This report is based on a post by user poolsentinel dated August 18, 2026, warning about serious issues in the MKPOOL mining pool, operated by an operator under the nickname Mecanik1337.

According to user poolsentinel, the timeline of events causes serious concern among miners. Initially, the pool introduced a mandatory 2% "donation" which, following community criticism, was renamed to a standard fee. However, later, when finding BCH blocks, instead of the stated 2%, miners began to be charged around 20%. The abnormal withholdings are recorded in block explorers, and proof is available at the following links:

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

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

In response to questions about the inflated fee, the operator explained that it was a possible bug caused by the use of artificial intelligence for automatic configuration deployment, which led to an error. According to user poolsentinel, the uncontrolled change in the payout logic indicates a lack of proper testing, as there is no evidence of comprehensive testing on the Testnet4 network in the pool's public repository prior to the mainnet launch.

Another incident involved a miner under the nickname Empyre, who lost a DOGE block. According to user poolsentinel, the pool operator directly admitted in a Telegram correspondence that the block was lost due to a bug in the code at the very start of the pool's operation. At the same time, the operator promised to pay compensation to the miner only after he personally finds a new DOGE block, which makes the return of funds dependent on the pool's own luck. Promises to refund funds to miners affected by the 20% withholdings also remain unfulfilled. As a reason for the delay, the operator cited being busy writing blog posts.

According to user poolsentinel, it is impossible to definitively state whether these actions were intentional fraud or the result of poor development practices, but the outcome for the miners is the same — all risks fall on them. The author calls on the operator to provide transparent explanations, the TXIDs of all refunds, proof of compensation payments, and details of the bugs. Until these issues are resolved, the author categorically recommends against directing computing power to the MKPOOL.