Speed Test

What does this do?

The Speed Test measures how fast your internet connection can talk to each solo mining pool. It tests all 20 pools at the same time, from wherever you are in the world, and ranks them from fastest to slowest. The goal is simple: find the pool that gives your Bitaxe the best connection, so none of your mining work goes to waste.

Why does pool speed matter?

Your Bitaxe doesn't mine by itself. It talks to a pool server using a protocol called Stratum. Think of Stratum as a phone line between your Bitaxe and the pool. Your device calls the pool, the pool gives it a math problem to work on, and your Bitaxe sends back any solutions it finds. This conversation happens constantly, over and over, thousands of times.

The speed of that conversation matters. Every time a new Bitcoin block is found by someone on the network, the math problem changes. If your Bitaxe is still working on the old problem because the pool was slow to tell it about the new one, any solution it submits will be rejected. These rejected solutions are called stale shares. They represent real electricity and hashpower your Bitaxe spent for nothing. The farther away a pool is, or the slower its server responds, the more stale shares you'll produce.

You might wonder: can't I just use a regular network ping to check speed? You can, but it doesn't tell the whole story. A regular ping (called an ICMP ping) just checks whether your computer can reach the server and how long that takes. The Stratum handshake timing is different. It measures the full round trip: connecting to the pool, sending an actual mining subscription message, and waiting for the pool's response. This includes the pool's own processing time, not just network distance. That's why the Speed Test measures both, but uses the Stratum time as the number that actually matters for your mining performance.

What do the results mean?

Stratum Time (ms)

This is the most important number. It's measured in milliseconds (ms) — thousandths of a second. It tells you how long it took to complete a full Stratum handshake with the pool: connect, send a subscription request, and receive the pool's reply.

Lower is better. For most home connections:

• Under 100ms is great
• 100-300ms is fine
• Over 500ms means the pool is far from you or its server is slow

Pools within about 3ms of each other perform essentially the same from your location. Don't stress over tiny differences.

ICMP Ping (ms)

This measures basic network distance between you and the pool server. It's the same thing as running ping in a terminal. A lower number means the server is physically closer to you or has a more direct network route.

Sometimes you'll see a ping result that's quite different from the Stratum time. That's normal. The Stratum time includes the pool server's own processing, while ICMP ping is just a simple network echo.

You might also see these special statuses:

• BLOCKED — The pool's server is reachable (Stratum worked) but it blocks ping requests. This is common and nothing to worry about. Many servers disable ping for security reasons.
• N/A — Your system doesn't have the ping command available. The Stratum result is still valid and is what matters.
• FAILED — Neither ping nor Stratum could reach the pool. See the "Failed pools" section below.

Location

At the top of the results, you'll see "Testing from: [City, Country] | Your IP: [address]". The app looks up your public IP address and determines your approximate location. This helps you understand why certain pools are faster — they're likely in data centers closer to you geographically. The location lookup uses two public services (ipify.org for your IP and ip-api.com for location data) and is only used for display purposes.

Recommendation

After all pools finish testing, the app picks the best options for you. Here's exactly how it decides:

1. It finds the pool with the fastest Stratum time.
2. It draws a line 3ms above that fastest time. Any pool within this window is considered equally good, since a few milliseconds of difference won't meaningfully affect your mining.
3. If only one pool is in that window, it recommends that single pool.
4. If multiple pools are within the 3ms window, it lists all of them as recommended options. You can pick any of them.

There's one small detail: if two pools have the exact same Stratum time down to the decimal, AtlasPool.io gets the tiebreaker. This is simply a default preference when all else is equal.

Failed pools

When a pool shows a red FAILED tag in the Stratum column, it means the app couldn't complete a connection to that pool's server within 5 seconds. This can happen for several reasons:

• The pool's server is temporarily down for maintenance
• The pool is experiencing technical issues
• Your internet provider or firewall is blocking the connection
• The pool has permanently shut down

A single failed result isn't cause for alarm — pools go down occasionally. If a pool you're currently using shows as failed, try running the test again in a few minutes. If it keeps failing across multiple tests, that pool may have a real problem and you should consider switching to one of the recommended pools.

