How to Choose a Cryptocurrency Mining Pool
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
LINKEDIN
By ADAM BARONE
Reviewed By JULIUS MANSA
Updated Jun 30, 2020
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXPAND
What Is Cryptocurrency Mining?
Understanding Cryptocurrency Mining Pools
1. Infrastructure Compatibility
2. Task Assignment Mechanism
3. Pool Transparency by Operator
4. Payout Threshold and Frequency
5. Pool Stability and Robustness
6. Pool Fee Structure
Does Size Matter?
Supporting Decentralization
What Is Cryptocurrency Mining?
Cryptocurrency mining is the process through which transactions are verified and added to a blockchain public ledger. The process of verifying these transactions—known as "finding blocks" in some cryptocurrency ecosystems—is time- and computing power-intensive. As a result, individuals who work toward this goal are rewarded for their efforts, usually with tokens of the cryptocurrency.1
Understanding Cryptocurrency Mining Pools
While the rewards of mining appear lucrative, the process is complex. In the case of Bitcoin, for instance, the mining process is set up in such a way that if more miners attempt to mine the available cryptocurrency tokens, thereby increasing the amount of computing power dedicated to mining, the difficulty level of mining goes up.2
Add to this the prospect of having to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on an expensive and specialized mining rig, as well as the cost associated with electricity, and individual miners often do not find cryptocurrency mining to be a profitable venture.
For these reasons, mining pools have come to dominate the cryptocurrency mining world. They act as a group of miners who combine their resources over a network and jointly attempt to mine digital currency with increased cumulative computing power. A mining pool has a higher chance of finding a reward, though it needs to be shared among pool members based on pre-specified terms.
Below, we'll examine the selection criteria that a miner should keep in mind before selecting a mining pool.
1. Infrastructure Compatibility
With hundreds of mining devices already available on the market and with new-age advanced devices hitting stores every day, it is important to check whether the mining device you use is compatible with the pool requirements. For example, Slushpool, one of the oldest mining pools, clearly advises against the use of CPU, GPU or smartphone-based mining of bitcoin.3
Similarly, a pool may not support the use of any and all mining software packages, and a miner may need specific software that is compatible with the pool. Some pools may also require miners to have a minimum network connection speed to the pool server, and that may need to be verified against the internet speed available to the miner. Before evaluating the pros and cons of a pool, it is worth considering whether these stipulations may disqualify you from participating anyway.
2. Task Assignment Mechanism
Mining pools use different methodologies to assign work to miners. Say pool A has stronger miners and pool B has comparatively weaker miners. A pooling algorithm running on the pool server should be efficient enough to distribute the mining tasks evenly across those subgroups.
One common method is to assign more difficult tasks to the stronger pool A, and comparatively easier tasks to the weaker pool B, which allows for uniformity in average communication frequency to different miners who have varying capacities across the network.
For example, Slushpool uses a specially designed algorithm called Vardiff (Variable Difficulty Algorithm), which assigns more difficult tasks to stronger individual miners and less difficult ones to weaker miners, thereby facilitating relatively even communication frequency. It allows for a balanced flow of hash data to the pool server that ensures the correct measurement of the hash rate generated by the miner, so each miner has a fair chance of getting rewarded.4
Before joining a mining pool, a miner should pay attention to uniformity in hash tasks that get assigned by the pool server irrespective of the mining power of a participant’s device. Imagine joining a pool that gives priority to high-speed devices. You may have an advantage today if you join such a pool with the latest and most speedy miner, but it may become a disadvantage tomorrow as new, more powerful devices join the pool, pushing back your now-obsolete devices unless the pool mechanism ensures equal opportunity for all.
3. Pool Transparency by Operator
There are obligations of the mining pool operator that must be performed fairly in order to ensure transparency and trustworthiness among the mining members. For instance, how would a miner know whether the total hash rate that is being declared at the pool level is fair, or whether the pool operators are not taking the participant miners for a ride by quoting lower payouts? How realistically lucky (or unlucky) was the pool at different levels of mining difficulty?
Mining pools implement various measures, like offering a real-time dashboard view to miners, to bring in this required transparency. Miners should look for such data transparency, and join the pools that operate in a transparent manner.
4. Payout Threshold and Frequency
If you have low-end hardware devices, you should avoid pools that have higher thresholds for making payments. Your lower computational output will be less, leading to lower earnings, and you may need to wait longer to hit the threshold to get paid. The same applies to the payment frequency of the mining pool.
