❓ FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

PyBLOCK is a non-custodial Bitcoin mining pool built by cypherpunks, for cypherpunks. We're the anti-spam Bitcoin pool — we mine clean blocks (monetary transactions only), filtering out ordinals, inscriptions, runes and token protocols. Point any SHA-256 ASIC at the stratum that fits you:

• 🎰 PYBLOCK-LOTTO (port 4444): True solo mining. Winner takes all minus 0.4% fee. High variance, high reward.
• 🌊 PYBLOCK-DATUM (port 23334): Pooled mining via the Ocean.xyz TIDES gateway. Low variance, steady payouts. You build your own sovereign block templates.
• 🔥 PYBLOCK-SV2 (port 5555): Native Stratum V2. Mine PyBLOCK's own clean, spam-free templates. Solo, winner-takes-all minus 0.9% fee.
• 🌌 PYBLOCK-CHIRP (port 5554): Stratum V2 shared-reward lottery. When any member finds a block the reward is split by loyalty + power, minus 0.9% fee. Turns solo variance into steady odds.
• 🎠 PYBLOCK-CAROUSEL (port 30000): A different miner's clean, spam-free template every job. Keep 98% of any block you find (1% template supplier · 1% PyBLOCK).

No KYC. No registration. No accounts. Your Bitcoin address IS your account — point your miner at our stratum URL and mine. That's it.

NO.

This is a cypherpunk pool. Just point your miner to our stratum URL with your Bitcoin address as the username. We don't store personal data, we don't require emails, and we don't give a fuck about KYC.

Your Bitcoin address IS your account. All mining stats are tied to your address, and payouts go directly to that address.

Choose based on your risk tolerance, hashrate, and how much you care about clean, sovereign blocks:

🎰 PYBLOCK-LOTTO (port 4444)

• Best for: Solo miners chasing the jackpot, high risk tolerance
• Payout: Winner takes the entire block reward (minus 0.4% fee)
• Variance: EXTREME — you either hit the jackpot or get nothing
• Protocol: Stratum V1 · point any ASIC or Bitaxe

🌊 PYBLOCK-DATUM (port 23334)

• Best for: Small miners who want steady income AND to build their own blocks
• Payout: Proportional to your hashrate via Ocean.xyz TIDES
• Variance: LOW — steady payouts
• Fee: 1% Ocean.xyz fee (PyBLOCK takes no extra cut)

🔥 PYBLOCK-SV2 (port 5555)

• Best for: Sovereign miners who want Stratum V2 and PyBLOCK's own clean, spam-free templates
• Payout: Solo, winner-takes-all (minus 0.9% fee)
• Variance: EXTREME (solo) — but every block you find is clean, monetary Bitcoin
• Protocol: Stratum V2 native (encrypted, efficient)

🌌 PYBLOCK-CHIRP (port 5554)

• Best for: Small/hobby miners who want a real shot without extreme variance
• Payout: Shared reward — when any member finds a block it's split by loyalty (tenure) + power (minus 0.9% fee)
• Variance: MEDIUM — a syndicate lottery, steadier than pure solo
• To qualify: 7 days mining + a small minimum power (~35 min of one Bitaxe). Min payout 1,000 sats (anti-dust)

🎠 PYBLOCK-CAROUSEL (port 30000)

• Best for: Miners who want to mine clean, sovereign templates from the whole community
• Payout: Solo — keep 98% of any block (1% template supplier · 1% PyBLOCK)
• Twist: A different miner's clean template every job — you rotate through everyone's spam-free templates
• Protocol: Stratum V1 · point any ASIC

💡 Not sure? New solo miners usually start on LOTTO or CHIRP. Miners who care about block content and censorship-resistance pick DATUM, SV2, or CAROUSEL (you build/choose your own sovereign template).

Any SHA-256 ASIC miner works with PyBLOCK Pool:

• Antminer: S9, S17, S19, S21 series
• Whatsminer: M20, M30, M50, M60 series
• Avalon: All models
• BitAxe: Solo mining lottery device
• Any other SHA-256 ASIC

❌ GPU and CPU mining won't work. Bitcoin mining requires specialized ASIC hardware.