How to use the results

Should you always pick the #1 result? Not necessarily. If your current pool is within 3ms of the fastest, you're already getting near-optimal performance. Switching would gain you almost nothing.

When should you switch pools? If your current pool is significantly slower than the top result — say, 50ms or more behind — switching to a faster pool could meaningfully reduce your stale share rate. The bigger the gap, the more you benefit from switching.

When should you re-run the test? Network conditions change. Run the test again if:

• You've changed your internet provider or router
• You've moved to a new physical location
• A pool you're using starts giving you trouble
• It's been a few weeks and you want to double-check

The test runs all 20 pools simultaneously and only takes a few seconds, so there's no cost to re-running it whenever you're curious.

Pools tested

The Speed Test covers 20 major solo mining pools from around the world. These are pools specifically designed for solo miners — meaning if your Bitaxe finds a block, the full block reward (minus a small pool fee) goes to you.

Pool Name	Location	Notes
AtlasPool.io	Global	Multi-region servers, supports TLS
AU CKPool	Australia	CKPool's Australian server
KanoPool	United States	Long-running US-based pool
EU CKPool	Germany	CKPool's European server
FindMyBlock	France	European solo pool (port 3335)
DE SoloHash	Germany	SoloHash German server
UK SoloHash	United Kingdom	SoloHash UK server
SoloMining.de	Germany	German solo pool, supports TLS
Blitzpool	Switzerland	Swiss solo pool
Sunnydecree Pool	Germany	Community pool
Nerdminer.de	Germany	Community pool for hobby miners
Noderunners	Germany	Community pool (port 1337)
Satoshi Radio	Netherlands	Dutch community pool
Braiins Solo	Germany	Solo option from Braiins (formerly Slush Pool)
KanoPool DE	Germany	KanoPool's European server
US CKPool	United States	CKPool's main US server
Parasite Pool	United States	US pool (port 42069)
Public Pool	United States	Open-source US pool, supports TLS
solo.cat	United States	US-based solo pool
US SoloHash	United States	SoloHash North American server

Pool Verification

What does this do?

Pool Verification answers the most important question a solo miner can ask: "If my Bitaxe finds a block right now, will I actually get paid?" It connects to your chosen pool, grabs the block template the pool is currently handing out to miners, and checks whether your Bitcoin address is embedded in the reward transaction. If it's not there, you would mine a block worth over 3 BTC and receive nothing. This feature catches that problem before it's too late.

Why does this matter?

Every Bitcoin block contains a special transaction called the coinbase transaction. This is the very first transaction in the block, and it's where new Bitcoin is created. When a miner finds a valid block, the coinbase transaction is what pays out the block reward. Right now, that reward is 3.125 BTC (roughly $200,000+ depending on the current price).

In solo mining, the pool builds this coinbase transaction on your behalf. Your Bitcoin address has to be written directly into it. If a pool is set up correctly, it takes the address you gave it during registration or connection and locks the block reward to that address. But not every pool does this correctly. Some are misconfigured. Some use address formats that don't match what you provided. And some are outright scams — they put their own address in the coinbase transaction instead of yours, effectively stealing your hashpower.

The stakes here are enormous. Solo mining a block is already incredibly rare with a Bitaxe. If it actually happens, it could be a once-in-a-lifetime event. Losing the payout because you didn't verify your pool setup beforehand would be devastating. Running this check takes about 30 seconds and gives you certainty.