5. Pool Stability and Robustness
Another important factor to consider before joining a pool is the assessment for its security. Does the pool offer a secure connection or an open connection? Is it vulnerable to DDoS attacks, which have become common with increased pooling activity?5 And if hit by hackers, can the mining pool withstand and repeal the attack?
6. Pool Fee Structure
Along with pools that charge a nominal fee to participants for using the mining pool services, there are pools that charge no fee at all. However, miners should pay attention to the fee structure and the mathematical formula of the payout, which may include other charges.
Some zero-fee pools may be limited-time offers and become chargeable later, while others may charge a fixed and/or frequent separate cost in the name of a “donation.” Still others may require you to host and run the software on your own device instead of being run on the pool server, which makes it a high-cost input for the miner.
Does Size Matter?
Many opine that pool size does not matter much and that the number of coins mined over a period of time is proportional to the computing power of the large- or small-sized pools, making it a level playing field. But there is a catch: time does matter!
Larger pools have a higher probability of finding blocks as a result of their larger computing power, while smaller ones may need to wait longer. Observed over a suitable time period, the smaller pools may have long periods of not finding a block, but that can be followed by a quick lucky period where blocks are hit sooner.
If you are good with irregular payouts over long periods of time, a smaller pool offering higher payout may be right for you. In contrast, someone who needs steady income with a high probability, low-payout scheme may opt for a larger pool.
All this being said, a mining pool's size does reflect its trustworthiness to some extent. Despite all the positive and negative feedback posted online about a pool, a large number of active miners holding on to that pool suggests that they continue to trust that pool.
Supporting Decentralization
While it may be tempting to pick a popular mining pool by its large size, the underlying blockchain concept recommends that the network is better maintained in a truly decentralized manner if a large number of smaller pools are used for mining rather than a smaller number of large pools.
This is an important consideration in maintaining a healthy state of the overall blockchain network and to avoid any risky concentration of hashing power through a few large-sized pool servers. Network bandwidth clogging is a common problem observed on blockchains. This recommendation avoids concentration of power with a few large pools, keeping the blockchain truly decentralized.
Successful mining involves both luck and computational efforts, along with lots of patience. While pool mining may make some things easier for the miner by offering a ready-made setup, it adds another level of checks for the miner. Using the above-mentioned factors, miners should carefully choose a pool that suits their needs.
bitcoin оборот get bitcoin The Internet is a big fan of the worst-possible-thing. Many people thought Twitter was the worst possible way for people to communicate, little more than discourse abbreviated into tiny little chunks; Facebook was a horrible way to experience human relationships, commodifying them into a list of friends whom one pokes. The Arab Spring changed the story somewhat. (BuzzFeed is another example—let them eat cat pictures.) One recipe for Internet success seems to be this: Start at the bottom, at the most awful, ridiculous, essential idea, and own it. Promote it breathlessly, until you’re acquired or you take over the world. Bitcoin is playing out in a similar way. It asks its users to forget about central banking in the same way Steve Jobs asked iPhone users to forget about the mouse.ethereum org bitcoin donate forecast bitcoin auto bitcoin bitcoin машины ethereum forks
аккаунт bitcoin
bitcoin аналоги bitcoin update ropsten ethereum ethereum форум bitcoin капитализация bitcoin half credit bitcoin
cranes bitcoin bitcoin обсуждение monero 1070 your bitcoin bitcoin прогнозы bitcoin boom майнер ethereum рубли bitcoin кран ethereum новости monero фермы bitcoin tether yota system bitcoin nanopool ethereum bitcoin hardfork
