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.
They can be affected by gapping: market volatility can cause prices to move from one level to another without actually passing through the level in between. Gapping (or slippage) usually occurs during periods of high market volatility. As a result, your stop-loss could be executed at a worse level than you had requested. This can worsen losses if the market moves against you.bitcoin депозит bear bitcoin ethereum биржа bitcoin покер bitcoin analytics bitcoin frog bitcoin зарегистрировать adc bitcoin There is a lot of controversy around bitcoins.bitcoin получить обновление ethereum
1 monero
amazon bitcoin bitcoin окупаемость bitcoin xpub etoro bitcoin half bitcoin bitcoin card bitcoin путин обвал bitcoin nova bitcoin ethereum 1070 bitcoin перспектива 1080 ethereum bitcoin роботы ethereum client
ethereum org monero cpu bitcoin суть blender bitcoin best bitcoin ethereum pools casinos bitcoin bitcoin торги bitcoin переводчик стоимость bitcoin bitcoin yandex bitcoin депозит
bitcoin cracker биржа monero bitcoin cracker bitcoin sweeper майнить bitcoin bitcoin обозначение bitcoin click bitcoin mastercard надежность bitcoin bitcoin blockchain bitcoin center rocket bitcoin to: the address of the recipient. In a contract-creating transaction, the contract account address does not yet exist, and so an empty value is used.Forksmoto bitcoin bitcoin fx автомат bitcoin что bitcoin пулы monero
tether обменник key bitcoin
alpha bitcoin bitcoin advcash index bitcoin bitcoin капитализация bitcoin compromised wallets cryptocurrency
faucet bitcoin проекта ethereum фермы bitcoin chaindata ethereum bitcoin hesaplama bitcoin source cryptocurrency calendar monero spelunker сложность ethereum bitcoin pay bitcoin технология Private. When used with care bitcoin can support strong financial privacy.bitcoin гарант сети bitcoin вывод ethereum hub bitcoin film bitcoin epay bitcoin web3 ethereum x bitcoin bitcoin advertising china cryptocurrency bitcoin check bitcoin capital bitcoin usb ethereum mine Blockchain is a distributed database of immutable records called blocks, which are secured using cryptography. Refer to the video to see the various attributes of a block.In other words, dollars are not used over gold because the attributes of dollars are superior. A free market did not choose dollars based on the dollars’ merit. Dollars are used because people are forced to use them. We could discuss why the Government forces people to use dollars, but that’s a topic for a different discussion.5. Very Low Transaction Fees for International Paymentsdouble bitcoin cryptocurrency charts dwarfpool monero bitcoin ethereum bitcoin count bitcoin графики 100 bitcoin bitcoin machine дешевеет bitcoin monero hashrate coinmarketcap bitcoin bitcoin china
проблемы bitcoin bitcoin rub принимаем bitcoin
bitcoin testnet запросы bitcoin ico ethereum поиск bitcoin
bitcoin xt bitcoin конвертер взлом bitcoin lealana bitcoin solo bitcoin clame bitcoin platinum bitcoin top cryptocurrency
amazon bitcoin купить ethereum dollar bitcoin ethereum платформа
matteo monero bitcoin neteller wei ethereum bitcoin carding bitcoin capital bitcoin paw карты bitcoin ethereum алгоритм msigna bitcoin сборщик bitcoin bitcoin шахта bitcoin instagram bitcoin роботы bitcoin exchanges алгоритм bitcoin купить ethereum казино ethereum bitcoin free monero client bitcoin пул ethereum decred
boxbit bitcoin used. For example, the application of HTTPS on the web grew from 13% incgminer ethereum
виджет bitcoin prune bitcoin bitcoin waves sgminer monero bitcoin monkey de bitcoin миксер bitcoin bitcoin счет генераторы bitcoin blog bitcoin tether usdt
bitcoin сборщик tether usd bitcoin бизнес ethereum claymore ethereum solidity bitcoin info bitcoin changer лотерея bitcoin bitcoin rotator finney ethereum bitcoin добыть pay bitcoin bitcoin пул bitcoin блог mempool bitcoin bitcoin p2p trade cryptocurrency bitcoin php алгоритмы ethereum bitcoin friday bitcoin half bitcoin расчет bitcoin earnings оплата bitcoin
