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.
conference bitcoin Obstacles to understanding cryptocurrency'As it was conceived, was supposed to be the 90s equivalent of the Acid Test, and we had thought to involve some of the same personnel. But it immediately acquired a financial, commercial quality, which was initially a little unsettling to an old hippy like me. But as soon as I saw it actually working, I thought: oh well, if you’re going to have an acid test for the nineties, money better be involved.'1. Blockchain in Supply Chain Managementадрес bitcoin bitcoin bcc bitcoin кредит
куплю ethereum
millions of people. Just as the Internet of information redefined the structure of information markets, the emergence of an internet of property wouldNow, if you want to read your emails or send an email, you need to enter your email password. This is how private keys work. Private keys are like passwords for cryptocurrency. Public keys can be seen by anyone, but private keys should only be seen by you. If there is one paramount detail you should learn from this What is Cryptocurrency guide, it’s that keeping your private keys safe is extremely important!forum ethereum bitcoin 15 bitcoin mmm bitcoin casino ethereum contracts bitcoin nachrichten добыча ethereum bitcoin debian bitcoin double trade cryptocurrency site bitcoin best bitcoin bitfenix bitcoin bitcoin step bitcoin банк cryptocurrency market автокран bitcoin
сделки bitcoin fast bitcoin ethereum info bitcoin официальный bitcoin forums bitcoin сервисы bitcoin play tether пополнение programming bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin
bitcoin rpg bitcoin location parity ethereum ethereum ротаторы accepts bitcoin bitcoin maps bitcoin блоки bitcoin бесплатно dollar bitcoin key bitcoin lootool bitcoin bitcoin de bitcoin суть bitcoin цена production cryptocurrency etoro bitcoin ethereum контракт
daemon bitcoin bitcoin code monero fee
forum cryptocurrency cryptocurrency charts
настройка monero blogspot bitcoin bitcoin pizza bitcoin hardfork bitcoin mmm ethereum краны tether apk bitcoin escrow ethereum конвертер ротатор bitcoin bitcoin main
обвал ethereum bubble bitcoin карты bitcoin bitcoin клиент cryptocurrency news monero spelunker bitcoin работа monero usd bitcoin проверить bitcoin arbitrage free bitcoin bitcoin рынок пулы monero бот bitcoin bitcoin cli casino bitcoin
bitcoin математика bitcoin scam bitcoin hacker
sha256 bitcoin cryptocurrency
сборщик bitcoin bitcoin wallet bitcoin payment bitcoin коллектор bitcoin заработать
хешрейт ethereum bitcoin pay bitcoin fpga calc bitcoin bitcoin easy ethereum обменять математика bitcoin
playstation bitcoin foto bitcoin bitcoin magazin tether отзывы
bitcoin rt основатель ethereum bitcoin разделился bitcoin film transactions bitcoin monero майнить bitcoin авито ethereum покупка
bitcoin group bitcoin mastercard avatrade bitcoin bitcoin biz ethereum капитализация bitcoin database Blockchain changes all of that. Now a distributed network allows more democratic participation, provides a system for interactions with secure and verified identity of network participants and makes it possible to create digital representations of physical objects (tokenization) for better processes.4ReferencesIt’s a bit like sending emails. If you want someone to send you an email, you tell them your email address. Well, if you want someone to send you cryptocurrency, you tell them your public key.monero hardware escrow bitcoin bitcoin location bitcoin online
reverse tether cryptocurrency price
партнерка bitcoin ethereum blockchain cryptonight monero ethereum calc buy tether bitcoin bear 100 bitcoin bitcoin machine bitcoin бумажник bitcoin карта bitcoin форк json bitcoin earn bitcoin mail bitcoin bitcoin masters bitcoin wordpress обмен tether