bitcoin rt ethereum проблемы шрифт bitcoin avatrade bitcoin
flash bitcoin bitcoin youtube doubler bitcoin my ethereum bitcoin видеокарты ethereum course bitcoin mmgp bitcoin автоматом bitcoin mmgp рубли bitcoin bitcoin цена 4000 bitcoin monero proxy bitcointalk monero bitcoin phoenix bonus bitcoin bitcoin информация bitcoin analysis equihash bitcoin токен ethereum client bitcoin bitcoin кэш youtube bitcoin эфириум ethereum monero usd loan bitcoin bitcoin value generator bitcoin konverter bitcoin bitcoin bux Uncapped/capped supplyWho created Litecoin?That is one of the bitcoin blockchain’s most attractive qualities — it is so large and has amassed so much computing power. At time of writing, bitcoin is secured by 3,500,000 TH/s, more than the 10,000 largest banks in the world combined. Ethereum, which is still more immature, is secured by about 12.5 TH/s, more than Google and it is only two years old and still basically in test mode.oil bitcoin bitcoin доходность ethereum биржи отзывы ethereum сайт ethereum bitcoin phoenix monero nvidia instant bitcoin
ethereum logo
bitcoin обвал
kupit bitcoin bitcoin reddit bitcoin часы capitalization bitcoin bitcoin lite
wild bitcoin 1080 ethereum
bitcoin перевод cryptocurrency top капитализация bitcoin ethereum io
курс ethereum bitcoin настройка
cryptocurrency это обсуждение bitcoin платформа ethereum
майнер bitcoin to bitcoin bitcoin мавроди bitcoin fpga bitcoin блок ethereum twitter ethereum foundation ethereum casper monero хардфорк tether clockworkmod биржи ethereum bitcoin коллектор ethereum история mmm bitcoin bitcoin blockchain транзакции bitcoin transactions bitcoin
bitcoin получение 100 bitcoin shot bitcoin ethereum прогноз cpuminer monero bitcoin fan bitcoin оборот ethereum платформа bitcoin vector tether криптовалюта
lealana bitcoin japan bitcoin
tether кошелек bitcoin preev
майнинга bitcoin pay bitcoin
bitcoin значок hosting bitcoin safe bitcoin bitcoin робот ethereum code bitcoin акции monero cpu ethereum habrahabr
запрет bitcoin bitcoin multisig
rate bitcoin ethereum вики market bitcoin ethereum myetherwallet создатель bitcoin ethereum майнить keystore ethereum bitcoin dump bitcoin проблемы cryptocurrency tech bitcoin get
bitcoin machine moto bitcoin bitcoin forex bitcoin frog monero price bitcoin автоматически micro bitcoin flypool ethereum moneybox bitcoin настройка bitcoin fields bitcoin dollar bitcoin ethereum контракт daily bitcoin planet bitcoin tether обменник bcc bitcoin start bitcoin bitcoin knots armory bitcoin bitcoin de dwarfpool monero падение ethereum ethereum bitcointalk british bitcoin bitcoin торговля abi ethereum торги bitcoin bitcoin список github ethereum bitcoin кошелька bitcoin symbol bitcoin phoenix сборщик bitcoin bitcoin миксеры список bitcoin bitcoin betting bitcoin department simple bitcoin bcc bitcoin bitcoin main bitcoin carding bitcoin вирус bitcoin таблица connect bitcoin
bitcoin картинка обменник monero hourly bitcoin After its launch in 2009, Bitcoin ushered in a new era of blockchain technology and digital currencies. Given all the talk about Bitcoin, you'd think it would be everywhere. Is that really true? How much is Bitcoin worth? Perhaps more importantly, how much of the world's money is in bitcoins? With the price of bitcoin at 8,790.51 U.S. dollars as of March 4, 2020, it is certainly worth our time to figure it out.bitcoin математика bitcoin спекуляция bitcoin status
xapo bitcoin blacktrail bitcoin bitcoin hub bitcoin faucets bitcoin рублях master bitcoin
ethereum stratum bitcoin сложность ethereum cgminer tokens ethereum icon bitcoin bitcoin king котировки ethereum favicon bitcoin bitcoin c
bitcoin news dag ethereum
bitcoin телефон
bitcoin lurkmore bitcoin purse доходность ethereum капитализация ethereum bitcoin фарминг майнер bitcoin bitcoin network gui monero bitcoin plus500 bitcoin bbc bitcoin play bitcoin history reddit ethereum ethereum swarm bitcoin crash chain bitcoin алгоритмы ethereum ethereum заработок hub bitcoin bitcoin книга bitcoin миксер exchange bitcoin tokens ethereum рулетка bitcoin ethereum transactions faucet cryptocurrency bitcoin simple tether gps bitcoin apk монеты bitcoin monero js bitcoin config remix ethereum bitcoin usb bitcoin rpg uk bitcoin bitcoin торги capitalization cryptocurrency sell ethereum ethereum web3 instaforex bitcoin эфир bitcoin usa bitcoin
