I want to leave this here so other miners are aware of what has been happening with **MKPOOL / mkpool.com**, operated by **Mecanik1337**.

The timeline is concerning.

At first the pool imposed a **mandatory 2% “donation”**. Users criticized the fact that something mandatory was being called a donation, and after that it was changed to a normal **2% pool fee**.

Later, some BCH blocks showed around **20% being deducted instead of 2%**.

Proofs:

https://bchexplorer.cash/block/00000000000000000025c72b25ffe2ba89773e5851d2ded9dcf68c9cabf93a60

https://bchexplorer.cash/block/0000000000000000021d7c78a20ad3db4a42ab8c0cf96a120bb60b12890c565f

There were also reports from miners discussing strange behavior:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/solominers/posts/1038703659064177/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/bitaxeworldwide/posts/2141960799753062/

When questioned about the ~20% issue, Mecanik reportedly said:

> “... possible bug since yesterday because I used AI for automatic deployment when I manage configs, and it messed up by mistake.”



That explanation does not make the situation better.

A mining pool handles real block rewards. If an AI-assisted or automatic deployment can change payout behavior without being caught before production, then there is clearly a problem with testing and deployment controls.

I also checked the public MKPOOL repository. I can see unit tests, fuzzing, sanitizers and BTC testing using **regtest**, but at the time of this review I could not find public evidence of real end-to-end BTC testing on **Testnet4** before exposing miners to mainnet.

If those tests exist, the operator can simply show them.

There is also the case of a miner known as **Empyre**, who lost a DOGE block while mining on MKPOOL.



Today, August 18, 2026, Mecanik replied to him on Telegram:

> “As soon as I will catch a DOGE block, I will send it to you. You lost that block because it was right at the beginning of the pool and there was a bug in the code. It could have happened to anyone.”



This is important because the operator himself is now saying that the block was lost because of a **bug in the pool code**.

So miners were using real hashrate on software that apparently still had bugs capable of losing a block.

The compensation is also still pending, and according to that message it depends on Mecanik finding another DOGE block himself before paying Empyre. :/

There were also miners affected by the ~20% issue who were promised reimbursement.

One response from the operator was:

> “I will send today, I've been busy making blog posts and other things”



I do not know if that miner was finally paid.

So the timeline is basically:

**mandatory 2% donation -> complaints -> 2% fee -> ~20% deductions -> AI/config deployment issue -> DOGE block lost because of a code bug admitted by the operator -> reimbursements still pending**

I cannot prove whether all of these problems were intentional or simply the result of unstable code, insufficient testing or poor deployment practices.

But from a miner's point of view, the result is the same: **the risk is on the miner**.

If MKPOOL wants to clear this up, it should provide:

* an explanation for the ~20% deductions;
* TXIDs for all reimbursements;
* proof that Empyre was compensated;
* technical details about the bug that caused the DOGE block loss;
* evidence of the BTC Testnet4/end-to-end testing performed before mainnet deployment.

Until these issues are properly explained and resolved, I would personally not point serious hashrate at this pool.

Hello Mecanik,

I am writing to request a manual reimbursement for a flipped payout configuration error that occurred on mkpool. My solo hardware successfully mined Bitcoin Cash Block 966275, but the server-side block template inverted the payout outputs, effectively keeping 98% of the reward for the pool instead of the 2% pool fee.

Here are the immutable blockchain details:
• Mined Block Height: 966275
• My BCH Mining Address: bitcoincash:qqmwx64gzupn2vxjlmuxn9qzuzg4t7pw0yrxvyc95s
• Coinbase Output 0 (Miner Payout): 0.06260717 BCH
• Coinbase Output 1 (Pool Keep): 3.06775124BCH

As this is a known deployment issue previously acknowledged with the backend template scripts, I kindly request that you manually send the missing 3.0677 BCH back to my address listed above. I look forward to your prompt response.

I will also send the pool fee back to the pool operators wallet adress ending in 44kht once the fix is done. I tried to PM you but you have newbies disabled. Thank you!

and the source code is also not there under: https://github.com/mkpool-mining/mkpool
it gives you a 404 on github.
looks not good!

You can say whatever you want, but every day there are new reports from users about your fraudulent activity. Anyone can check the blockchain and see the trail of damage this guy has left behind.

Quote from: Mecanik1337 on August 29, 2026, 02:53:11 AM

The amount of time and effort input into your BS posting around social media, trying to defame my project is unbelievable. Why don't you input such time and effort into creating something better yourself?