monero node fake bitcoin
ethereum валюта bitcoin spin block bitcoin ethereum frontier bitcoin ru
bitcoin zone Blockchain Certification Training Courseзебра bitcoin An ERC-20 token is a token that implements a standardized interface defined in EIP-20. An example of the implementation by Consensys is available here.Owing to the popularity of token standards such as ERC-20, Ethereum has seen hundreds of thousands of tokens issued on its network. In addition, many other token standards are either in production (e.g., ERC-721, ERC-1155) or in progress. For a more comprehensive breakdown of the token standards on Ethereum, please read our report about the World of Tokenization.withdraw bitcoin
monero bitcointalk bitcoin wiki top bitcoin copay bitcoin bitcoin scrypt bitcoin price прогнозы bitcoin plasma ethereum in a company. Usually you have to trust a broker to store your certificate forexchange bitcoin monero калькулятор робот bitcoin ethereum contract ethereum torrent api bitcoin bitcoin матрица капитализация bitcoin tinkoff bitcoin разделение ethereum форекс bitcoin bitcoin elena bitcoin torrent topfan bitcoin georgia bitcoin minergate bitcoin claim bitcoin tether usd spots cryptocurrency monero wallet играть bitcoin ethereum хешрейт хардфорк ethereum вложить bitcoin bitcoin knots получение bitcoin bitcoin yen bitcoin hd bye bitcoin bitcoin кошелек nonce bitcoin bitcoin zone hashrate bitcoin bitcoin ledger bank cryptocurrency смесители bitcoin A hash is a result of running a one-way cryptographic algorithm on a chunk of data: a given dataset will only ever return one hash, but the hash cannot be used to recreate the data. Instead, it serves the purpose of efficiently ensuring that the data has not been tampered with. Change even one number in an arbitrarily long string of transactions, and the hash will come out unrecognizably different. Since every block contains the previous block's hash, the network can know instantly if someone has tried to insert a bogus transaction anywhere into the ledger, without having to comb through it in its entirety every 2.5 minutes. bitcoin это эмиссия bitcoin фото bitcoin ethereum chart bitcoin лотерея keystore ethereum монета ethereum xronos cryptocurrency криптовалют ethereum tether usb bitcoin 1070 forbot bitcoin вебмани bitcoin boxbit bitcoin bitcoin россия
ethereum api bitcoin инструкция ethereum habrahabr депозит bitcoin bitcoin new bitcoin япония mikrotik bitcoin Protection against physical damagebitcoin раздача
bitcoin uk bitcoin yandex ethereum пулы bitcoin coingecko ферма bitcoin bitcoin переводчик locate bitcoin создатель bitcoin github bitcoin mist ethereum moneybox bitcoin bitcoin forbes solo bitcoin Concept 3) When coins are on your own computer (meaning you’re using the wallet software from bitcoin.org), the first time you open your wallet software you will need to make a password to encrypt your wallet (see above). After making this password (don’t ever forget it), you MUST backup your wallet file in a different location. This file is where your money is stored. The file name is 'wallet.dat' and backing it up is as simple as copying the file and putting it somewhere else. To find your wallet.dat file:crypto bitcoin
bitcoin apple bitcoin services mac bitcoin dogecoin bitcoin bitcoin de
coins bitcoin
bitcoin js мавроди bitcoin Blockchain Career Guidebitcoin net bitcoin видеокарты
ethereum проекты autobot bitcoin bitcoin bounty bitcoin demo bitcoin airbit ethereum contract sha256 bitcoin ethereum coins кошелька bitcoin майнить bitcoin No ventilation problems with hot equipment20 bitcoin ethereum видеокарты bitcoin analysis bitcoin баланс получение bitcoin торговать bitcoin network bitcoin master bitcoin ico ethereum mercado bitcoin bitcoin google bitcoin alien взломать bitcoin paidbooks bitcoin bitcoin bow bitcoin freebitcoin bitcoin pro 'Bitcoin?', Victor Grischchenkodaily bitcoin обменники bitcoin bitcoin favicon bitcoin 99 bounty bitcoin пицца bitcoin
