In this article, I will compare the top 15 Litecoin mining pools. This article is part of my series on how to mine Litecoin.

Pool mining is a joint mining operation whereby a team of miners assembles their resources. This way they get more consistent and predictable rewards.

Litecoin network employs the Scrypt algorithm for its LTC coin. Thus, LTC rewards are issued by an LTC mining pool to members for finding a new block. How much a member earns is based on the mining pool’s mining rewards scheme and payout policy. This is why it is important to choose your mining pool wisely. 

To make it easy for you to find your best Litecoin mining pool, we have come up with a list of the Top 15 best mining pools for Litecoin to choose from.

Top 15 best Litecoin mining pools

The following is a list of the best mining pools for LTC rewards:

1. LitecoinPool

Ranking as the top Litecoin mining pool, LitecoinPool is the most affordable and provides the most secure mining operation as it is hosted on a blockchain network. By supporting merged mining, pool members can concurrently mine several coins based on the Scrypt algorithm.

LitecoinPool has a PPS reward scheme and charges a 0% mining fee. It supports both LTC mining and Dogecoin mining.

2. Viabtc

As one of the biggest mining pools in the crypto space, Viabtc not only supports different reward systems but also multiple hashing algorithms. This mining pool also supports merged mining whereby one can mine both LTC and DOGE in addition to other cryptos. Its user-friendly interface makes it a very popular mining pool for beginners. 

Viabtc supports three different reward systems – PPLNS, PPS+, and SOLO with mining fee being 2%, 4% and 1%, respectively.

Pool members can mine LTC, DOGE, BTC, DASH, BCH, ZEC, ETC, HNS, CKB, and ZEN coins.

3. AntPool

Good reputation is what sets AntPool apart from the rest. It is also one of the oldest Litecoin mining pools.

In addition to mining on the Litecoin blockchain, AntPool supports 8 different coins including DOGE, BTC, DASH, ZEC, ETC, HNS, ETHW, and KDA.

AntPool has two different reward systems – PPLNS and PPS. It charges a mining fee of 0% and 3%, respectively.

4. Prohashing

Billed as one of the best Litecoin pools in the US, Prohashing has a good reputation across the world. Its support for merged mining allows pool members to mine both LTC and DOGE concurrently.

In addition to supporting LTC mining, Prohashing also supports DOGE, BTC, DASH, MXR, ZEC, DGB, BTG.

Prohashing has a PPLNS reward scheme and charges a mining fee of 1.99%

5. Poolin

Another LTC mining pool that is based in the US, is Poolin. The newest Poolin mining pools support anonymous mining. For those who want to keep their personal details private, anonymous mining is the best bet.  

Poolin mining operation is based on the PPS reward scheme. It charges a mining fee of 4%. In addition to Litecoin, other coins supported by Poolin include BTC, DASH, ZCASH, BCH, CKB, and ETC.

6. F2Pool

For those looking for an LTC mining pool with a good reputation for fighting against DDoS attacks, F2Pool is a good choice. Due to its advanced features, it ranks as one of the best mining pools.

F2Pool supports LTC and more than 40 major coins, including DOGE, BTC, MXR, ZEC, and ETH, among others.

The main reward scheme provided by F2Pool to its pool members is PPS at a mining fee of 4%.

7. EMCD

If you are looking for a P2P mining pool with a low transaction fee, then EMCD can be a good option.

EMCD provides an FPPS+ reward scheme to its pool members and charges a 1.5% mining fee. It doesn’t charge any withdrawal fee. However, it has a minimum payout of 0.001 BTC.

Apart from being an LTC mining pool, EMCD supports the mining of other coins, including DOGE, BTC, DASH, ETC, and BCH.

8. DxPool

Established as a pool that natively supports mining on the Litecoin network, DxPool also supports LTC-DOGE merged mining.

Apart from LTC and DOGE, DxPool supports 7 other cryptos. These include KDA, MXR, HNS, and CKB, among others.

The main reward scheme provided by DxPool to its pool members is PPS+. A mining fee of 3% is charged.

9. Mining-Dutch

For those seeking flexibility and a short payout duration, Mining-Dutch is a good choice. It provides a payout every 15 minutes.