1. Did mistakes happen with the project? YES.
2. Did miners get paid for those mistakes? YES.
3. Can mistakes happen again? PROBABLY.

Let me be very clear, this is a side project built by ambition and as a hobby. I do not do this full time and I do not live off it. Miners choose to use the pool at their own risk, like everywhere else. Improvements are being added constantly as I have time and mistakes can happen. Nothing is guaranteed, this is not a "guaranteed service".

However, so far nobody was left in the dark. Every block found was paid directly via coinbase, and where a mistake happened it was remedied and paid manually.

So you can go over social media and try to clout, you can report the website as "phishing" as much as you want, the project goes on. Miners are happy, they keep coming back, so your lies and trolling attempts do very little.

The user behind the account has personally emailed me after I made my original post with the flipped outputs for payment. So far he actually has payed out everyone correctly by fixing his or her mistake. He even posted the transaction ID on MKpool. I’m going to copy and paste what he wrote me 12 hours after I hit a block.
Hi,
>
> I am the developer of MKPool. Sending you this email because last night when I stayed up to introduce a new coin, I restarted the pools and my configs acted up again and because of that it sent you a 2% reward instead of the full block reward.
>
> I will send you the rest of the 98% BCH block reward soon as it confirms, just please be patient and don't stress out. As you can see on the site everyone got paid properly, even when such a mistake happened.
>
> Terribly sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding.
>
> I will send you some bonus hashrate in the future when I add a new "booster" feature.

Unfortunately he sent me this about 8-12 hours after I hit a BCH block. I made the post a few hours after when I saw the outputs were flipped on the mempool, because it was very concerning. I still haven’t gotten the 98% from the block I hit yet. But I believe the creator of mkpool is doing everything the best he can. And is being very pro-active with correcting mistakes. I truly regret making the post, I just wish he would have made it easier to contact him, so situations don’t end up like this.

Highly doubt you've actually received the funds yet. We haven't seen a single thing on-chain.
Tell us your story.

Today, yet another miner got scammed by mkpool.

Quote from: Cristian1005928 on August 31, 2026, 01:54:44 PM

The user behind the account has personally emailed me after I made my original post with the flipped outputs for payment. So far he actually has payed out everyone correctly by fixing his or her mistake. He even posted the transaction ID on MKpool. I’m going to copy and paste what he wrote me 12 hours after I hit a block.
Hi,
>
> I am the developer of MKPool. Sending you this email because last night when I stayed up to introduce a new coin, I restarted the pools and my configs acted up again and because of that it sent you a 2% reward instead of the full block reward.
>
> I will send you the rest of the 98% BCH block reward soon as it confirms, just please be patient and don't stress out. As you can see on the site everyone got paid properly, even when such a mistake happened.
>
> Terribly sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding.
>
> I will send you some bonus hashrate in the future when I add a new "booster" feature.

Unfortunately he sent me this about 8-12 hours after I hit a BCH block. I made the post a few hours after when I saw the outputs were flipped on the mempool, because it was very concerning. I still haven’t gotten the 98% from the block I hit yet. But I believe the creator of mkpool is doing everything the best he can. And is being very pro-active with correcting mistakes. I truly regret making the post, I just wish he would have made it easier to contact him, so situations don’t end up like this.

The amount of time and effort input into your BS posting around social media, trying to defame my project is unbelievable. Why don't you input such time and effort into creating something better yourself?

1. Did mistakes happen with the project? YES.
2. Did miners get paid for those mistakes? YES.
3. Can mistakes happen again? PROBABLY.

Let me be very clear, this is a side project built by ambition and as a hobby. I do not do this full time and I do not live off it. Miners choose to use the pool at their own risk, like everywhere else. Improvements are being added constantly as I have time and mistakes can happen. Nothing is guaranteed, this is not a "guaranteed service".

However, so far nobody was left in the dark. Every block found was paid directly via coinbase, and where a mistake happened it was remedied and paid manually.

So you can go over social media and try to clout, you can report the website as "phishing" as much as you want, the project goes on. Miners are happy, they keep coming back, so your lies and trolling attempts do very little.

Glad this scammer finally paid you. No doubt he only did it after being warned and publicly exposed. There are still other rewards he owes and will have to pay, now that this shameless fraud is being fully exposed.

This was never a mistake. It was an intentional move to get funds and then go mine on SoloPool, because this shameless guy doesn’t even trust his own pool.