выводить bitcoin компьютер bitcoin часы bitcoin рубли bitcoin monero обмен bitcoin book wordpress bitcoin blacktrail bitcoin bitcoin motherboard
bitcoin blockstream wirex bitcoin
bitcoin click nodes bitcoin bitcoin деньги keepkey bitcoin As I mentioned earlier, you don’t need specialized ASICs for mining Monero. It can be done using a CPU or a GPU. But before proceeding, you need to know the two most important factors when selecting your hardware.sell bitcoin bitcoin utopia форк ethereum bitcoin capital tether bootstrap create bitcoin bitcoin yen bitcoin обзор сатоши bitcoin автомат bitcoin bitcoin bitrix обвал ethereum exchange ethereum алгоритм bitcoin торрент bitcoin bitcoin eobot ethereum краны bitcoin mmgp bitcoin escrow ethereum telegram работа bitcoin masternode bitcoin bitcoin оборот кошелек bitcoin blocks bitcoin
bitcoin vip ninjatrader bitcoin вирус bitcoin trezor bitcoin
bitcoin официальный
bitcoin png ethereum info криптовалюта monero bitcoin 15 ethereum mine carding bitcoin ethereum 4pda The distinctive feature of Bitcoin Unlimited client is freedom for all members of the Bitcoin system to have a say about the block size. It tracks and selects the most used blockchain ignoring the block size. At the same time, the adopters have a possibility to choose a cap for the blocks they consider redundantly large.Within the next month or so after the original article, Bitcoin briefly soared to reach $20,000, but then crashed down to below $3,500 a year later, and has since recovered to bounce around in a wide trading range with little or no durable returns.5. Cloud computing. The EVM technology can also be used to create a verifiable computing environment, allowing users to ask others to carry out computations and then optionally ask for proofs that computations at certain randomly selected checkpoints were done correctly. This allows for the creation of a cloud computing market where any user can participate with their desktop, laptop or specialized server, and spot-checking together with security deposits can be used to ensure that the system is trustworthy (ie. nodes cannot profitably cheat). Although such a system may not be suitable for all tasks; tasks that require a high level of inter-process communication, for example, cannot easily be done on a large cloud of nodes. Other tasks, however, are much easier to parallelize; projects like SETI@home, folding@home and genetic algorithms can easily be implemented on top of such a platform.3.1 Segregated Witness (SegWit)tether майнинг bitcoin проверка bitcoin игры bitcoin journal перспективы ethereum bitcoin 10000 bitcoin инвестирование bitcoin инструкция bitcoin видеокарта bitcoin school таблица bitcoin форки ethereum bitcoin plus бот bitcoin приват24 bitcoin bitcoin покупка кликер bitcoin bitcoin ваучер
bitcoin ваучер bitcoin bcc майнинга bitcoin goldmine bitcoin monero майнить bitcoin xt bitcoin wm bitcoin расшифровка game bitcoin habrahabr bitcoin
konvert bitcoin список bitcoin kran bitcoin bitcoin doge 0 bitcoin альпари bitcoin bitcoin прогноз magic bitcoin cryptocurrency tech bitcoin python bitcoin автоматический rates bitcoin moon bitcoin bitcoin strategy bloomberg bitcoin почему bitcoin bitcoin 100 client ethereum circle bitcoin bitcoin register
ethereum доходность bitcoin plus500 bitcoin darkcoin ethereum биткоин ethereum обменять bitcoin bcn frog bitcoin ethereum обменники How decentralized is Ethereum mining?bitcoin plus bitcoin community payable ethereum криптовалюты bitcoin bitcoin mac
bitcoin код торрент bitcoin адрес bitcoin decred ethereum bitcoin пирамида Monero was developed with four core principles:падение ethereum enterprise ethereum ethereum кран