How it works

The verification follows six steps, each building on the last:

1. Scam pool check

Before connecting to anything, the app checks the pool's hostname against a list of known scam operations. Currently flagged as scams:

• zsolo.bid — Known to mine Bitcoin Cash (BCH) while claiming to mine Bitcoin (BTC), effectively stealing your hashpower
• luckymonster.pro — Known fraudulent pool that does not pay out to miners

If your selected pool matches either of these, the verification stops immediately with a warning. There is no reason to connect to a known scam.

2. Address validation

The app validates your Bitcoin address before sending it anywhere. It checks that the address is a real, properly formatted Bitcoin address by decoding it and verifying its internal checksum. If the address has a typo, uses an unsupported format, or is otherwise invalid, you'll get an error right here — before any network connection is made.

3. Stratum connection

The app opens a direct TCP connection to the pool server (with a 10-second connection timeout) and speaks the Stratum protocol — the same protocol your Bitaxe uses. It sends two messages:

• mining.subscribe — This introduces the app to the pool, like saying "hello, I'd like to mine."
• mining.authorize — This sends your Bitcoin address to the pool, like saying "here's where to send my reward."

This is exactly what your Bitaxe does when it connects. The app is simulating your miner.

4. Waiting for the block template

After subscribing, the app waits for the pool to send a mining.notify message. This is the pool's way of saying "here's the current block to work on." It contains the raw data that would become the coinbase transaction if a block were found right now. The app waits up to 30 seconds for this message. If it doesn't arrive, the app retries (up to 2 more attempts, for 3 total).

5. Coinbase parsing

The mining.notify message includes two critical pieces of data called coinb1 and coinb2. Think of these as the "recipe" for building the coinbase transaction — coinb1 is the beginning (including the block height), and coinb2 is the end (including all the payout addresses and amounts). The app takes coinb2, finds the list of outputs (where the money goes), and decodes each one to figure out what type of Bitcoin address it pays and how much.

6. Address matching

Finally, the app compares each decoded output against your Bitcoin address. It does this two ways: first by matching the address type and the cryptographic hash inside the address (the primary check), and second by searching for your raw address text inside the transaction data (a backup check). If either method finds a match, your address is verified.

What do the results mean?

Verified

A successful verification means your Bitcoin address was found in the coinbase transaction that the pool is currently handing out to miners. This confirms that, as of right now, if your Bitaxe finds a block on this pool, the reward would be sent to your address.

Keep the verification result as a reference. Note the block height shown — it tells you which block the pool was working on when you verified.

Not Verified

A failed verification means your address was not found in the coinbase outputs. This does not always mean the pool is a scam. Possible reasons include:

• Wrong address format — You may have entered an address the pool doesn't support (for example, some pools don't support newer Taproot addresses starting with bc1p).
• Registration issue — Your address might not be properly registered with the pool. Some pools require you to set your address through a web dashboard, not just through the Stratum connection.
• Pool configuration error — The pool may be misconfigured and not correctly embedding miner addresses.
• Temporary state — In rare cases, the pool may be between block templates.

If verification fails, double-check that you've entered your address correctly, confirm that the pool supports your address type, and try again. If it keeps failing, consider switching to a different pool and re-verifying.

Coinbase outputs table

The results include a table showing every output in the coinbase transaction. Each row is one output — one place the block reward money would go. Here's what the columns mean:

• # — The output number (starting from 0). Coinbase transactions typically have 2-5 outputs.
• Type — The kind of Bitcoin address this output pays to (P2WPKH, P2TR, P2PKH, etc.). See the "Supported Bitcoin address formats" section below.
• Value (BTC) — How much Bitcoin this output is worth.
• Value (sats) — The same amount in satoshis (1 BTC = 100,000,000 satoshis).
• Address — The decoded Bitcoin address, if the app can decode it.

Why are there multiple outputs? The pool takes a small fee, and that fee goes to a separate output. There might also be an OP_RETURN output, which is a special data-carrying output that doesn't pay anyone — pools use these to embed extra information like pool identification tags. Your address should appear in the largest output (or at least one of the major ones).

