When we talk about Bitcoin mining, most people immediately think about hashrate - the raw power of machines. But hashrate alone won’t make you a successful miner. Profitability depends on many other factors: electricity costs, network difficulty, and (often overlooked), the mining pool you choose.

Why the pool matters

Mining pools may look similar on paper: a small fee here, a slightly different payout model there. But those "small" differences compound over time. Even a 1% gap in daily profit turns into a serious amount when you run powerful hardware for months or years.

WhiteBIT’s experiment

Recently, WhiteBIT compared five well-known pools (AntPool, F2Pool, WhitePool, Luxor, ViaBTC) using the same hardware: Antminer S21.
The results showed that WhitePool consistently outperformed competitors, earning ~1.7% more than the rest. For a miner with 100 PH/s, that translated to an extra $866 per week compared to the weakest pool.

A miner’s test in practice

I came across an article by another miner who decided to test WhitePool for himself — before WhiteBIT even published their experiment. He used an Antminer S21 at 200 TH/s and shared his results:

• Setup took about an hour
• The pool ran stably (no downtime, no lag)
• Daily earnings averaged $10.38
• Over 58 days, he made about $600

You can read his full write-up here.

Mining is not only about how fast your hardware crunches numbers. It’s also about choosing the right pool that offers fair fees, reliable uptime, and consistent payouts. Small percentages may look unimportant at first glance - but in mining, they add up faster than you think.