In addition to short payout duration, Mining-Dutch lets its pool members to seamlessly auto-switch from one hashing algorithm to another. Thus, members can easily switch to mining a digital currency with good profits during a mining operation.

Mining-Dutch supports two different reward systems – SOLO and PROP. It charges a mining fee of 1.9% for each reward system.

In addition to being an LTC mining pool, Mining-Dutch also supports mining other coins, including DOGE, BTC, and ZEC, among others.

10. Trustpool

Based in Russia, Trustpool operates worldwide. It is a very popular mining pool due to its user-friendly interface and advanced features. It also boasts a good reputation due to its sophisticated security mechanism.

Trustpool provides PPLNS payments to its pool members. It charges a 2% mining fee. In addition to LTC, other supported coins include DOGE, BTC, DASH, and BCH, among others.

11. Zergpool

Loved for its anonymity, Zergpool enables pool members to carry out LTC pool mining without exposing their personal data.  

Zergpool has a PROP reward scheme and charges a 0.5% mining fee. This LTC mining pool supports multiple coins including LTC, DOGE, BTC, ETH, BCH, DASH, and RVN, among others.

12. Zpool

Contrary to most mining pool operators, Zpool promotes pool-hopping. Many pool miners prefer Zpool for its advanced features such as Smart multipool. Smart multipool enables pool members to smoothly switch between coins during the mining operation thus helping them fetch good profits.  

Zpool employs the PROP reward system and charges a 1% mining fee. In addition to LTC, it supports DOGE, BTC, KMD, and DGB, among others.

13. ZSolo

One of the few mining pool operators that outrightly supports solo miners is Zsolo. The platform boasts a sleek and user-friendly interface.

Zsolo dishes out block rewards to its pool members using the SOLO reward system. It charges a mining fee of 1%. Apart from LTC, other coins supported include DOGE, BTC, eCASH, and BCH, among others.

14. HyperDonkey

Another popular P2P LTC mining pool is HyperDonkey. This pool mining supports LTC-DOGE merge mining. It is a very popular mining pool due to the frequent DOGE drops to pool members.  

HyperDonkey provides PPLNS payouts to its members. It charges a mining fee of 2%. Other than LTC, the supported coins include DOGE, and BTC, among others.

15. FPool

Based in the EU, Fpool is known to support the mining of some of those crypto that are hard to find in other mining pools.

Fpool supports two different reward systems – SOLO and PROP. It charges 1% and 2% mining fees, respectively. Other than LTC pool mining, it supports the mining of other coins including DOGE, UFO, HAL, FTC, and GBX, among others.

Factors to consider when choosing the best Litecoin mining pool

Pool reputation, payout policy, transaction fees, operational requirements, and multicurrency support are the top 5 factors to consider when choosing your best Litecoin mining pool.

Let’s explore each of these factors as follows:

1. Pool reputation

A good reputation is based on size, stability, security, and integrity. The bigger the pool size the more financially stable it is when it comes to promptly releasing LTC rewards on a regular basis.

2. Payout policy

Different mining pools have different block reward schemes and minimum payout policies for pool members. Thus, considering the reward scheme and payout policy is important when choosing your best Litecoin mining pool.

(a) Types of reward systems

 Most of the reward schemes are based on two elements:

• Shares – Shares are based on the mining power plus the duration of mining. This mining power is determined in terms of hash rate. Thus, a share is a percentage the LTC miner contributes out of the total contribution by the entire group of miners to find a new block.
• Scores – Scores are based on how long one stays in the LTC mining pool. Thus, the share value is pro-rated based on this score. Thus, the score is a weighing index. Those who stay longer in an LTC mining pool will have a higher share value compared to those who stay shorter.