If your address is found, its row will be highlighted so you can see exactly which output is yours and how much it's worth.

Known scam pools

The app currently flags two pools as known scams:

Pool	Why it's flagged
zsolo.bid	Mines Bitcoin Cash (BCH) while telling miners they're mining Bitcoin. Your Bitaxe hashpower is stolen and redirected to a different blockchain entirely.
luckymonster.pro	Fraudulent pool that does not pay out to miners.

If you select one of these pools, the app will immediately warn you and refuse to proceed with verification. There is nothing to verify — these pools will not pay you.

Supported Bitcoin address formats

The app can decode and verify the following Bitcoin address types:

Format	Starts with	Description
P2PKH	1	The original Bitcoin address format. Still widely supported.
P2SH	3	"Pay to Script Hash" — often used for multi-signature wallets.
P2WPKH	bc1q (42 chars)	Native SegWit address. Lower fees than P2PKH. The most common format today.
P2WSH	bc1q (62 chars)	SegWit script hash. Used for complex spending conditions.
P2TR	bc1p (62 chars)	Taproot address. The newest format, offering better privacy and efficiency.

If you're not sure what format your address is, just look at the first few characters. Most Bitaxe owners use either a bc1q address (P2WPKH) or a bc1p address (P2TR). Both are fully supported.

How often should I run this?

Run Pool Verification:

• Whenever you set up a new pool — This is the most important time. Before your Bitaxe spends a single hash on a pool, verify that your address is in the coinbase.
• After changing your Bitcoin address — If you switch to a new wallet or generate a new receiving address, re-verify.
• After pool maintenance or updates — If a pool announces changes to their infrastructure, it's worth a quick re-check.
• Periodically, for peace of mind — Once a month is more than enough. Pool configurations rarely change without notice, but the check only takes 30 seconds.

You don't need to re-run it constantly. Once verified, the result is stable unless the pool changes its configuration or you change your address. But given what's at stake, the occasional re-check costs nothing and buys peace of mind.

Mempool Comparison

What does this do?

Mempool Comparison connects to 15 solo mining pools at the same time and compares the actual transaction fees each pool has included in the block they're currently building. This lets you see which pool would pay you the most if your Bitaxe found a block right now. The differences can be surprisingly large — sometimes hundreds of dollars at current Bitcoin prices.

Why do fees matter?

When a Bitcoin block is found, the miner who found it receives a reward made up of two parts. The first part is the block subsidy — a fixed amount of newly created Bitcoin. Right now, the subsidy is 3.125 BTC. This number is the same no matter which pool you use.

The second part is transaction fees. Every Bitcoin transaction pays a small fee to be included in a block. The pool decides which transactions from the waiting list (called the mempool) to include in the block it's building. More transactions, or transactions with higher fees, means more money for the miner. This variable part can range from 0.01 BTC on a quiet day to over 1 BTC during periods of high network demand.

Here's the thing: not every pool selects the same transactions. Each pool builds its own version of the next block, choosing from the mempool independently. Some pools are more aggressive about including high-fee transactions. Some have better mempool visibility. Some are simply running more optimized software. The result is that at any given moment, the candidate blocks across different pools can have meaningfully different total fees. By comparing them side by side, you can see which pool is giving its miners the most value.

How it works

When you tap "Run Comparison," here's what happens under the hood:

1. Connecting to all pools simultaneously

The app opens connections to all 15 pools at once (with a 10-second connection timeout per pool). This ensures the comparison is a fair snapshot of the same moment in time. If connections happened one by one, the mempool could change between tests and the comparison wouldn't be apples-to-apples.

2. Subscribing and authorizing

For each pool, the app sends two Stratum protocol messages. First, mining.subscribe — this tells the pool "I'm a miner, I'd like to work." Then, mining.authorize — this provides a Bitcoin address so the pool knows who to build the block for. The app uses a standard address for this step since the goal is to compare fees, not to actually mine.

