Frequently Asked Questions

Getting started is simple:

1. Choose the correct port for your hashrate (see our Mining Guide)
2. Configure your miner with: stratum+tcp://hmpool.io:PORT
3. Set your username to: YOUR_BITCOIN_ADDRESS.workername
4. Set password to: x
5. Start mining and check your stats on the Miner Dashboard

Choose based on your hashrate:

• Port 3337: IoT & micro miners (up to 100 KH/s) — ESP32 miners, NerdMiner-class devices
• Port 3335: CPU, GPU & general purpose (100 KH/s - 300 GH/s) — cpuminer, GPU miners, USB stick miners, small FPGAs
• Port 3334: Bitaxe & solo miners (300 GH/s - 1.5 TH/s) — Bitaxe, NerdAxe, and similar standalone ASIC miners
• Port 3336: ASIC Miners (1.5 TH/s - 20 TH/s) — Antminer S9/S17/S19, Whatsminer, NerdQAxe
• Port 3338: Industrial ASICs (20+ TH/s) — S19/S21, M30S+/M50, mining farms, MiningRigRentals

Using the wrong port may result in too few or too many shares. See the full guide for details.

Suggested difficulty tells the pool how hard each share should be for your miner. Most miners don't need to set this — the pool assigns a good starting difficulty based on which port you connect to, and VarDiff adjusts it automatically.

However, if your miner has a "Custom Difficulty" or "Suggested Difficulty" setting (or supports d=XXXX in the password field), you can use it for a cleaner connection with fewer rejected shares on startup.

Quick formula: suggested_diff ≈ hashrate_in_GH/s × 4.3

See each port's suggested difficulty in the mining guide for recommended values.

We support all standard Bitcoin address formats:

• Bech32 (recommended): bc1q... or bc1p... (SegWit, lowest fees)
• P2SH: 3... (SegWit compatible)
• Legacy: 1... (older format, higher fees)

Important: Make sure you control the private keys for this address. Never use an exchange address!

No! HashedMax Unity Pool is specifically designed for low-hashrate miners. Whether you're mining at 1 MH/s on an ESP32 or 500 TH/s on an industrial farm, you're welcome here. Every hash counts!

This is completely normal! Here's why:

Mining is probabilistic - sometimes you find more shares, sometimes fewer. Over short periods (1 hour), this causes fluctuations of ±25% or more. Over 24 hours, the pool estimate will converge closer to your actual hashrate.

As long as your efficiency is near 100% and shares are being accepted, your miner is working correctly!

Variance is the natural randomness in mining. Finding a valid share is like rolling dice - sometimes you get lucky quickly, sometimes it takes longer. This causes your pool hashrate to fluctuate above and below your actual hashrate.

Key points:

• Short-term (1 hour): Expect ±25-50% variance
• Medium-term (24 hours): Expect ±10-20% variance
• Long-term (7+ days): Variance averages out to your true hashrate

This is normal and affects all miners equally!

Pool hashrate is estimated using: (total_difficulty × 2^32) / time_window

We sum up all share difficulties submitted in a time window (typically 1 hour) and calculate the equivalent hashrate. This is an estimate, not a precise measurement.

Efficiency shows the percentage of valid shares vs. total shares submitted. 100% efficiency means all your shares were accepted.

• 95-100%: Excellent - your miner is working perfectly
• 90-95%: Good - minor network latency or stale shares
• Below 90%: Check your connection, miner configuration, or hardware

We use a hybrid PPLNS + finder's bonus + participation system. When the pool finds a block (currently 3.125 BTC), the reward is split four ways:

1. 1% Dev Fee (0.03125 BTC) — covers infrastructure, development, support, and transaction fees
2. 20% Finder's Bonus (0.625 BTC) — goes to the miner whose share solved the block
3. 5% Participation Bonus (0.15625 BTC) — split equally among all miners connected for 1+ hour before the block was found
4. 74% PPLNS Share Pool (2.3125 BTC) — distributed proportionally to ALL miners based on their share difficulty submitted in the past 7 days

This hybrid approach gives every miner consistent earnings while rewarding the lucky block finder with a meaningful bonus. See the Payments page for a detailed example.

The finder's bonus is 20% of the full block reward (currently 0.625 BTC per block) that goes to the miner whose submitted share actually solved the Bitcoin block.

Any miner in the pool can be the finder — it's determined by which share matches the network difficulty. A Bitaxe with 1 TH/s has the same chance per hash as a 100 TH/s ASIC. The finder's bonus makes every hash you submit a potential lottery ticket on top of your regular proportional earnings.

Our minimum payout threshold is 10,000 satoshis (0.0001 BTC).

Once your balance reaches this amount, payouts are processed automatically after the block matures (100 confirmations, roughly 16 hours).

If your balance hasn't reached the threshold after 90 days, we automatically pay out any balance above dust (546 sats). No miner's earnings are ever lost or forgotten.

HashedMax Unity Pool charges a 1% fee on block rewards.

This fee covers:

• Server infrastructure and maintenance
• Network bandwidth and connectivity
• Development and support
• Transaction fees for payouts

You'll receive a payout after:

1. The pool finds a block
2. The block matures (100 confirmations, ~16 hours)
3. Your accumulated balance reaches 10,000 satoshis

Credits are calculated within seconds of a block being found. The payout executor checks for payable balances every 10 minutes after block maturity. Balances below the threshold continue to accumulate across multiple blocks.

Important: Bitcoin mining is probabilistic. Depending on pool hashrate and network difficulty, it may take days or weeks to find a block. Your shares are always tracked and will be rewarded when blocks are found!

