Braiins Pool vs OCEAN: which one should you mine on in 2026?

When people talk about decentralizing Bitcoin mining, two pools come up most often: Braiins Pool and OCEAN. They get there by different roads. Braiins bet on the Stratum V2 protocol and its own Braiins OS firmware. OCEAN pays miners straight from the coinbase transaction of a found block and, through DATUM Gateway, lets you build the block template on your own node. Below we look at what each approach costs a miner.

What is the core difference between Braiins Pool and OCEAN?

Braiins Pool pays by FPPS: the pool receives the block reward itself and distributes it, so the miner's balance sits with the pool until payout. OCEAN uses TIDES and pays your share directly in the block's coinbase transaction, so the pool never holds the funds. Braiins pushes Stratum V2, OCEAN lets miners build their own block template through DATUM.

Braiins vs OCEAN: comparison table

Sources: academy.braiins.com/braiins-pool/rewards-and-payouts (2026-09-28), academy.braiins.com/braiins-pool/stratum-v2-manual (2026-08-25), ocean.xyz and ocean.xyz/docs/tides (2026-08-25), ocean.xyz/docs/datum, d-central.tech/data/stratum-protocol-matrix (2026-08). You can compare these pools with the rest in the mining pool ranking.

Which pool is cheaper on fees?

It depends on whether you run DATUM. OCEAN charges less with DATUM (1% against 2%), while Braiins has a 2.5% base rate that is not charged only when you mine on Braiins OS. The gap in percentage points comes straight out of income, so on a single home ASIC it is barely visible, and on a petahash farm it is noticeable.

At 100 TH/s and income of $3.10 per day (the August snapshot from the pool comparison), one percent of fee is 3.1 cents. Moving from 2.5% to 1% saves about 4.7 cents a day, roughly $17 a year. Without DATUM the gap between 2.5% and 2% drops to 1.6 cents a day, about $5.7 a year. At 1 PH/s the same 1.5 points give about $170 a year, at 10 PH/s about $1,700.

The easiest way to run your own numbers is the mining profitability calculator. The fee is taken from the same expected network reward, a pool has no special yield of its own. More on what pools actually deduct is in the mining pool fees breakdown.

How do payouts work: FPPS vs TIDES?

FPPS pays a fixed amount for every accepted share, including a cut of transaction fees, and does not depend on pool luck. TIDES distributes a found block's reward across a sliding window of recent shares. The result: FPPS income is smooth and predictable, TIDES income moves with pool luck, but the scheme is non-custodial.

The mechanics are covered in FPPS vs PPLNS: which payout model to choose. TIDES is closer to PPLNS than to FPPS. Braiins moved from Scoring to FPPS in December 2023.

How long until the first payout

The wait is computed in bitcoin, no price needed: divide the threshold by net daily income. Net income at 100 TH/s in the August snapshot is 0.00004803 BTC per day.

• OCEAN: 0.01048576 / 0.00004803 is about 218 days at 100 TH/s and about 22 days at 1 PH/s
• Braiins: the 0.0002 BTC threshold fills in a few days even at 100 TH/s, and below 0.005 BTC a 0.0001 BTC fee applies

The calculation holds at current difficulty. Rewards for the same hardware shrink over time, so the real wait will be longer. Why that happens is explained in why mining rewards fall every day.

Who holds your coins before payout?

At Braiins, as at any FPPS pool, the reward first lands at the pool's address and is then distributed, so your accumulated balance sits in an account the pool controls. At OCEAN your share is written directly into the coinbase transaction of the found block. The pool cannot freeze or lose that money, but it does not arrive until the payout threshold is met.

OCEAN removes the need to trust the pool, and in return you wait longer. A small farm can get around that wait with a Lightning withdrawal, which is available before the threshold.

If what matters to you is not block structure but what the pool knows about you, see the list of mining pools without KYC. These are separate questions and should not be mixed.

Stratum V2 vs DATUM: what actually works today?

Stratum V2 encrypts the channel between miner and pool, protects against tampering in transit and moves data more efficiently. Braiins Pool supports it. DATUM at OCEAN solves a different problem: the miner builds the block template from its own node's mempool. Stratum V2 protects the connection, DATUM moves transaction selection to the miner.

Braiins docs of 2026-08-25 described own templates in Stratum V2 as a future feature, while a third-party protocol matrix for August 2026 already lists job declaration for Braiins. Check the status on the pool page before relying on it. For who really decides which transactions enter a block, see Stratum V2 and transaction selection.

Do you need your own node

For DATUM, yes. The Gateway takes transactions from the mempool of your full Bitcoin node and does not work without it. The node and the Gateway can run on the same device, and miners connect to `stratum+tcp://your_ip:23334`. Without a node you can still mine on OCEAN the usual way at 2%.

What about ASIC firmware

Stock firmware is not enough for Stratum V2, you need Braiins OS. Over regular Stratum you can connect to Braiins with stock firmware, and the fee stays 2.5%. Changing firmware may affect the manufacturer's warranty, so check it first.

Who should pick Braiins, and who should pick OCEAN?

Braiins suits miners who want smooth FPPS income, frequent payouts from a small balance, and are ready to flash their ASICs for Stratum V2. OCEAN suits those for whom non-custodial payouts are a matter of principle, who already run a full node or are willing to set one up, and whose farm is big enough to reach the threshold quickly.

Neither pool should be chosen for a promised efficiency gain: neither Braiins nor OCEAN publishes quantified claims about lower stale rate or higher income from Stratum V2 or DATUM. What decides it is the fee, custody, the threshold and how much infrastructure you are willing to maintain.

There is also a third option, solo mining, where you win a whole block or nothing. When it makes sense is covered in solo vs pool mining.

FAQ

Braiins or OCEAN: which is better for a single ASIC?

On one device the fee gap is tens of dollars a year: about $17 at 100 TH/s between 2.5% and 1%. The payout threshold matters more: OCEAN's is higher, and a small miner waits about 218 days for the first payout unless withdrawing over Lightning.

Can I mine on Braiins without Braiins OS?

Yes, over regular Stratum with stock firmware, at a 2.5% fee. Braiins OS is needed specifically for Stratum V2, and only when mining on it is the pool fee not charged.

Can I use DATUM without my own node?

No. DATUM Gateway builds the template from the mempool of your full node. Without a node you mine on OCEAN as usual, at 2% instead of 1%.

Does Stratum V2 already let miners choose transactions?

The protocol is designed for it. Braiins docs of 2026-08-25 described own templates as a future feature, and a third-party protocol matrix lists job declaration for Braiins, so check the status on the pool page. At OCEAN transaction selection works through DATUM.

Does OCEAN hold miners' money?

No, the miner's share is written into the coinbase transaction of the found block. Until the threshold is reached no payout arrives, but the funds do not sit in a pool account.

Is KYC required at Braiins and OCEAN?

OCEAN does not require KYC, only a payout address. At Braiins KYC is asked only where the chosen payout method requires it. Data as of 2026-08-20, verify on the official pages.

How do I quickly work out which pool pays more on my farm?

Enter hashrate and tariff in the calculator, take the daily income and apply both pools' fees. Then divide the payout threshold by net daily income in BTC to see the wait for the first payout.