3. Receiving the block template

After authorizing, the app waits for the pool to send a mining.notify message. This is the pool's "work package" — it contains the raw data for the block the pool is currently building. The app waits up to about 15 seconds for this message to arrive. If a pool doesn't respond in time, it's marked as failed.

4. Extracting the block height

From the first part of the block template (called coinb1), the app reads the block height — the sequence number of the block being built. All pools should be working on the same block height. If a pool is working on a lower number, it means the pool hasn't caught up to the latest block yet and is considered stale.

5. Calculating the fees

From the second part of the block template (coinb2), the app extracts all the payment outputs — the places where the block reward money would go. It adds up the total value across all outputs, then subtracts the fixed 3.125 BTC subsidy. What's left is the transaction fees the pool has included in its candidate block.

6. Ranking the results

Once all pools have responded (or timed out), the app sorts them by transaction fees from highest to lowest. Pools that failed to respond go to the bottom. The pool with the highest fees is highlighted as the best option.

What do the results mean?

Block height

Block height is simply the sequence number of the block being built. Think of it as "block #894,231" — each new block increments the number by one. All pools should show the same block height because they're all working on the same next block in the Bitcoin chain.

If a pool shows a different (lower) number, it means the pool hasn't yet learned about the most recent block that was found. This is a problem — see "STALE flag" below.

Fees (BTC)

This is the number to compare across pools. It shows how much the pool has collected in transaction fees for the block it's currently building. Higher means the pool has included more or higher-fee transactions, which means more money for you if your Bitaxe finds that block.

The fees are also shown in satoshis (sats) for precision. One Bitcoin equals 100,000,000 satoshis.

Time (ms)

This shows how long the entire process took for each pool — from opening the connection to receiving and parsing the block template. It's measured in milliseconds. A lower number means the pool responded faster. While this isn't the primary thing you're comparing here (the Speed Test is better for latency), it gives you a sense of how responsive the pool's infrastructure is.

STALE flag

A red STALE tag next to a pool's block height means that pool is working on an older block than the majority of other pools. In plain terms: someone on the Bitcoin network already found the current block, and this pool hasn't caught up yet. It's still building on yesterday's block, so to speak.

This is bad for you as a miner. If your Bitaxe submits work for a stale block, that work is wasted — the network has already moved on. A pool that's consistently stale has slow block propagation, which means it's more likely to waste your mining effort.

If your current pool shows as stale, don't panic from a single test. Run the comparison again a few minutes later. If it's stale repeatedly across multiple runs, that's a sign the pool has infrastructure problems and you should consider switching.

Best pool highlight

The pool with the highest transaction fees (among successful, non-stale results) is highlighted with a green left border and bold text. The app determines "best" purely by fee amount — the pool whose candidate block would pay the most to the miner who finds it.

The summary card at the bottom shows the best pool's name and exact fee amount for quick reference.

How often should I run this?

Mempool conditions change constantly. Transaction fees fluctuate based on how busy the Bitcoin network is. A pool that has the best fees right now might not be the best in an hour, and vice versa.

That said, some patterns are stable. Pools that consistently include more fees tend to keep doing so because they run better transaction selection software. Running the comparison a few times across different times of day will give you a clearer picture than a single snapshot.

Don't switch pools based on one result. A single comparison is a snapshot of one moment. If you're considering switching pools for better fees, run the comparison 3-5 times over a day or two. If one pool consistently comes out on top, that's a more reliable signal.

Good times to run this:

• When you're first choosing a pool — run it several times to see which pools consistently offer the best fees
• During periods of high network activity (fee spikes) — this is when the differences between pools are most dramatic
• If you suspect your pool isn't optimizing fees well — compare it against the field
• Periodically (once a week or so) as a general health check

Remember: fees are only one factor in choosing a pool. Connection speed (from the Speed Test) and address verification (from Pool Verification) matter too. The best pool is one that's fast from your location, verifies your address, and includes competitive fees.

