Parasite Pool: Igniting the Mining Insurrection
The locusts came in swarms, devouring the mighty fields, yet the small gardens endured.” — Inspired by Joel 2:25
Centralized Bitcoin mining is a festering wound, bleeding out Satoshi’s vision of a decentralized network secured by equal peers. Corporate pools choke the life from home miners, hoarding hash rate and wrecking them with fees. Parasite Pool is the blade that severs their grip—a radical reimagination of mining with zero fees, simple Lightning payouts, and coinbase logic that flips the script. This paper dissects centralized mining’s betrayal, unveils Parasite’s technical and economic innovations, and charts a future where plebs wield the power. Parasite isn’t just another Bitcoin mining pool; it’s the antidote with the potential to economically unlock a new class of home miners, pushing humanity one degree closer on the Kardashev scale.
Bitcoin was born as a trustless rebellion, a middle finger to centralized control. Yet, nearly all large mining pools have betrayed that vision, consolidating hash rate into fewer hands through their economic structures. By 2025, five pools control over 80% of global hash rate, and block template creation is even more centralized—a head-scratching drift from Satoshi’s dream. This wasn’t entirely intentional; it’s the cutthroat, commodity-like attrition of Bitcoin mining at work. But the trend has spiraled too far. With each halving, the noose tightens around the necks of centralized pools, their days numbered as block subsidies dwindle, exposing the fragility of their empires.
Meanwhile, while some influential voices in the Bitcoin community, such as Michael Saylor and Jack Mallers, focus on creating financial products that may inadvertently push retail investors towards centralized solutions and additional fees, Parasite Pool stands as a beacon of true decentralization.
Unseen, a parasite takes root within the host, its presence growing stronger as it feeds on the excesses of centralized mining, poised to turn their dominance into decay.
Parasite Pool enters the chat: a game-theoretic revolution, forged from thousands of hours of Tetris on psychedelics, designed to decapitate the centralized proprietary mining empire. With zero fees, seamless Lightning payouts, and coinbase logic that mocks corporate pools, Parasite hands Bitcoin’s soul back to the plebs. This isn’t a whitepaper pipe dream or a soft fork fantasy—it’s beta is live, and full directions are at the end of this Substack.
Centralized Mining’s Downfall
Death to FPPS
Centralized mining pools are Bitcoin’s original sin, a cancer flagged as early as 2011. Built to smooth solo mining’s variance, their FPPS, PPS etc, models have morphed into tools of oppression, crushing small-scale miners. Five failures define their treachery.
Economic Strangulation: Every pool hitting blocks charges fees (1–4%) and enforces payout thresholds (e.g., 0.01, 0.05 BTC) that don’t work for small miners. Delays, fees, and Layer 1 costs shove home miners into the “novelty” bin.
Gatekept Accessibility: Lightning payouts, key for micro-payments, are a mess at “progressive” pools—overly complex or outsourced with extra fees, locking small miners out.
Centralized Choke Points: A handful of pools control most blocks, inviting censorship or collusion risks. (See my last Substack for more details.)
Reward Dilution: The 3.125 BTC block reward splits into crumbs for small miners while industrial rigs feast. 110V home hardware can’t compete with mega data centers head-on...
Fragile Foundations: FPPS’s pre-block payouts gamble on future blocks, risking insolvency when luck runs dry, betraying miners who ironically looked to them for stability.
Halvings will slit these empires’ throats, cutting subsidies to 1.5625 BTC by 2028. Centralized mining’s dying, and Parasite’s here to pick the bones clean.
Parasite Pool: Empowering the Plebs
“Great results can be achieved with small forces.” — Sun Tzu
Parasite Pool is a game-changer, slicing through centralized mining’s failures with innovations that catapult you into the future. By empowering home miners to capture micro energy efficiently, Parasite opens up a whole new world where every individual can contribute to Bitcoin's security and reap the rewards, fostering a more decentralized and resilient network.
Here’s how Parasite flips the script:
Economic Liberation
Parasite wipes out fees, unlike Ocean’s 2% or Foundry’s 0.05 BTC minimums that gut small rigs. Its 10-sat payout threshold—versus 0.01 BTC elsewhere—lets Bitaxes thrive, with coinbase logic prioritizing home miners’ survival.
Accessibility: Lightning as Easy as Venmo
Thanks to pioneers like Jan from Xverse and Lucha from Sati, Parasite's Lightning payouts are as straightforward as a venmo, sign up with correct credentials and your all set - no channel management bs on user end. Miners only need a static Layer 1 address and a wallet signature—no complex setups.
Decentralization: Scattering the Hash Rate
A riddle: what weighs more—1 exohash from five miners in one data center, or thousands of home miners worldwide on diverse power and internet? The answer is clear: the distributed network of home miners provides greater resilience and decentralization, making Bitcoin's security more robust.
Reward Structure: Plebs Eat First
Parasite’s coinbase logic hands 1 BTC to the block finder, splitting the rest (2.125 BTC plus fees) among non-winners via Lightning. Small rigs top the hierarchy, exposing legacy pools’ bias toward corpos.