Yes! Check your Miner Dashboard to see:

• Pending Balance: Accumulated earnings not yet paid out
• Total Paid: Lifetime earnings already sent to your address
• Payment History: List of all past payouts with transaction IDs

Currently, we only support Bitcoin (BTC) mining.

However, we're planning to add support for other SHA-256 coins in the future, including:

• Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
• Bitcoin SV (BSV)
• Other SHA-256 based coins

Stay tuned for announcements! Follow us or check back regularly for updates.

Merged mining (mining multiple coins simultaneously) is on our roadmap! This would allow you to mine Bitcoin and other compatible coins at the same time without additional hashpower.

We'll announce when this feature becomes available.

Not currently. HashedMax Unity Pool is focused on SHA-256 mining (Bitcoin and compatible coins).

We may expand to other algorithms in the future based on community demand.

Try these troubleshooting steps:

1. Check the pool URL: Make sure you're using stratum+tcp://hmpool.io:PORT (not http or https)
2. Verify the port number: Use 3337, 3335, or 3336 based on your hashrate
3. Check your firewall: Ensure outbound connections on the pool port are allowed
4. Test connectivity: Try telnet hmpool.io 3337 from your command line
5. Check pool status: Visit our homepage to see if the pool is online

Still having issues? Contact support with your miner logs.

Common reasons for rejected shares:

• Stale shares: Share arrived after a new block was found (normal, should be <5%)
• Low difficulty: You're on the wrong port for your hashrate
• Duplicate shares: Your miner submitted the same share twice (check for bugs)
• Invalid shares: Hardware errors or overclocking issues

Check your efficiency on the dashboard. If it's below 90%, investigate your miner configuration and hardware.

Possible causes:

• Wrong Bitcoin address: Make sure you're checking the same address you configured in your miner
• Miner not connected: Verify your miner is running and connected to the pool
• No shares submitted yet: Wait a few minutes for your first shares to be submitted
• Worker name mismatch: Check that your username format is correct: address.workername

VPNs and proxies are allowed for privacy purposes, but be aware that:

• VPNs/proxies may increase latency, leading to more stale shares
• Some VPN providers block mining traffic
• Direct connections are recommended for best performance

Any Stratum-compatible Bitcoin mining software works with our pool, including:

• CGMiner - Popular open-source miner
• BFGMiner - Modular ASIC/FPGA miner
• Braiins OS - Firmware for Antminers
• NiceHash Miner - User-friendly GUI miner
• Custom firmware - ESP32, Bitaxe, etc.

See our Mining Guide for configuration examples.

Unity Rewards is our loyalty program that rewards consistent miners. Here's how it works:

• Points: Earn points for every hour you actively mine
• Hashrate Multipliers: Higher hashrate tiers earn bonus point multipliers
• Levels: Progress through 5 loyalty levels based on active mining days
• Monthly Draws: Points convert to draw entries for monthly prize draws

Check your rewards status on the Rewards page.

Points are awarded automatically every hour based on your mining activity:

1. Base points are earned each hour you submit shares
2. Hashrate multiplier boosts your points based on your hashrate tier
3. Mining 12+ hours in a day counts as an active day
4. Accumulate active days to level up (Levels 1-5)
5. Higher levels unlock bonus draw entries and perks

Points reset monthly and convert to draw entries for that month's prize draw.

At the end of each month:

1. Your accumulated points are converted to draw entries
2. Higher-level miners receive bonus entries
3. Winners are selected randomly from all entries
4. Prizes are distributed and a new month begins

The more consistently you mine, the more entries you earn!

Yes. In compliance with U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions, HashedMax Unity Pool is not available to users in the following jurisdictions:

IP-based geolocation is used to enforce these restrictions across all services (website, API, and mining ports). See our Terms of Service for full details.

If you see an "Access Restricted" message, your IP address has been identified as originating from an OFAC-sanctioned jurisdiction. This block applies to:

• The website (hmpool.io)
• The API
• All mining stratum ports (3335, 3336, 3337)

If you believe this is an error (e.g., your IP is incorrectly geolocated), please contact us at info@hashedmax.com with your details and we'll investigate.

No. Attempting to circumvent OFAC geo-blocking using a VPN, proxy, or any other method is a violation of our Terms of Service and U.S. law. This may result in:

• Immediate termination of service
• Forfeiture of any pending payouts
• Potential legal consequences under U.S. sanctions law

By using our services, you represent that you are not located in a sanctioned jurisdiction.

No. HashedMax Unity Pool does not require account registration or KYC verification. You mine directly with your Bitcoin address — no email, ID, or personal information required.

We use IP-based geolocation for OFAC compliance, which does not require collecting personal data.

HashedMax Unity Pool launched in early 2026. We're a new pool with a mission to support low-hashrate miners who are often ignored by larger pools.

We're specifically designed for low-hashrate miners:

• Ultra-low difficulty: Start at 0.1 difficulty for hobby miners
• Instant feedback: See shares in seconds, not minutes
• No minimum hashrate: ESP32s, USB miners, and hobby ASICs welcome
• Fair PPLNS: Every share counts equally
• Optimized ports: Dedicated ports for different hashrate ranges

Other pools often ignore miners under 1 TH/s. We don't. No miner too small.

Yes! We respect your privacy:

• No account registration required
• No email or personal information collected
• Mining stats are public (anyone can view any address)
• We don't track or sell user data

See our Privacy Policy for details.

We're here to help! Contact us through:

• Contact Form: Submit a support request — include your Bitcoin address and a description of your issue
• Email: info@hashedmax.com

If you provide an email address in the contact form, we can reply directly to your inbox. Tip: Check your spam/junk folder if you don't see our reply.

We typically respond within 24-48 hours.