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Bitcoin 'plebs eat first' mining pool Parasite finds its second BTC block
TL;DR
Parasite Pool, a unique bitcoin mining pool, has successfully mined its second block, #945,601, 48 days after its first. The pool operates on a hybrid model that rewards miners differently from traditional methods.
Key points
- Parasite Pool mined its second block on April 18, 2026
- The pool operates on a unique hybrid mining model
- Block #945,601 contained 7,398 transactions
- The block had 0.002 BTC in fees
- Bitcoin was trading at $76,213 at the time
Mentioned in this story
Parasite Pool
A bitcoin mining pool built to reject both the industrial pay-per-share model and the pure lottery approach has now proved its design works. Twice.
Upstart mining pool Parasite Pool mined block 945,601 on Friday morning, its second block since launching in April 2025 and roughly 48 days after the pool's first block at #938,713 in late February.
The block carried 7,398 transactions and 0.002 BTC in fees, landing with bitcoin trading at $76,213.
— Parasite Pool (@Parasite_wtf) April 18, 2026
The pool operates on a hybrid model that has no parallel in mainstream mining. A winning miner that solves a block receives 1 BTC outright, with the remaining 2.125 BTC plus fees distributed proportionally among all pool participants based on shares submitted since the previous block.
There are no fees to take part in this pool, and payouts are routed through the Lightning Network.
Mining secures bitcoin by having computers compete to solve a cryptographic puzzle every 10 minutes, with the winner earning the right to add the next block of transactions to the blockchain and collecting a reward.
That reward is currently 3.125 BTC plus whatever transaction fees are bundled in, worth about $238,000 at Friday's price, down from 6.25 BTC after the April 2024 halving and scheduled to drop again to 1.5625 BTC in 2028.
The competition is dominated by industrial operators running warehouse-scale facilities of specialized ASIC hardware that pulls enough electricity to rival a small city.
Mining pools exist to smooth the variance of who finds blocks, bundling the hashrate of thousands of participants so the proceeds get split by contribution rather than winner-take-all.
Parasite is founded by ZK Shark, the pseudonymous creator of Ordinal Maxi Biz (an NFT collection on Bitcoin), and targets the home miner.
Pure solo pools like CKpool pay the full block reward minus a 2% fee to the finder, but statistical reality means the vast majority of participants never see a block.
But Parasite's answer is to split the difference. The 1 BTC finder's fee preserves the lottery payday, while proportional distribution of the remainder keeps satoshis flowing to participants during the stretches between blocks.
The second block carries more weight than the first. The pool retained hashrate through the 48-day gap between payouts, and the proportional distribution mechanics now have two rounds of real validation rather than one.
Q&A
What is Parasite Pool and how does it operate?
Parasite Pool is a bitcoin mining pool that uses a hybrid model, rewarding the winning miner with 1 BTC and distributing the remaining 2.125 BTC plus fees among all participants based on shares submitted.
When did Parasite Pool mine its second block?
Parasite Pool mined its second block, #945,601, on April 18, 2026, approximately 48 days after its first block.
How many transactions were included in block #945,601?
Block #945,601 included 7,398 transactions and carried a fee of 0.002 BTC.
What was the bitcoin trading price when block #945,601 was mined?
When block #945,601 was mined, bitcoin was trading at $76,213.