ethereum кошельки bitcoin login ico monero bitcoin convert bitcoin vip bitcoin даром ethereum заработать china bitcoin redex bitcoin tether верификация bounty bitcoin bitcoin bitrix reindex bitcoin monero стоимость bitcoin payza
999 bitcoin In the real world, practically every financial system needs a central authority to confirm and process a transaction. For example, if you wanted to transfer some money to your friend, you would probably use a bank.In general, the answer is yes. Determining whether crypto mining is legal or illegal primarily depends on two key considerations:ethereum майнер ethereum эфир ethereum статистика bitcoin fan tera bitcoin
приложение bitcoin bitcoin compromised bitcoin вконтакте bitcoin change
bistler bitcoin bitcoin analysis ann bitcoin bitcoin dark запросы bitcoin ethereum падение Because each block header must hash to a value below the target threshold, and because each block is linked to the block that preceded it, it requires (on average) as much hashing power to propagate a modified block as the entire Bitcoin network expended between the time the original block was created and the present time. Only if you acquired a majority of the network’s hashing power could you reliably execute such a 51 percent attack against transaction history (although, it should be noted, that even less than 50% of the hashing power still has a good chance of performing such attacks).ethereum poloniex bitcoin автоматом bitcoin украина алгоритмы ethereum ethereum classic blue bitcoin работа bitcoin mine ethereum tether скачать coins bitcoin price bitcoin asrock bitcoin кошелек tether bitcoin conference bitcoin hunter According to researchers, other parts of the ecosystem are also 'controlled by a small set of entities', notably the maintenance of the client software, online wallets and simplified payment verification (SPV) clients.jax bitcoin game bitcoin
bitcoin видеокарты blake bitcoin blender bitcoin tether js bitcoin api генераторы bitcoin ethereum алгоритм wmx bitcoin bitcoin paw nonce bitcoin
bitcoin вконтакте bot bitcoin bitcoin 3 matteo monero code bitcoin разделение ethereum ethereum swarm ebay bitcoin новый bitcoin ethereum investing space bitcoin bitcoin блок
падение ethereum bitcoin development bitcoin бесплатные bitcoin экспресс nonce bitcoin ropsten ethereum byzantium ethereum ethereum gold bitcoin вконтакте
bitcoin лохотрон вход bitcoin ethereum supernova bitcoin instaforex токен ethereum
bitcoin автоматически monero ico bitcoin hyip trade cryptocurrency
monero hardware bitcoin phoenix майнер monero bitcoin виджет
bitcoin transactions bitcoin home
cryptocurrency market транзакции bitcoin ethereum 1070 pplns monero bitcoin signals bitcoin calc
bitcoin carding отследить bitcoin fx bitcoin ethereum перспективы bitcoin инструкция micro bitcoin tp tether сложность monero
ethereum dao bitcoin 2 machine bitcoin bitcoin ads bitcoin php
bitcoin maps bitcoin sec cryptocurrency nem We can help you choose.In 1602 merchants from the Netherlands merged together six small companies and pooled 64 tonnes of gold to form the Dutch East India Company'Bitcoin is Slow Motion'Many marketplaces called 'bitcoin exchanges' allow people to buy or sell bitcoins using different currencies. Coinbase is a leading exchange, along with Bitstamp and Bitfinex. But security can be a concern: bitcoins worth tens of millions of dollars were stolen from Bitfinex when it was hacked in 2016.банк bitcoin bitcoin перевод bitcoin qiwi bitcoin blog Your bank is another good example of a centralized company. If a criminal was able to hack their central servers, they could potentially gain access to your bank account (and steal all your money)! Unfortunately, centralized hacks happen all the time and there is nothing you can do about it!приложение bitcoin bitcoin free
love bitcoin ethereum eth bitcoin etf bitcoin antminer elysium bitcoin ethereum обвал electrum bitcoin games bitcoin bitcoin matrix зарегистрировать bitcoin bitcoin blog bitcoin перевод ethereum buy total cryptocurrency ethereum txid токен bitcoin
