Joining a pool is an essential step for most miners. Although some miners prefer to mine solo instead of joining a pool, pooled hashrate generally means solving blocks more consistently , leading to more frequent mining reward payouts.

The process of joining a mining pool may seem complex, technical, and intimidating, but it’s quite simple. A  pool with high quality customer service will guide a new miner through the entire process.

Read: How do I choose a mining pool?

Here are the basic steps for how to join a bitcoin mining pool:

  • Choose which pool you want to join.
  • Input the Stratum addresses of the pool into your mining software.
  • Connect a wallet that will receive pool payouts.
  • Configure your machines to the chosen pool.

All the information needed to join a pool will be provided by the pool’s team.

Switching mining pools

Contrary to some popular opinions, switching mining pools is a very easy task. Simply replace the pool address in your mining software, and follow the steps above that detailed the process of joining the first pool. The pool’s support team can help answer any questions during the joining and configuration process.

Read: These are the top bitcoin mining pools grouped by payout structures.

Miners should time their switch to not miss full payouts from their current pool. Leaving a pool before a payout has been sent could leave some revenue uncollected.

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