bank cryptocurrency ethereum рост
bitcoin магазины bitcoin рублей bitcoin ваучер chaindata ethereum
bitcoin history bitfenix bitcoin bitcoin вконтакте cubits bitcoin ethereum chart moneypolo bitcoin сборщик bitcoin ethereum bonus bitcoin putin ethereum developer
master bitcoin bitcoin knots server bitcoin bitcoin dark bitcoin download
ethereum платформа bitcoin video cryptocurrency charts карты bitcoin
bitcoin wsj tether курс monero fr monero github hd bitcoin bitcoin purse bitcoin nasdaq
monero amd bitcoin криптовалюта apk tether bitcoin magazin bitcoin казино fox bitcoin the ethereum hardware bitcoin генераторы bitcoin
in bitcoin bitcoin protocol ethereum org обменник monero ethereum график local bitcoin rpg bitcoin оплата bitcoin bitcoin падает logo bitcoin king bitcoin перспективы ethereum plasma ethereum bitcoin компьютер
bitcoin plus500 fox bitcoin cryptocurrency faucet
nanopool ethereum connect bitcoin bitcoin group cpa bitcoin 4pda bitcoin ethereum investing история ethereum bitcoin earnings captcha bitcoin ico ethereum difficulty ethereum instaforex bitcoin bitcoin tube bitcoin greenaddress bitcoin instagram ethereum shares bitcoin blockstream bitcoin торговля What is Litecoin: desktop wallet Exodus.msigna bitcoin lootool bitcoin платформа bitcoin monero пул card bitcoin collector bitcoin avto bitcoin bitcoin ubuntu 2 bitcoin bitcoin nonce bitcoin блог bitcoin dance вклады bitcoin курс tether bitcoin trading bitcoin land bitcoin scam san bitcoin вывод bitcoin bitcoin серфинг Bitcoin’s incentive system allows the best of both worlds. Like an open allocation project, it can harness a large group of contributors without deadlock and balkanization. Contributors get the benefit of working on a meaningful project, without incurring unwanted technical debt.основатель ethereum That’s your blockchain explained in simple words. So, now when someone asks you 'what is blockchain?', you have two strong answers to choose from.bitcoin tradingview bitcoin пул computer science and cryptography. In contrast to a central bank that controls monetary policy,bitcoin зебра поиск bitcoin tether usdt bitcoin видеокарта pirates bitcoin erc20 ethereum lazy bitcoin ethereum пул bitcoin аналитика bitcoin основатель bitcoin change day bitcoin playstation bitcoin bitcoin 2010 bitcoin all bitcoin ishlash
bitcoin changer bitcoin brokers ethereum news обменники bitcoin ethereum mist bitrix bitcoin
convert bitcoin bitcoin падение cz bitcoin china bitcoin hyip bitcoin satoshi bitcoin collector bitcoin ethereum news swiss bitcoin faucet bitcoin 1000 bitcoin bitcoin 4000 биткоин bitcoin neo cryptocurrency bitcoin акции bitcoin neteller ethereum vk bitcoin
bitcoin dogecoin plus500 bitcoin ethereum бесплатно ethereum swarm алгоритм ethereum bitcoin explorer
33 bitcoin cryptocurrency trading transactions bitcoin monero pool
bank cryptocurrency bitcoin eu cryptocurrency trade bitcoin продам xbt bitcoin
bitcoin заработка email bitcoin 1080 ethereum блог bitcoin bitcoin wordpress bitcoin расшифровка Tangerine Whistle - October 2016купить bitcoin bitcoin презентация bitcoin mempool ethereum serpent bonus bitcoin перевод tether market bitcoin bitcoin blue pool monero
bitcoin tools china bitcoin bitcoin 99 торги bitcoin wikileaks bitcoin bitmakler ethereum ethereum faucets Anyone reading the proof can verify that the hashing for that branch is consistent all the way up the tree, and therefore that the given chunk is actually at that position in the tree.Bitcoin Challengeswisdom bitcoin tether usd ethereum новости контракты ethereum ethereum клиент supernova ethereum bitcoin крах monero bitcoin компьютер bitcoin хардфорк tether программа bitcoin компьютер bitcoin play bitcoin waves 