Quote from: Cristian1005928 on September 05, 2026, 02:34:27 AM

Heres is an update as requested. I emailed the pool user yesterday morning as he told me to give him a couple days. but its approaching 4 days now since had said that. but here is the last email i sent yesterday but no response was sent back.-
Hey,
I wanna move past this whole thing. As it’s been confusing for people and myself with the whole situation within the MK Pool community. Also this happened again to a guy with a Bitaxe (block# 966,894). I keep getting spammed and personal messaged online if the pool is safe to use/ and if I got paid by you yet. I know it takes litteraly a minute to transfer the funds. Do you mind taking a little bit of time tomorrow to send the BCH to my address. And I will post the transaction ID’s of us swapping funds so that people will be re-assured. Thank you!

Very respectfully

Cristian

I followed the flow paths of the funds, and it was transferred 3 times. Ultimately ending in a wallet containing 18million dollars of bitcoin cash. Here is the wallet address-
(bitcoincash:qr3u8szwdl4el5ur428t3qs3cn8kqyhlesjqfjmp7k)

from an AI observation it thinks it was sent to an exchange or a cold wallet of some sort. I wanted to believe he was going to do the right thing. however, for the last week since i hit the block he keeps telling me he will send the  98% back to me in a few days in every single email. But writing the email takes the same amount of time as commencing a transfer. I think the bitaxe guy from block# 966,894 is clueless because as soon as the block matured he sent the money to an exchange and sold the 2% which is 17$(USD). maybe he thought thats how much a bitcoin cash block is worth, IDK. I know Mecanik1337 may call me a troll or something amongst the sort. But its simply not true. I supported the project and i thought the layout and data was so cool. But unfortunately there are very concerning issues he needs to address when he restarts his pool. Im giving it 3 days time before i submit the data i have gathered to the appropriate officials in the United states/UK so that i can offset the losses i had for my tax purposes (capital gains/losses due to a crypto currency scam).

This will be my final update, unless he transfers the funds to my wallet address. feel free to monitor my wallet address- bitcoincash:qqmwx64gzupn2vxjlmuxn9qzuzg4t7pw0yrxvyc95s.
If/when he does i will post the transaction ID's of our swap, because i still intend of giving back his rightfully earned pool fee. To finally put this conversation and conspiracy to rest.

Thank you,
Fair winds and following seas brothers.

Mecanik, has refunded the 98% of the block.
Here is the transaction ID: Tx ID
4fdf58688261f44f7482c37fd907e237fbafd3598f7b079d82d56d3aaa31628c

Here is me sending the 2% pool fee as promised.
Here is the transaction ID:
Tx ID
c9fb20e5b5b3a897e6c7838c679ed3ad090ddbe7b88ecc7d087355c9711bbcbe

My consensus is that MKPool has a couple issues, and unfortunately one of those issues causes panic in the community. (Swapped outputs of payment when the block is hit.) Im no technical expert nor have i ever attempted to run my own pool or node. but ill say if i were Mecanik, I would keep that pool running as long as possible before a restart if everything is going great. and make a short a Public announcement warning of the pool restart. Including posting the banner on the top of MKPools web interface of the specific coin he is restarting. That way if there is problem with a block. The person who hit the will not be alarmed and understand what's going on. 2nd is create a way to contact you not having to go through bitcoin talk. Create an email if you dont want people knowing  your personal email due to spam. I had to research when i hit the block and AI told me the pool operator posts on reddit and bitcoin talk.

The positive is that the pool layout and information available to the miner is very interesting and informative. I like the Badge system MKPool has in place too. This pool could take off very well and see some serious hashrate in my opinion when those two things are fixed. Unfortunately over communications with the actual pool operator, he seemed very swamped with the different projects. In my opinion he should make a friend with like-minded goals and ideas, and work on these projects together.

Thank you Mecanik, and thank you Gentleman. I wish everyone the best!

Quote from: poolsentinel on September 07, 2026, 04:47:59 PM

Glad this scammer finally paid you. No doubt he only did it after being warned and publicly exposed. There are still other rewards he owes and will have to pay, now that this shameless fraud is being fully exposed.

This was never a mistake. It was an intentional move to get funds and then go mine on SoloPool, because this shameless guy doesn’t even trust his own pool.

You delusional little brat. Where do you come up with this stuff from? If I was a "scammer" I wouldn't have acknowledged anything long before you even posted about me, or paid back anyone, again long before you posted about me. By definition a "scammer" hides his intents and never returns anything to anyone.