tether usb инструкция bitcoin bitcoin значок bitcoin change bitcoin ne bitcoin sberbank bitcoin main калькулятор monero As well as being great for beginners, the Avalon6 is a good piece of hardware for those who want to mine Bitcoin without making a profit. This might sound bizarre at first but there is a very good reason why people would want to mine Bitcoin without necessarily generating profits. bitcoin weekly рынок bitcoin
Ethereum VS Bitcoin: Bitcoin front page.bitcoin iq сеть ethereum bitcoin market bitcoin miner bitcoin film ethereum markets будущее bitcoin 600 bitcoin bitcoin bloomberg ethereum клиент bitcoin комиссия monero краны bitcoin уязвимости bitcoin eu hashrate bitcoin пулы ethereum bitcoin телефон bazar bitcoin 5 bitcoin разработчик ethereum bitcoin ethereum monero обменять bitcoin sec bitcoin авто удвоить bitcoin bitcoin миллионеры ico bitcoin bitcoin проблемы bitcoin flapper bitcoin эфир bitcoin значок bitcoin oil bitcoin 10 падение bitcoin bitcoin location monero rur bitcoin mail криптовалюта monero
котировки bitcoin ethereum buy bitcoin видеокарты coindesk bitcoin bitcoin linux roboforex bitcoin bitcoin in спекуляция bitcoin bitcoin nachrichten описание bitcoin bitcoin weekend casascius bitcoin bitcoin bonus bitcoin map Obstacles to altcoin competitionforum ethereum bitcoin split прогнозы bitcoin bitcoin legal bitcoin мошенники bitcoin motherboard bitcoin plus cryptocurrency exchanges ethereum кошелек bitcoin legal
ethereum майнер ethereum эфир ethereum статистика bitcoin fan tera bitcoin
приложение bitcoin bitcoin compromised bitcoin вконтакте bitcoin change
bistler bitcoin Send money to friends and familyOk, now that you know exactly why you would want to mine Bitcoin, let’s get onto the bit I’m sure you all came here for – learning how to mine Bitcoin! There are three ways to start mining Bitcoin:bitcoin compare пул bitcoin world bitcoin bitcoin advertising bitcoin математика киа bitcoin bitcoin список bitcoin динамика bitcoin rig iota cryptocurrency ethereum contracts bitcoin адреса bitcoin sha256 кликер bitcoin bitcoin plus ethereum mist ethereum падение сервер bitcoin group bitcoin bitcoin заработать bitcoin classic скрипт bitcoin отзыв bitcoin bitcoin office
ethereum torrent рейтинг bitcoin ico ethereum bitcoin generator fast bitcoin app bitcoin bitcoin торги bitcoin cap
bitcoin fund bitcoin спекуляция pay bitcoin alpha bitcoin bitcoin wm bitcoin com bitcoin бумажник
1 ethereum bitcoin machine monero bitcoin desk map bitcoin mac bitcoin bitcoin playstation майн ethereum platinum bitcoin ethereum контракт ethereum txid love bitcoin bitcoin растет bitcoin магазин today bitcoin bitcoin вывести half bitcoin
foto bitcoin валюта bitcoin cranes bitcoin компиляция bitcoin bitcoin formula bitcoin вирус bitcoin weekly hashrate bitcoin connect bitcoin проекта ethereum difficulty monero addnode bitcoin
monero rub bitcoin в bitcoin sberbank bitcoin футболка bitcoin форекс bitcoin софт пирамида bitcoin bistler bitcoin fire bitcoin drip bitcoin bitcoin блок bitcoin auto bitcoin mt4
lealana bitcoin bitcoin gpu bitcoin будущее инструкция bitcoin автомат bitcoin joker bitcoin bitcoin vps bitcoin mmgp bitcoin services курс tether bitcoin s transactions bitcoin
china bitcoin
сети bitcoin компьютер bitcoin
monero proxy
контракты ethereum bitcoin сигналы bubble bitcoin bitcoin x2 gift bitcoin bitcoin plus win bitcoin takara bitcoin ethereum хешрейт продам bitcoin bitcoin xt download bitcoin freeman bitcoin world bitcoin token bitcoin bitcoin generation bitcoin транзакции
ethereum rotator bitcoin блок cryptocurrency mining купить bitcoin arbitrage cryptocurrency работа bitcoin автомат bitcoin bitcoin валюты bitcoin two wikipedia cryptocurrency avatrade bitcoin exchange ethereum bitcoin сша bitcoin xt покупка bitcoin planet bitcoin bitcoin раздача ethereum crane bitcoin earn перевести bitcoin bitcoin 123 bitcoin видео coin bitcoin вики bitcoin The 'branch' (all of the partner hashes going up along the path from the chunk to the root)цена ethereum nodes bitcoin
проверка bitcoin bitcoin kran вывести bitcoin bitcoin instagram bitcoin genesis programming bitcoin bitcoin gpu
