Intermediate Bitcoin Cash Mining Guide SHA-256

Bitcoin Cash Mining Guide 2026: How to Mine BCH with SHA-256

8 min read

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) forked from Bitcoin in August 2017 over the block-size debate, keeping Bitcoin's proof-of-work and 21-million supply while raising the block size for cheaper on-chain payments. For miners, BCH occupies a peculiar and useful niche: it is a second SHA-256 market for the exact same hardware. Every Antminer or Whatsminer pointed at Bitcoin today can switch to Bitcoin Cash with a single configuration change — and sophisticated miners exploit precisely that. This guide explains how BCH mining works and when it makes sense.

One Algorithm, Two Markets

BCH mines with SHA-256, identical to Bitcoin. The consequence is a permanently coupled mining economy:

  • The same ASICs serve both networks — there is no "BCH-specific" hardware
  • Hashrate flows freely toward whichever chain pays more per TH/s
  • That flow itself erases the advantage, keeping per-terahash profitability near parity

Bitcoin Cash typically carries well under 1% of Bitcoin's total hashrate — proportional to its price ratio. For an individual miner this means BCH is neither systematically better nor worse than BTC per terahash: the choice is about which asset you want to be paid in, payout variance, and pool features.

ASERT: Difficulty That Adjusts Every Block

Early BCH suffered wild oscillations as miners ping-ponged between chains to game its slow difficulty adjustment. Since November 2020, the ASERT algorithm retargets difficulty every block against an exponential schedule, keeping block times near 10 minutes even through large hashrate swings. For miners, ASERT means BCH responds to hashrate migration within hours, so "difficulty surfing" windows are small — switch for strategy, not for arbitrage fantasies.

Hardware: The Bitcoin List, Unchanged

The exact lineup from our Bitcoin mining guide applies:

Browse all models and head-to-head comparisons in the hardware section.

Step-by-Step: Mining BCH

Step 1 — Create a Bitcoin Cash Wallet

BCH uses the CashAddr format (addresses beginning with q or bitcoincash:). Options: hardware wallets (Ledger, Trezor), Electron Cash (the BCH fork of Electrum), or an exchange deposit address for direct selling.

Step 2 — Choose a Pool

The major SHA-256 pools all support BCH: ViaBTC (historically the first BCH pool, PPS+), Antpool, F2Pool, and Mining-Dutch (auto profit-switching). Several let you mine SHA-256 and receive payouts in your preferred coin regardless of which chain was mined. Compare on our Bitcoin Cash pools page.

Step 3 — Point Your ASIC at the BCH Stratum

  • Pool URL: e.g. stratum+tcp://bch.viabtc.com:3333
  • Worker: pool username or BCH address with .rig1 suffix
  • Password: x

Switching an S21 from BTC to BCH (or back) is exactly this URL change — 60 seconds of work.

Bitcoin Cash Network Statistics (June 2026)

  • Algorithm: SHA-256 (same hardware as Bitcoin)
  • Block time: ~10 minutes, ASERT per-block difficulty adjustment
  • Block reward: 3.125 BCH + fees
  • Next halving: ~April 2028 (to 1.5625 BCH)
  • Supply cap: 21 million BCH
  • Block size limit: 32 MB

Strategy: When BCH Makes Sense

Use the live BCH calculator next to the BTC calculator — per-terahash revenue will be near-identical most days. Reasons miners deliberately choose BCH:

  • Accumulation preference — you want BCH exposure paid at cost, without buying on an exchange
  • Pool variance — on a smaller network, mid-size miners represent a larger share of a pool, sometimes preferring SOLO/PPLNS variance games
  • Profit-switching — automated BTC/BCH switching pools capture the small residual spread for you; over a year this adds a modest but real premium versus single-chain loyalty
Calculate your mining profitability right now

Use our real-time calculator with live difficulty and prices.

BCH Calculator → BTC Calculator → All Calculators

Frequently Asked Questions

Over time, almost exactly equally — and that is by design of the market, not coincidence. BCH and BTC use the same SHA-256 hardware, so whenever one chain becomes more profitable per terahash, hashrate migrates to it within hours until profitability equalises. In practice, miners earn within a fraction of a percent of each other on either chain; the real decision is which coin you prefer to accumulate.
Yes — any SHA-256 ASIC (Antminer S21 series, Whatsminer M60S/M66S, Avalon A1566) mines either chain. Switching is just a pool-URL change in the miner's web interface, and several large pools offer automatic profit-switching between BTC and BCH for you.
Yes, on the same 210,000-block schedule as Bitcoin. The April 2024 halving cut the BCH reward to 3.125 BCH; the next, expected around April 2028, takes it to 1.5625 BCH. Because BCH and BTC halve within days of each other, neither gains a lasting relative advantage from the event.
Bitcoin Cash adjusts difficulty every block using the ASERT algorithm (activated November 2020), targeting 10-minute blocks against an exponential moving baseline. This was adopted to defuse the violent hashrate oscillations of BCH's early years, when miners ping-ponged between BTC and BCH to exploit the old adjustment lag. ASERT made profit-switching largely self-neutralising.
Topics: Bitcoin Cash Mining Guide SHA-256 ASIC Mining Profit Switching
Francesco Zinghinì

Francesco Zinghinì

Cryptocurrency analyst and technology writer specialising in blockchain infrastructure, mining economics, and digital asset markets. Founder of Redbit S.r.l.s. and editorial director of tuttosemplice.com.

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