Parasite Mining Pool Secures Second Bitcoin Block, Validating Hybrid Model

A novel bitcoin mining pool, designed to challenge traditional pay-per-share and pure lottery approaches, has achieved its second block, validating the effectiveness of its hybrid design. Parasite Pool, launched in April 2025, mined block 945,601, approximately 48 days after its first block. The block included 7,398 transactions and generated 0.002 BTC in fees, with bitcoin trading at $76,213 at the time. This pool operates on an innovative model, where the winning miner receives 1 BTC, and the remaining 2.125 BTC plus fees are distributed proportionally among all participants based on their contributed shares since the previous block. Notably, participation in this pool comes with no fees, and payouts are facilitated through the Lightning Network. The pool's founder, ZK Shark, aims to cater to home miners, providing an alternative to industrial-scale mining operations that dominate the competition. By splitting the block reward, Parasite Pool seeks to balance the lottery-style payday for the winning miner with a more consistent distribution of satoshis to participants during the periods between block discoveries. The pool's hashrate currently stands at 52 petahashes per second, accounting for roughly 0.005% of the bitcoin network's estimated 1-zetahash hashrate. This achievement marks a significant milestone for Parasite Pool, as it demonstrates the potential of its hybrid model to sustain participant engagement through the inevitable dry spells. A third block discovery within the next two months would further solidify the viability of this approach, while a prolonged drought could raise questions about the model's long-term effectiveness.