The race is on. Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images Flashy startups like Coinbase, Circle, Blockchain, and BitPay are some of the most famous companies in bitcoin. But arguably more important are the miners — individuals and organisations who form the core backbone of bitcoin, ensuring the digital currency's integrity. Bitcoin runs on a blockchain, a decentralised and public ledger of every transaction made on the network. By offering processing power towards this, users get a chance to win bitcoin — creating an arms race of miners scrambling to assemble ever-more sophisticated and powerful equipment to 'mine' new bitcoin. This decentralisation has huge benefits, but also comes with new risks: Right now, if just the top three organisations joined forces they would control 51% of the network — giving them the power to rewrite the blockchain as they see fit. Some individuals go it alone; others join open 'pools' where they combine their resources to improve their odds; some larger companies also have mining efforts.

While the #1 spot can change from week to week, we have ranked the biggest mining companies using data covering August 5 to August 12. 'Everybody in the (bit)club gettin' tipsy.'

Paramount Pictures Unlike some other pools, BitClub Network does not disclose its founders, saying only that it is 'run by a team of programmers, digital mining experts and entrepreneurs who have come together with MLM experts from around the world.' MLM stands for Multi-Level Marketing — a referral system whereby a user gains bonuses for each new user they bring in, who then gains bonuses for each new user they bring in, and so on.

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MLMs can be controversial because they resemble pyramid schemes, 'Ponzi Scheme.' For some users, it works as a cloud mining pool: Users don't have to own their own hardware, just pay to rent some owned by BitClub. Miners with their own rigs can also join the network, however. # # # Bloomingdales Ghash.io was launched in July 2013 and last year gained some notoriety through its success: In June 2014,. This majority control is arguably the biggest threat to bitcoin, and demonstrates the power of miners when they get too large — it could have rewritten the blockchain however it saw fit, potentially fatally unstabilising the network in the process. Since then, its hash power has dropped off: It now sits just under 2%. Londoner Jeffrey Smith, the company's CIO, acts most frequently as its spokesperson.

It also operates Cex.io, a bitcoin exchange. Mike Seyfang/Flickr (CC) 21 made waves in March 2015 it had raised $116 million (£74 million) — making it the best-funded bitcoin startup ever. Investors included top Silicon Valley VC fund Andreessen Horowitz, where 21 CEO Balaji Srinivasan also works as a partner. This mammoth round came despite heavy secrecy about what the company was even trying to do.

When it exited stealth mode in May, it announced what many had already suspected: That it is trying to embed bitcoin network hardware into consumer goods. 21 doesn't offer a public pool, and its chips are not yet available, but its own private hardware currently makes up a little under 4% of the network. N i c o l a / Flickr (CC) KnCMiner is a Swedish mining hardware company. It hasn't been worth mining bitcoin using standard consumer computer hardware for years because of the kind of processing power involved; the overwhelming majority of ordinary members of public pools will have bought hardware from companies like KnCMiner.

It raised a $15 million (£9.6 million) Series B in February 2015 led by Accel Partners. It boasts its green credentials on its, and has data centres Sweden, with expansions planned for Iceland and Finland. Andrew Burton/Getty Images BitFury is the best-funded mining hardware company in the business, raising $20 million (£12.8 million) in July 2015. It was,, its third round in two years, and it has now raised $60 million (38.4 million) in total. The startup is headed up by, originally from Latvia. It does not operate a public pool, but has private mines in Finland, Iceland, and the Republic of Georgia.

Despite its prominence in the mining industry, Vavilov insists that 'we are not a mining company, I don't like the word mining. Cost Of Mining DigiByte DGB. ' Instead,, 'we're a technology company, but we're focused on bitcoin now. Our vision in the next three to five years is to move into different areas where computing power is valuable. We plan to expand into other fields of knowledge where humanity needs a lot of computing power.'