PyBLOCK is the anti-spam Bitcoin pool. We mine clean blocks — monetary transactions only.

We keep Bitcoin blocks for money, not spam — filtering out the ordinals/runes/inscription junk that bloats blocks and crowds out real transactions. Our nodes run Bitcoin Knots with rejectparasites / rejecttokens, so when you mine on PyBLOCK you build (DATUM), serve (SV2), or rotate through (CAROUSEL) clean, spam-free templates instead of whatever template a big pool hands you.

Why it matters to you:

• You decide what goes in the block you mine — real censorship-resistance, not just a slogan
• Cleaner blocks strengthen Bitcoin as money for everyone
• No other pool lets a solo miner or Bitaxe mine spam-free like this

Stratum URL:

stratum+tcp://pool.pyblock.xyz:4444

Configuration:

1. URL: stratum+tcp://pool.pyblock.xyz:4444
2. Username: Your Bitcoin address (any format: Legacy, SegWit, Taproot)
3. Password: Anything (we don't check passwords)
4. Worker name (optional): Add .workername to your address

Example:

Username: bc1qYOURADDRESS.s19pro01
Password: x

Stratum URL:

stratum+tcp://pool.pyblock.xyz:23334

Configuration:

1. URL: stratum+tcp://pool.pyblock.xyz:23334
2. Username: Your Bitcoin address
3. Password: Anything

This pool connects to Ocean.xyz, so your stats will appear on both our DATUM page and the Ocean.xyz website.

Stratum V2 — port 5555 (native clean, spam-free templates):

stratum+tcp://pool.pyblock.xyz:5555

Configuration:

1. URL: stratum+tcp://pool.pyblock.xyz:5555
2. Or one combined string: stratum2+tcp://pool.pyblock.xyz:5555/9anZZb1uaJDqubvJhekPiNRHA2tuShcNaugDmFxtnTq54sDvTf5
3. Username: Your Bitcoin address
4. Password: Anything

SV2 is solo, winner-takes-all minus a 0.9% fee. You mine PyBLOCK's own clean, spam-free templates, and every block you find is monetary Bitcoin only.

Stratum V2 — port 5554:

stratum+tcp://pool.pyblock.xyz:5554

Configuration:

1. URL: stratum+tcp://pool.pyblock.xyz:5554
2. Or one combined string: stratum2+tcp://pool.pyblock.xyz:5554/9anZZb1uaJDqubvJhekPiNRHA2tuShcNaugDmFxtnTq54sDvTf5
3. Username: Your Bitcoin address
4. Password: Anything

CHIRP is a shared-reward syndicate: when any member finds a block, the reward is split by loyalty (tenure) and power, minus 0.9% fee. To qualify you need 7 days of mining and a small minimum power (~35 minutes of one Bitaxe). Minimum payout is 1,000 sats (anti-dust). Keep mining and your weight grows.

Stratum V1 — port 30000 (point any ASIC):

stratum+tcp://pool.pyblock.xyz:30000

Configuration:

1. URL: stratum+tcp://pool.pyblock.xyz:30000
2. Username: Your Bitcoin address
3. Password: Anything

Every job hands your miner a different community member's clean, spam-free template — you rotate through everyone's sovereign templates. If you find a block you keep 98% (1% goes to the miner who supplied that template, 1% to PyBLOCK). Plain Stratum V1, so any ASIC works.

All Bitcoin address formats are supported:

• Legacy (P2PKH): Starts with 1 (e.g., 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa)
• SegWit (P2SH): Starts with 3
• Native SegWit (Bech32): Starts with bc1q (recommended)
• Taproot (Bech32m): Starts with bc1p

⚠️ Important: Use an address you control, NOT an exchange address. Exchanges may not credit solo mining payouts correctly.

Yes! Add a worker name by appending .workername to your Bitcoin address.