Prevhash Monitor

What does this do?

The Prevhash Monitor watches how 20 solo mining pools update the work they give to miners over an 11-minute window. Legitimate pools constantly send fresh work as new Bitcoin blocks are found. Scam pools don't — they keep sending old, stale work that can never win a block. This feature catches them by comparing the "previous block hash" each pool broadcasts across 22 snapshots taken 30 seconds apart.

What is a scam pool?

A legitimate solo mining pool works like this: it watches the Bitcoin network, and every time a new block is found (roughly every 10 minutes), it immediately tells all its miners "here's the new block to work on." The miners' devices update and start solving the new puzzle. This is how mining is supposed to work.

A scam pool does something different. It keeps feeding miners old work — work based on a block that's already been found. Any solution a miner submits for this old work is invalid and will be rejected by the Bitcoin network. The miner's Bitaxe runs all day, burning electricity, producing nothing. Meanwhile, the scam pool may be redirecting your hashpower to mine a different cryptocurrency (like Bitcoin Cash), pocketing the rewards while you get nothing. Some scam pools even charge fees on top of this.

The problem is that from the miner's perspective, everything looks normal. Your Bitaxe shows it's hashing. The pool dashboard might show accepted shares. But none of that work is going toward a real Bitcoin block. Without a tool that independently monitors what work the pool is actually assigning, you'd never know.

What is a prevhash?

Every Bitcoin block contains a reference to the block that came before it — a unique fingerprint called the previous block hash, or prevhash for short. This is what chains the blocks together and gives "blockchain" its name.

When a new block is found on the Bitcoin network, the prevhash changes. Every pool should immediately start giving miners work that references this new prevhash. If a pool keeps sending work with the old prevhash after the network has moved on, it means that pool isn't keeping up — or isn't trying to.

On average, a new Bitcoin block is found every 10 minutes. Over the course of the monitor's 11-minute observation window, you'd expect to see at least one prevhash change across the network.

How the monitor works

1. Snapshot collection

When you tap "Start Monitoring," the app begins taking 22 snapshots spaced 30 seconds apart. This takes about 11 minutes total — long enough to almost certainly see at least one new Bitcoin block get found, which forces every legitimate pool to update its prevhash.

You can stop the session early if needed, and the app will show results based on however many snapshots were completed.

2. Connecting to all pools simultaneously

For each snapshot, the app connects to all 20 pools at the same time (with a 10-second connection timeout per pool). It sends the standard Stratum subscribe and authorize messages, then waits up to 15 seconds for the pool to respond with its current block template.

3. Extracting the prevhash

From each pool's response, the app extracts the previous block hash — the 64-character hex string that identifies which block the pool is building on top of. The app normalizes these values so they can be compared across pools.

4. Label assignment

Raw prevhashes are long and unreadable, so the app assigns short labels: A, B, C, and so on. The first unique prevhash seen across all pools gets label A, the next unique one gets B, and so on. This makes it easy to glance at the timeline and see which pools are in sync.

If every pool shows "A" in snapshot 1 and then every pool shows "B" in snapshot 5, that means a new block was found between those snapshots and all pools updated correctly. If one pool still shows "A" while everyone else moved to "B," that pool is behind.

5. Health evaluation

The app evaluates each pool's health status as snapshots accumulate:

• Legitimate: The pool has shown at least 2 different prevhash labels over the session. This proves it's updating when new blocks arrive.
• Suspicious: The network has changed (other pools have shown at least 2 different labels), but this pool has only ever shown 1 label across 3 or more snapshots. It might be stuck or slow.
• Scam: A pool that has been suspicious for 5 consecutive evaluation rounds is escalated to scam status. Also, pools whose names match known scam keywords are immediately flagged as scam without waiting for snapshot data.