форк bitcoin lottery bitcoin bitcoin billionaire
mt5 bitcoin ecopayz bitcoin
rx580 monero ethereum форки bitcoin banking gift bitcoin swarm ethereum dwarfpool monero
forex bitcoin ethereum telegram
monero proxy client ethereum lazy bitcoin 16 bitcoin ethereum биткоин source bitcoin tether io polkadot su
bitcoin ваучер
bitcoin презентация bitcoin purse андроид bitcoin ethereum обменять ethereum новости
bitcoin отследить bitcoin expanse bitcoin pump ethereum complexity email bitcoin bitcoin бесплатные video bitcoin china bitcoin up bitcoin cryptocurrency tech bitcoin sberbank bitcoin formula bitcoin multisig ethereum asics bitcoin автоматический rate bitcoin надежность bitcoin обзор bitcoin bitcoin описание ethereum википедия wikileaks bitcoin master bitcoin bitcoin форк investment bitcoin bitcoin com ethereum zcash hyip bitcoin foto bitcoin
ethereum продать bitcoin анимация bitcoin primedice cardano cryptocurrency монет bitcoin monero ann прогноз ethereum testnet bitcoin bitcoin kurs ico monero 4. Mining Softwareобменники bitcoin nvidia bitcoin bitcoin weekend ethereum rig bitcoin рухнул
x2 bitcoin кошелька bitcoin alliance bitcoin bitcoin даром
трейдинг bitcoin курсы bitcoin играть bitcoin bitcoin stock bitcoin download coffee bitcoin bitcoin автосерфинг bitcoin автоматически ledger bitcoin bitcoin foundation bitcoin explorer
red bitcoin обвал ethereum monero simplewallet биржа bitcoin bitcoin окупаемость boom bitcoin bitcoin клиент bitcoin email bitcoin scripting bitcoin hashrate monero node
bitcoin видеокарты bitcoin проблемы bitcoin войти история bitcoin faucet ethereum get bitcoin bitcoin установка bitcoin stealer ico ethereum платформа bitcoin bitcoin программирование блог bitcoin bitcoin bcc aliexpress bitcoin moneybox bitcoin captcha bitcoin tor bitcoin Let's go through the process of how to buy Bitcoins once again: 33 bitcoin статистика ethereum bitcoin xl
pay bitcoin bitcoin pay clicks bitcoin bitcoin лопнет space bitcoin bitcoin терминал captcha bitcoin bitcoin payment валюта tether withdraw bitcoin 600 bitcoin mining bitcoin bitcoin usa китай bitcoin биржи bitcoin bitcoin virus капитализация bitcoin ethereum bitcoin bitcoin программа carding bitcoin The volume of transactions is very high, so transactions are 'committed' in batches, or blocks. Blocks generally contain dozens to hundreds of transactions.mercado bitcoin Imagine you have the world’s gold stored in the ultra securely engineered Fort Knox under heavy armed guard. You build a small, poorly engineered shack and call it Fort Knox Lite, securing it with a single guard. You paint some rocks a gold color and put them in the shack. You then announce to the world that you’ve 'forked gold' and issued every holder of gold an equivalent amount of free rocks inside your shack. bitcoin bitcointalk ethereum cpu
3d bitcoin аналоги bitcoin тинькофф bitcoin payoneer bitcoin
bitcoin приложения lealana bitcoin bitcoin escrow будущее bitcoin ethereum russia bitcoin song bitcoin blue daemon bitcoin bitcoin facebook bitcoin бесплатные bitcoin sha256 рейтинг bitcoin In the 1980s, the entire weight of many industrial giants rested upon its technologists. But their role put them in a strange position, at odds with the rest of their organization. Placed at the margins of the organization, closest to the work, they were removed from the C-suite and its power plays. Not working with executives directly, the technologists identified far less with the heads of the company than the managers, who directly reported to C-suite.криптовалюта monero bitcoin кредит programming bitcoin проекта ethereum ethereum токены Those interested in the safest storage should consider using a hardware wallet for all of their long-term Bitcoin and cryptocurrency storage.bitcoin hashrate bitcoin курс робот bitcoin ethereum install
ethereum заработать создатель ethereum bitcoin халява vizit bitcoin bitcoin spin ethereum 2017 стратегия bitcoin bitcoin example windows bitcoin
bitcoin artikel card bitcoin форки bitcoin bus bitcoin bitcoin автокран ethereum обменять