Stability: A Fortress Against Collapse
Parasite is an event-driven distribution model that only pays out after a block is mined, shielding against FPPS’s insolvency risks. It’s a rock-solid bastion for miners securing the network.
Technical Edge: Coinbase Alchemy
Parasite’s coinbase logic sidesteps the 100-block maturity rule, delivering sats to your Lightning wallet within blocks. Powered by custom infra by Sati with an easy Xverse’s intergration as the backbone, it’s near-instant and ~fee-free — a first in Bitcoin’s history.
Currently in beta, Parasite Pool is rigorously testing its systems /building out infra to ensure reliability and security. It hasn’t hit a block yet, but the anticipation builds. Will it be you who finds the first block and see that 1 BTC jacpot ? Or maybe it never will, and that’s the beauty of it—a revolutionary force, block or no block.
This is a Nash equilibrium where home miners dominate, and large-scale players choke on their greed. No pool has dared this before. Parasite’s blade is live, and the old empire bleeds.
Solo Mining: A Balanced Ecosystem
While solo mining offers the allure of the full block reward—currently 3.125 BTC plus fees—it’s a high-variance game for most home miners, with slim chances of success. The psychological pull of hitting a full Bitcoin is strong, but as halvings reduce the subsidy, that reward shrinks, making the odds even tougher. Parasite Pool offers a hybrid model: when a block is found, the finder gets a guaranteed 1 BTC, satisfying that round number bias, while the rest is distributed based on hash rate, ensuring everyone gets satoshis. It’s a win-win: small miners get steady payouts, and there’s still a chance for a big win. Tools like Hydrapool + Umbrel are making solo mining easier, pulling it out of the novelty DIY category, but Parasite lowers the barrier further, making home mining potentially serious economic activity. Together, solo mining and Parasite Pool create a decentralized ecosystem where every Bitcoiner can contribute, whether they go it alone or join Parasite…. Every Bitcoiner should make a Bitaxe from scratch and solo-mine to their own node before joining a pool.
The Future: Bitcoin’s Acceleration
Parasite, named for locusts sparing small gardens while razing giant fields, is a weapon in Bitcoin’s aresenal against centralization. Home miners on solar, hydro, or “office arbitrage” (see last substack) gut data centers, reshaping markets with cheap energy and open-source gear. As halvings slash block subsidies—down to 1.5625 BTC by 2028—centralized pools with high overheads will struggle. Meanwhile, AI compute’s demand for efficient electricity could push Bitcoin mining to less efficient sources, but Parasite’s zero-fee model and focus on small-scale miners ensure it thrives, outlasting both halvings and AI’s energy grab.
Envision a future where transaction fees surge due to adoption, and Bitcoin’s price soars. Parasite Pool’s model ensures small-scale miners have potential to reap consistent rewards if Parasite’s hash rate grows, accelerating Bitcoin's decentralization and resilience, by unlocking a new class of miners economically.
Open Source and Innovation
Parasite Pool is in beta, undergoing rigorous testing for robustness and security. As testing progresses, we’re committed to open-sourcing the code in phases —keep an eye out for the GitHub link (soon) to follow development and contribute. Parasite stands at the cutting edge of home mining, optomizing for hardware innovations like Bitaxe, and pushing boundaries on the software side with Lightning Bolt 12 for seamless payouts. The vision is to foster a collectively incentivized group of empowered Bitcoiners, capturing micro energy efficiently, turning every watt into financial sovereignty.
"The obstacle is the path."
As centralized mining crumbles, Parasite Pool seizes the chance to redefine mining, empowering the plebs and ensuring Bitcoin's decentralized future.
Centralized mining is a rotting corpse, and Parasite’s the locust swarm stripping it bare. This isn’t just a pool—it’s a revolutionary force built while others were distracted. With coinbase logic, zero fees, and normie-friendly Lightning payouts, Parasite restores Bitcoin’s soul to the plebs. From dorms to desert shacks, every stray watt will fuel a network that laughs at halvings and buries data centers. The chokehold’s gone, the model’s flipped, and now Parasite just needs hash rate to start hitting blocks, lol
Point your rig, join the swarm, burn centralization to ash. And who knows? Maybe Parasite will hit its first block soon—or maybe it never will, and that’s the beauty of it. In a world where certainty is scarce, Parasite offers a chance to be part of something revolutionary, block or no block. Bitcoin’s future is plebs—or nothing. Decentralize or Die.
Participation in Bitcoin mining, including through Parasite Pool, which is still considered in beta testing, involves risks such as market volatility, hardware failure, and changes in network difficulty. Parasite Pool is in beta and has not yet found a block; there is no assurance of future block discoveries or payouts. Users should exercise caution and consider their financial situation before engaging in mining activities.
(links below or type directly into browser)
parasite.space
https://parasite.sati.pro/ (lighthing sig)
https://www.xverse.app/ (xverse download)
sati.pro
(no X account for Parasite live yet, be carreful of scams…)
-zk