(b) LTC rewards schemes

The following are the different reward systems for LTC pool mining:

• PPS – Pay-Per-Share. In this block reward scheme, LTC mining pool members are paid for their share of contribution to the scheme. It is a cost-based reward system rather than an output-based one. As such even if no block is found, pool members have to be paid.
• PROP – This is like PPS except that LTC mining pool members get rewarded only based on output in proportion to their share. Thus, it is a results-based or output-based method.
• PPLNS – Pay-Per-Last-N-Shares. This is PROP-based with loyalty factored in. As such, it is based on the number of shares an LTC miner contributed over time, not just once. A time score is used to weigh the value of a share contribution. This discourages and penalizes pool-hopping – a tendency for pool members to hop from one pool to another based on short profit motives. Long-term share contributors earn more compared to short-term or one-time share contributors. In the “Last N Shares”, the letter ‘N’ represents the last number of shares received up to the block solving.
• PPS+ – this is a combination of PPS and PPLNS rewards. In this hybrid scheme, block reward is paid under the PPS method while the transaction fees are paid PPLNS method.
• FPPS – Full PPS. Under this scheme, both block reward and transaction fees are paid using the PPS method.
• SOLO – This means that the miner acts solo, save for the shared infrastructure. As such, the LTC miner gets paid only when s/he finds the block and the reward is only to the solo miner. It is a commission-based arrangement rather than a joint venture. The pool provides node-running service to the miner for which the miner pays a deductible commission.

3. Transaction fee charges

Some of the best mining pools charge a 0% mining fee. Yet, others charge up to 4% mining fee deducted from the mining rewards. Yet, some others also charge a withdrawal fee.

4. Operational requirements

To carry out a successful LTC pool mining operation, you need to meet both hash power requirements and hardware requirements.

(a) Hash power requirements

Different mining pools have different minimum hash rate requirements. This hash rate requirement determines how much hashing power your mining hardware should produce. The hash power requirements are based on the difficulty of mining a particular coin.

(b) Hardware and software requirements

To make good profits, you need to consider the best Litecoin mining devices based on the cost of the mining hardware, hash power, and profitability. These devices fall into two categories – GPU devices and ASIC devices.

Knowing the specs of each hardware and using the profitability calculator can enable you to easily make an appropriate Litecoin mining hardware comparison.

(i) GPU hardware and software

The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is commonly found on video cards or graphics cards. While GPU is often preferred by solo miners it can also be used in pool mining.  

Some of the best Litecoin miners in the GPU category are:

• AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 TI
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070

The best Litecoin mining software tools for your graphics card include:

• Cuda-Miner
• EasyMiner

(ii) ASIC hardware and software

Most crypto enthusiasts on a reasonable budget find the Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) to be their best option since it has higher hash power compared to GPU hardware.  

Some of the best ASIC miners for Litecoin are:

• AvalonMiner 1166 Pro
• WhatsMiner M30S++
• Bitmain Antminer S19 XP

The best Litecoin mining application software for your ASIC miners is the Multi-Miner software.

5. Multicurrency support

A multi-cryptocurrency mining pool is the preferred option since you can use your mining equipment to mine both LTC and some of the most sought-after cryptocurrencies depending on their profitability position.

Most renowned Litecoin mining pools support mining other crypto coins that use the Scrypt hashing algorithm. Topping the list of other supported coins is Dogecoin mining. A good mining pool allows merged mining. Merged mining is a common practice whereby one carries out both LTC mining and DOGE mining concurrently. It is common to find an LTC mining pool giving LTC rewards in the form of Dogecoin.

Some of the biggest mining pools also support the Blockchain network’s SHA-256 hashing algorithm thus allowing the mining of bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and other coins based on this hashing algorithm. Thus, they double as the LTC mining pool and the Bitcoin mining pool.   Yet, others also support the Ethereum Classic blockchain and its native coin, ETC.

Up Next

Did you know that when you mine LTC you also mine Dogecoin? Yup, you earn two cryptocurrencies with one miner.

Dogecoin Mining Pool: The Best Guide for Beginners

In this article, I will walk you through what a Dogecoin mining pool is, how you can join one, how much money you could make, and which are the best pools to join. Read more.

7 Best Bitcoin Mining Hosting Solutions Compared

With so many hosting solutions available, it can be difficult to determine which one is the best fit for your mining operations. Which one do you trust and does it really make sense to outsource your machines to them or will they scam you? In this review, I will look at the top Bitcoin mining hosting providers. I will tell you the pros and cons of each so that you can make your own decision about which one best suits your needs. Read more.