be created. Miners will rely entirely on transaction fees.

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Fee Statistics

Analyze transaction fee trends:

Fee per Block

Average and median fees collected per block over time

Fee Percentage

Fees as percentage of total block reward

Fee Distribution

Histogram showing fee variance across recent blocks

High Fee Blocks

Notable blocks with exceptional fee collection

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Block Production

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Block Time Analysis

Target: 10 minutes per block Reality: Statistical distribution around 10 minutes The dashboard shows:
  • Average block time (rolling average)
  • Fastest/slowest recent blocks
  • Time since last block
  • Next expected block time
Block times follow a Poisson distribution. Finding blocks faster or slower is normal; difficulty adjusts to maintain the 10-minute average.

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Block Size and Weight

Track how full blocks are:
  • Block Size: Data size in megabytes (MB)
    • Max: 4 MB including witness data
    • Typical: 1.5-2.5 MB
  • Block Weight: Post-SegWit measurement
    • Max: 4,000,000 weight units (WU)
    • 1 vByte = 4 WU

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Empty Blocks

Occasionally, pools mine empty blocks (only coinbase transaction): Why?
  • Reducing validation time
  • Immediately after previous block found
  • Network propagation delays
  • Technical issues
Empty blocks collect no transaction fees, only the subsidy.

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Mining Health Indicators

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Network Security

Hashrate Growth

Increasing hashrate = stronger security

Pool Decentralization

No pool > 25% is ideal

Geographic Distribution

Mining distributed across countries

Block Interval Stability

Consistent ~10 minute intervals

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Mining Economics

Factors affecting mining profitability:
  1. Bitcoin Price: Higher price = higher revenue
  2. Block Reward: Subsidy + fees in BTC
  3. Difficulty: Higher = more expensive to mine
  4. Energy Costs: Major operational expense
  5. Hardware Efficiency: Newer ASICs mine more efficiently
Miners become unprofitable when revenue < costs, potentially reducing hashrate until difficulty adjusts down.

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Special Events

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Block Halving

Major event every ~4 years:
  • Block subsidy cuts in half
  • Mining revenue decreases
  • Often correlates with price movements
  • Next halving tracked on dashboard

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Difficulty Drops

Significant drops can indicate:
  • Mining operations shutting down
  • Regulatory actions
  • Energy price increases
  • Bitcoin price crashes

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Fee Spikes

Unusually high transaction fees from:
  • NFT/Ordinals minting
  • Exchange outflows
  • Network congestion
  • Market volatility

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API Access

Query mining data programmatically: 
curl "https://mempool.space/api/v1/mining/pools"
See API Documentation for complete details.

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Understanding Pool Types

Pay-Per-Share
  • Miners paid per share submitted
  • Pool takes all risk
  • Steady predictable income
  • Slightly lower rewards

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Troubleshooting

Hashrate is estimated from block times:
  • Natural variance in when blocks are found
  • Statistical averaging over recent blocks
  • Difficulty changes affect calculations
  • Use 7-day average for stability
Block discovery is probabilistic:
  • Random variation is normal
  • Some blocks take 1 minute, others 30+
  • Average converges to 10 minutes over 2,016 blocks
  • Difficulty adjusts to correct the average
Community concerns about centralization:
  • Miners can switch pools freely
  • Historical precedent: GHash.io voluntarily reduced size
  • Decentralized pool protocols (P2Pool, Stratum V2)
  • Market incentives favor decentralization

Blockchain Explorer

View individual blocks and transaction details

Mempool Visualizer

See which transactions miners are selecting

Fee Estimation

Understand transaction fee market dynamics

Lightning Explorer

Layer 2 solution for instant payments

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