Go mind your own pool. Yes, I know, you have your own pool. I know who you are imbecile. Making fresh accounts and fresh reports everywhere does not hide who you are, stupid. I got nothing to hide in comparison with you. I made a mistake, two, three, ten; I fixed them and paid them.

Whatever happened, it got paid. Nobody got left out and nobody will be left out. Whatever happens in the future nobody will be left out hanging.

And at the end of the day, what's in it for you? Why don't you mind your own business and go on with your own project and life?

I'm not going to keep circling back and forth and waste my time trying to defend myself from your stupid accusations.

If you got something to say to me, you can do it in private. With that being said, I am not posting anymore here.

Heres is an update as requested. I emailed the pool user yesterday morning as he told me to give him a couple days. but its approaching 4 days now since had said that. but here is the last email i sent yesterday but no response was sent back.-
Hey,
I wanna move past this whole thing. As it’s been confusing for people and myself with the whole situation within the MK Pool community. Also this happened again to a guy with a Bitaxe (block# 966,894). I keep getting spammed and personal messaged online if the pool is safe to use/ and if I got paid by you yet. I know it takes litteraly a minute to transfer the funds. Do you mind taking a little bit of time tomorrow to send the BCH to my address. And I will post the transaction ID’s of us swapping funds so that people will be re-assured. Thank you!

Very respectfully

Cristian

I followed the flow paths of the funds, and it was transferred 3 times. Ultimately ending in a wallet containing 18million dollars of bitcoin cash. Here is the wallet address-
(bitcoincash:qr3u8szwdl4el5ur428t3qs3cn8kqyhlesjqfjmp7k)

from an AI observation it thinks it was sent to an exchange or a cold wallet of some sort. I wanted to believe he was going to do the right thing. however, for the last week since i hit the block he keeps telling me he will send the  98% back to me in a few days in every single email. But writing the email takes the same amount of time as commencing a transfer. I think the bitaxe guy from block# 966,894 is clueless because as soon as the block matured he sent the money to an exchange and sold the 2% which is 17$(USD). maybe he thought thats how much a bitcoin cash block is worth, IDK. I know Mecanik1337 may call me a troll or something amongst the sort. But its simply not true. I supported the project and i thought the layout and data was so cool. But unfortunately there are very concerning issues he needs to address when he restarts his pool. Im giving it 3 days time before i submit the data i have gathered to the appropriate officials in the United states/UK so that i can offset the losses i had for my tax purposes (capital gains/losses due to a crypto currency scam).

This will be my final update, unless he transfers the funds to my wallet address. feel free to monitor my wallet address- bitcoincash:qqmwx64gzupn2vxjlmuxn9qzuzg4t7pw0yrxvyc95s.
If/when he does i will post the transaction ID's of our swap, because i still intend of giving back his rightfully earned pool fee. To finally put this conversation and conspiracy to rest.

Thank you,
Fair winds and following seas brothers.

Mecanik, has refunded the 98% of the block.
Here is the transaction ID: Tx ID
4fdf58688261f44f7482c37fd907e237fbafd3598f7b079d82d56d3aaa31628c

Here is me sending the 2% pool fee as promised.
Here is the transaction ID:
Tx ID
c9fb20e5b5b3a897e6c7838c679ed3ad090ddbe7b88ecc7d087355c9711bbcbe

My consensus is that MKPool has a couple issues, and unfortunately one of those issues causes panic in the community. (Swapped outputs of payment when the block is hit.) Im no technical expert nor have i ever attempted to run my own pool or node. but ill say if i were Mecanik, I would keep that pool running as long as possible before a restart if everything is going great. and make a short a Public announcement warning of the pool restart. Including posting the banner on the top of MKPools web interface of the specific coin he is restarting. That way if there is problem with a block. The person who hit the will not be alarmed and understand what's going on. 2nd is create a way to contact you not having to go through bitcoin talk. Create an email if you dont want people knowing  your personal email due to spam. I had to research when i hit the block and AI told me the pool operator posts on reddit and bitcoin talk.

The positive is that the pool layout and information available to the miner is very interesting and informative. I like the Badge system MKPool has in place too. This pool could take off very well and see some serious hashrate in my opinion when those two things are fixed. Unfortunately over communications with the actual pool operator, he seemed very swamped with the different projects. In my opinion he should make a friend with like-minded goals and ideas, and work on these projects together.

Thank you Mecanik, and thank you Gentleman. I wish everyone the best!