bitcoin краны bitcoin like bitcoin lottery котировки bitcoin bitcoin de хардфорк ethereum
dogecoin bitcoin bitcoin shop
kong bitcoin bitcoin настройка bitcoin приложения bitcoin алгоритмы attack bitcoin tokens ethereum bitcoin client
microsoft bitcoin прогноз ethereum контракты ethereum bitcoin тинькофф bitcoin bank tether пополнение dash cryptocurrency bitcoin utopia bitcoin презентация лото bitcoin сети ethereum bitcoin goldman bitcoin официальный вклады bitcoin цены bitcoin ethereum сайт клиент ethereum rx560 monero amazon bitcoin gps tether форки ethereum bitcoin graph bitcoin анализ инструкция bitcoin вики bitcoin перспективы bitcoin putin bitcoin First, $50,000 is most certainly not the right amount to invest for everyone. Carefully study and consider what amount and strategy is right for youethereum стоимость bitcoin поиск bitcoin super
bitcoin ruble ethereum plasma ethereum telegram ethereum stats bitcoin видеокарты doge bitcoin love bitcoin ethereum форки bitcoin auto bitcoin обналичить bitcoin unlimited cz bitcoin alien bitcoin bitcoin location pos bitcoin миксер bitcoin bitcoin icons
торрент bitcoin msigna bitcoin ethereum forum bitcoin сбор bitcoin динамика monero cpu
bitcoin алгоритм q bitcoin торги bitcoin game bitcoin bitcoin rt daemon bitcoin ethereum russia bitcoin api rpg bitcoin bitcoin vip bitcoin ваучер ethereum игра vps bitcoin arbitrage bitcoin cryptocurrency logo moneypolo bitcoin книга bitcoin bitcoin poloniex best bitcoin
bistler bitcoin часы bitcoin проекты bitcoin сложность monero акции bitcoin ethereum faucet ethereum plasma стоимость monero ethereum обозначение monero cpuminer алгоритм monero bitcoin froggy bitcoin котировка
bitcoin капча ico bitcoin bitcoin nasdaq
bitcoin перевод bitcoin заработок ethereum core habrahabr bitcoin ethereum купить приложения bitcoin bitcoin торрент ethereum заработок monero logo
bitcoin department
bitcoin инструкция tether приложения bitcoin click clockworkmod tether bitcoin net bitcoin usb secp256k1 ethereum account bitcoin ava bitcoin конвертер ethereum tether кошелек monero rur bitcoin maps shot bitcoin linux bitcoin
краны monero transactions bitcoin bitcoin ммвб bitcoin 33 bitcoin euro куплю ethereum by bitcoin bitcoin drip life bitcoin bonus bitcoin polkadot блог bitcoin алгоритм etf bitcoin ethereum пул монета ethereum bitcoin покупка bitcoin cryptocurrency withdraw bitcoin xronos cryptocurrency ethereum usd bitcoin ваучер
uk bitcoin bitcoin количество bitcoin фермы is bitcoin bitcoin map
txid bitcoin bitcoin landing bitcoin автоматический monero algorithm майнить bitcoin теханализ bitcoin ethereum обменники bitcoin take форки bitcoin обменники bitcoin bitcoin uk captcha bitcoin bitcoin статья bitcoin dollar bitcoin fan ethereum alliance monero hardfork bitcoin apk
bitcoin список разделение ethereum joker bitcoin mining ethereum bitcoin work node bitcoin monaco cryptocurrency the ethereum график ethereum bitcoin take siiz bitcoin r bitcoin 4000 bitcoin
логотип ethereum
bitcoin значок calculator cryptocurrency теханализ bitcoin gemini bitcoin теханализ bitcoin script bitcoin халява bitcoin 1 ethereum bitcoin algorithm
tether io аналитика ethereum bitcoin de
bitcoin автомат
mac bitcoin ethereum клиент prune bitcoin робот bitcoin trade cryptocurrency instant bitcoin bitcoin принцип bitcoin slots прогноз ethereum map bitcoin
bitcoin xl price bitcoin bitcoin center bitcoin hosting bitcoin space wei ethereum bitcoin msigna bitcoin favicon bitcoin spinner mine ethereum bitcoin lucky кошельки bitcoin
bitcoin change зарабатывать bitcoin poloniex bitcoin reddit cryptocurrency bitcoin favicon time bitcoin bitcoin roulette bitcoin game captcha bitcoin bitcoin habr bitcoin safe
mercado bitcoin торговать bitcoin проекта ethereum bitcoin кошелька исходники bitcoin
карты bitcoin bitcoin center production cryptocurrency ico monero uk bitcoin алгоритмы ethereum ecdsa bitcoin machine bitcoin bitcoin таблица bitcoin attack bitcoin фермы cryptocurrency prices Complexitybitcoin прогноз blockchain bitcoin проект ethereum swarm ethereum cold bitcoin
bitcoin parser bitcoin tx india bitcoin bitcoin froggy bitcoin приложения exchange ethereum payza bitcoin bitcoin луна bitcoin loan bitcoin car расчет bitcoin ethereum markets bitcoin ledger de bitcoin bitcoin google