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Top proof-of-work coins

Chains whose next block is made by whoever first finds a hash below the network's target — a lottery each miner wins in proportion to the computing work it burns. Anyone with the hardware can take part without asking, and the valid chain with the most accumulated work is the one every node follows. Bitcoin defined the model in 2009.

How it works

Who makes a block	A miner whose hash of the block header falls below the network's target. Each attempt is a lottery ticket; more hashing buys more tickets.
Who may take part	Anyone with the hardware. There is no registration, no stake and no approval.
How the chain agrees	The valid chain with the most accumulated work wins; a node that sees two branches follows the heavier one.
When a block is final	Never absolutely. Each block mined on top makes reversing it costlier, and exchanges wait a set number of confirmations.
What an attack costs	More hashrate than the rest of the network for as long as the attack lasts, bought, built or rented. The budget it has to beat is what the chain pays its miners.

Coming up

Every chain is listed by market cap; a click on any column heading sorts by it, a second click reverses it. Hashrate is only comparable within one algorithm — a SHA-256 hash and a Scrypt hash cost different amounts to produce — so sorting by Algorithm puts each algorithm's chains together, the algorithm with the largest combined market cap first and each chain within it by market cap, and the share column is the security comparison: the portion of that algorithm's work a chain commands, and so how much of it an attacker would have to redirect.

Paid to miners / day is block reward × blocks per day at the protocol's target block time × price — what the network spends on its own security, and the budget an attacker would have to outspend. Block rewards are read from each chain's own explorer or node: the coinbase of recent blocks, fees included; where none is readable, the reward is derived from the halving schedule. Issuance / yr is new supply at today's subsidy against circulating supply. Difficulty 24h is the chain's difficulty now against a day of blocks earlier. Blank means no source publishes it.

Methodology — the rules under which each chain's family was decided. Wrapped, staked and pegged claims are listed separately and never counted toward this total.