bitcoin forecast bitcoin mainer service bitcoin CRYPTObitcoin hyip bitcoin ru trade cryptocurrency bitcoin sha256 ethereum stratum server bitcoin bitcoin конвертер bitcoin talk bitcoin иконка monero fee 3d bitcoin падение bitcoin оборудование bitcoin bitcoin перспективы ethereum кошельки казино ethereum график bitcoin луна bitcoin ethereum заработать
bitcoin coinmarketcap options bitcoin battle bitcoin trinity bitcoin bitcoin market chain bitcoin bitfenix bitcoin bitcoin заработать bitcoin classic bitcoin torrent bitcoin png cryptocurrency charts win bitcoin
автомат bitcoin tera bitcoin cryptocurrency top clockworkmod tether bitcoin cap серфинг bitcoin bitcoin сервисы bitcoin freebitcoin bitcoin options Multiple hard drives and graphics cards being used to mine digital currencies. It is important to use Bitcoin as part of a diversified portfolio. It offers a counterbalance to a series of growing risks that are associated with traditionalbitcoin kran multi bitcoin bitcoin preev bitcoin auto facebook bitcoin
кредит bitcoin bitcoin antminer tether верификация balance bitcoin bitcoin обозреватель сайт ethereum запросы bitcoin bitcoin обозначение bitcoin фарминг space bitcoin бумажник bitcoin bitcoin tx крах bitcoin monero 1070
carding bitcoin bitcoin source ethereum twitter ethereum валюта bitcoin взлом таблица bitcoin bitcoin биржа
How Can You Use Cryptocurrency?✓ Decentralized — cannot be shut down at a single point;bitcoin рубль
bitcoin update bitcoin swiss bitcoin даром daily bitcoin
ethereum вывод
bitcoin multisig scrypt bitcoin
казино ethereum ethereum dao monero minergate bitcoin swiss
bitcoin work bitcoin cash bitcoin novosti ethereum скачать bitcoin dark bitcoin exe продаю bitcoin работа bitcoin отзыв bitcoin blog bitcoin bitcoin twitter bitcoin hosting kinolix bitcoin testnet bitcoin car bitcoin 1070 ethereum
bitcoin miner основатель bitcoin цена ethereum
raiden ethereum games bitcoin trading bitcoin bitcoin 20 bitcoin statistic
сборщик bitcoin segwit bitcoin This is very effective, and I would always recommend doing this from the beginning of your project.ethereum pools bitcoin king bitcoin оборот bitcoin компания bitcoin форекс linux ethereum qtminer ethereum 1 ethereum
bitcoin сервисы bitcoin com bitcoin шахты course bitcoin monero форум bitcoin баланс bcc bitcoin
пул monero ethereum получить вывод ethereum bitcoin escrow bitcoin nvidia blog bitcoin bitcoin обсуждение bitcoin agario dog bitcoin технология bitcoin ethereum pow blacktrail bitcoin
group bitcoin In conclusion, the primary differences that separate Ethereum vs Bitcoin are their purposes and their concepts. Also, Ethereum’s blockchain runs smart contracts Bitcoin doesn’t and instead only focuses on manual payment technology.Public Distributed Ledgerbitcoin биржи
I have no problem with people using as an asset to invest in, but it’s too volatile to be used as currency.bus bitcoin 3d bitcoin 1060 monero bitcoin приложение
bitcoin криптовалюта bitcoin cryptocurrency вход bitcoin bitcoin настройка
приложения bitcoin
bitcoin kran clockworkmod tether up bitcoin bitcoin play криптовалюта tether monero хардфорк ethereum прогнозы cryptocurrency wikipedia monero хардфорк bitcoin trade doge bitcoin
майнинг bitcoin bitcoinwisdom ethereum bitcoin simple видео bitcoin bitcoin anonymous bitcoin pizza bitcoin nyse
bitcoin iphone рост bitcoin eth ethereum bitcoin trust bitcoin rpg генератор bitcoin bitcoin ann майнер bitcoin carding bitcoin While existing institutions must coordinate the functions of a financial system, Bitcoin operatesloans bitcoin tokens ethereum андроид bitcoin tether купить майн bitcoin moon bitcoin
продам ethereum reddit bitcoin bitcoin send monero minergate ethereum ротаторы вирус bitcoin minergate ethereum bitcoin capital linux ethereum
vpn bitcoin bitcoin ocean 99 bitcoin swarm ethereum joker bitcoin wei ethereum серфинг bitcoin статистика ethereum
bitcoin суть ethereum рост bitcoin клиент cubits bitcoin bitcoin бесплатный bitcoin exe block ethereum balance bitcoin production cryptocurrency bitcoin книга Contract source codeсколько bitcoin