Examples:

• bc1qYOURADDRESS.s19pro01
• bc1qYOURADDRESS.bitaxe-garage
• bc1qYOURADDRESS.basement-rig

All workers using the same Bitcoin address will be grouped together in your stats. Worker names help you identify which physical miner is which.

For LOTTO:

1. Go to the LOTTO page
2. Search for your Bitcoin address
3. You should see your workers and hashrate within 5 minutes

For DATUM:

1. Go to the DATUM page
2. Search for your Bitcoin address via Ocean CSV
3. Or visit ocean.xyz directly

✅ What you should see:

• Your workers listed with names
• Hashrate values (may take 5-10 minutes to stabilize)
• Last share timestamp (should update regularly)

PYBLOCK-LOTTO is true solo mining. The miner who finds the block receives the entire block reward minus PyBLOCK's 0.4% pool fee.

Current block reward: 3.125 BTC (after 2024 halving)

Winner receives: ~3.1125 BTC (99.6% of reward)

Payment: Sent directly to your Bitcoin address in the coinbase transaction of the block you found.

⚠️ High variance: You could find a block tomorrow, or it could take years depending on your hashrate. This is gambling with proof-of-work.

PYBLOCK-DATUM payouts are handled by Ocean.xyz using their TIDES (Transparent Index of Distinct Extended Shares) system.

How it works:

• You earn proportional to your hashrate contribution
• Payments sent when you reach minimum payout threshold
• Lightning Network payouts available for instant withdrawals
• On-chain Bitcoin payouts for larger amounts

For detailed payout settings, thresholds, and history, visit your dashboard on ocean.xyz.

CHIRP turns solo variance into a syndicate lottery. Everyone mines together; when any member finds a block, the reward (minus the 0.9% fee) is split among qualifying members directly in the block's coinbase.

Your share is weighted by:

• Loyalty (tenure): how long you've been mining — full weight at 30 days
• Power: your accumulated work over the rolling 24h window

To qualify: 7 days of mining and a small minimum power (~35 min of one Bitaxe). Payouts below 1,000 sats are rolled forward (anti-dust). Up to 100 miners share each block's coinbase.

Watch your live weight and eligibility on the CHIRP page.

Both are solo — like LOTTO, the miner who finds the block gets paid directly in that block's coinbase, no threshold, no waiting.

• 🔥 SV2 (5555): You keep 99.1% (0.9% fee). You mine PyBLOCK's own clean, spam-free template.
• 🎠 CAROUSEL (30000): You keep 98% — 1% to the miner whose clean template you were mining when you found the block, 1% to PyBLOCK.

⚠️ Solo means extreme variance: you might find a block tomorrow or not for a long time. Payout is instant and on-chain when you do.

Fees are only ever taken from a block reward — never up front, never a subscription. What you keep comes first:

• 🎰 LOTTO (4444): 99.6% for you · PyBLØCK fee 0.4%.
• 🌊 DATUM (23334): 100% for you · Ocean fee 1% (PyBLØCK takes 0 extra).
• 🔥 SV2 (5555): 99.1% for you · PyBLØCK fee 0.9%.
• 🌌 CHIRP (5554): 99.1% shared among members (split by loyalty + power) · PyBLØCK fee 0.9%.
• 🎠 CAROUSEL (30000): 98% for you · 1% template supplier · 1% PyBLØCK.

💡 Transparency: Every fee is deducted from the block reward inside the coinbase, on-chain and verifiable. What lands in your wallet is what you get. No hidden fees, no surprises.

Use our Mining Calculator to estimate:

• Time to find a block (solo mining)
• Expected daily/weekly/monthly earnings (pooled mining)
• Impact of network difficulty changes
• Profitability based on electricity costs

⚠️ Remember: These are statistical estimates. Actual results vary based on luck, network difficulty changes, and Bitcoin price volatility.