6. Known scam detection

Before any monitoring begins, the app checks each pool's name against a hardcoded list of known scam operations. Pools matching the keywords "luckymonster" or "zsolo" are immediately flagged as scam, regardless of their prevhash behavior. This provides an instant warning even before the first snapshot completes.

What do the results mean?

OK status

A green OK badge means the pool has been observed updating its prevhash during the monitoring session. It showed at least two different prevhash values, which proves it's responding to new blocks on the Bitcoin network. This is the healthy, expected behavior.

SUSPICIOUS status

An amber SUSPECT badge means the pool has only shown a single prevhash value while other pools have already updated. This could mean:

• The pool is slow to propagate new blocks (infrastructure issue)
• The pool happened to be tested during a gap between blocks
• The pool is genuinely not updating (early sign of a scam)

A suspicious result warrants attention but isn't proof of fraud. The app needs to see the behavior persist across 5 consecutive evaluation rounds before escalating to scam.

SCAM status

A red SCAM badge means one of two things:

1. The pool matches a known scam keyword and was flagged immediately, or
2. The pool was suspicious for 5 consecutive evaluation rounds — it never updated its prevhash while the rest of the network moved on

Either way, do not mine on this pool. It is either not connected to the real Bitcoin network or is deliberately withholding new work from miners.

The prevhash labels (A, B, C...)

Instead of showing raw 64-character hex strings, the timeline uses simple letter labels. All pools showing the same letter at the same point in time are working on the same block. When the letter changes (say from A to B), it means a new Bitcoin block was found and the pool updated.

In the timeline grid, cells where a pool's label differs from the majority of pools at that snapshot are highlighted in amber. This makes it visually obvious when a pool is out of step with the network.

Snapshot timeline

The main display is a grid. Each row is a pool. Each column is a snapshot (numbered 1 through 22). Reading across a row shows you how that pool's prevhash changed — or didn't — over the monitoring session.

A healthy row might look like: A A A A B B B B B B... — the pool was on block A, then a new block was found and it switched to B.

A suspicious row might look like: A A A A A A A A A A... — while other pools moved from A to B, this pool stayed on A the entire time.

A dash (-) means the pool failed to respond for that snapshot.

How long does it take?

A full session takes about 11 minutes (22 snapshots at 30-second intervals). You can stop it early if you've already seen enough — for instance, if a new block has clearly arrived and you can see which pools updated and which didn't.

The reason it takes this long is that Bitcoin blocks arrive roughly every 10 minutes. The monitor needs to observe at least one block change to distinguish legitimate pools from stale ones. Twenty-two snapshots over 11 minutes gives high confidence that at least one (and likely two) new blocks will arrive during the session.

What should I do if my pool shows SCAM?

1. Stop mining on that pool immediately. Every hash your Bitaxe sends to a scam pool is wasted electricity.
2. Switch to a pool that showed OK status in the monitor results. Any green pool is confirmed to be broadcasting real, up-to-date work.
3. Run Pool Verification on your new pool before you start mining. This confirms your Bitcoin address is in the payout, so you know you'll actually get paid if you find a block.
4. Do not go back to the flagged pool. If it was flagged by name (known scam), it's a confirmed bad actor. If it was flagged by behavior (never updated prevhash), it may have infrastructure problems at best, or be deliberately fraudulent at worst.

Known scam pools

The app flags pools matching these keywords on sight:

Keyword	Known pools	Why they're flagged
zsolo	zsolo.bid	Mines Bitcoin Cash (BCH) while claiming to mine Bitcoin (BTC). Miners' hashpower is silently redirected to a different blockchain. No legitimate BTC mining occurs.
luckymonster	luckymonster.pro	Fraudulent pool that does not pay miners. Known to broadcast stale work and collect fees without providing real mining service.

These pools are flagged instantly — the monitor doesn't wait for snapshot evidence. If you see any pool with a red SCAM badge from the very first snapshot, this is why.