Parasite Mining Pool Strikes Again, Secures Second Bitcoin Block

A novel Bitcoin mining pool, designed to challenge traditional models, has achieved a significant milestone by mining its second block. Parasite Pool, launched in April 2025, operates on a distinctive hybrid model that combines elements of both pay-per-share and pure lottery approaches. On Friday, the pool successfully mined block 945,601, roughly 48 days after its first block at #938,713 in late February. This block contained 7,398 transactions and 0.002 BTC in fees, with Bitcoin trading at $76,213 at the time. The pool's hybrid model rewards the winning miner with 1 BTC and distributes the remaining 2.125 BTC plus fees proportionally among all participants based on their shares submitted since the previous block. Notably, there are no fees to participate in this pool, and payouts are made through the Lightning Network. The competition in Bitcoin mining is dominated by large-scale industrial operators, but Parasite Pool targets home miners. Founded by ZK Shark, the creator of the Ordinal Maxi Biz NFT collection, Parasite Pool aims to provide a more inclusive and rewarding experience for its participants. The pool's hashrate currently stands at 52 petahashes per second, which is approximately 0.005% of Bitcoin's estimated 1-zetahash network hashrate. The successful mining of the second block demonstrates the potential of Parasite Pool's hybrid model, which preserves the lottery-style payoff for the winning miner while ensuring that participants receive a steady stream of satoshis during the periods between blocks. As the pool continues to operate and potentially mine more blocks, it will be interesting to see whether its model can sustain participant engagement and provide a viable alternative to traditional mining pools.