Hashrate is calculated over different time windows:

• 1m hashrate: Average over last 1 minute (most volatile, shows current performance)
• 5m hashrate: Average over 5 minutes (more stable)
• 1hr hashrate: Average over 1 hour (good indicator of consistent performance)
• 1d (24h) hashrate: Average over 24 hours (most reliable metric)
• 7d hashrate: Average over 7 days (shows long-term stability)

💡 Use 24h hashrate for the most accurate representation of your mining operation. Short-term values fluctuate due to variance in share submissions.

A share is a valid proof-of-work submission to the pool. Think of it as a lottery ticket.

How it works:

• Your miner attempts to solve blocks
• Most solutions don't meet Bitcoin's difficulty (too easy)
• These easier solutions are "shares" submitted to the pool
• Shares prove you're actually mining
• One lucky share will eventually meet Bitcoin's full difficulty = block found!

Best Share: The highest difficulty share you've ever submitted. The closer to network difficulty, the closer you were to finding a block!

Your miner reports its theoretical hashrate based on hardware specs. The pool calculates your effective hashrate based on submitted shares.

Why they differ:

• Variance: Share submission is probabilistic (like dice rolls)
• Network latency: Delays between miner and pool
• Rejected shares: Invalid submissions don't count
• Calculation window: Shorter time windows show more variance

Over 24+ hours, your pool hashrate should match your miner's hashrate within 5-10%. If consistently lower, check for hardware issues or network problems.

Network difficulty determines how hard it is to find a valid Bitcoin block. Bitcoin adjusts difficulty every 2016 blocks (~2 weeks) to maintain 10-minute average block times.

How it affects you:

• Difficulty increases: Harder to find blocks, lower expected earnings
• Difficulty decreases: Easier to find blocks, higher expected earnings
• Your hashrate stays the same, but your chances change

As more miners join the network, difficulty increases. As miners leave, difficulty decreases. This keeps block times consistent despite changing global hashrate.

Yes! We provide a public REST API for developers to integrate PyBLOCK stats into their apps.

Available endpoints:

• Pool statistics (hashrate, workers, blocks)
• Individual miner stats (by address)
• Leaderboard rankings
• Block template data
• Network statistics

Check these common issues:

• Right port for the pool: 4444 LOTTO · 23334 DATUM · 5555 SV2 · 5554 CHIRP · 30000 CAROUSEL
• Stratum URL spelling: Must be exactly stratum+tcp://pool.pyblock.xyz:<port> (SV2/CHIRP also accept the combined stratum2+tcp://… string)
• Firewall: Ensure outbound connections on that port aren't blocked
• Network connectivity: Try ping pool.pyblock.xyz to verify DNS resolution
• Miner logs: Check your miner's log file for specific error messages

Wait at least 5 minutes after connecting. Stats need time to populate.

If still not showing after 10+ minutes:

• Verify your Bitcoin address is valid (check for typos)
• Ensure your miner shows "ACCEPTED" shares in its logs
• Check that you're connected to the correct pool (LOTTO vs DATUM)
• Try refreshing the page (stats update every 30-60 seconds)
• Search for your exact address (copy-paste to avoid typos)

High reject rates (>3-5%) indicate a problem. Common causes:

• Network latency: High ping to pool server (try ping pool.pyblock.xyz)
• Miner hardware issues: Overclocking, heat, power instability
• Firmware bugs: Try updating miner firmware
• Stale shares: Mining on old work (network/latency issue)

Normal reject rate: 1-2% is acceptable due to network variance. Anything over 5% needs investigation.

Common mistakes:

• Exchange addresses: Don't use Coinbase, Binance, etc. addresses (they won't credit solo mining payouts)
• Typos: Double-check every character of your address
• Wrong cryptocurrency: Must be a Bitcoin address, not Ethereum/Litecoin/etc.
• Truncated address: Make sure you copied the entire address

✅ Use an address you control: Hardware wallet, software wallet, or your own node. Never use an exchange address for mining.

Join our community for help:

When asking for help, please include:

• Your Bitcoin address (first 10 characters)
• Which pool (LOTTO / DATUM / SV2 / CHIRP / CAROUSEL)
• Miner model and firmware version
• Error messages from miner logs