Mining pool: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:16, 10 July 2019

Revision as of 12:40, 26 September 2019

Line 1:

{{more citations needed|date=June 2014}}

In the context of [[cryptocurrency mining]], a '''mining pool''' is the pooling of resources by miners, who share their [[computer performance|processing power]] over a network, to split the reward equally, according to the amount of work they contributed to the probability of finding a [[blockchain (database)|block]]. A "share" is awarded to members of the mining pool who present a valid partial [[proof-of-work]]. Mining in pools began when the [[Bitcoin network#Difficulty|difficulty]] for mining increased to the point where it could take centuries for slower miners to generate a block. The solution to this problem was for miners to pool their resources so they could generate blocks more quickly and therefore receive a portion of the block reward on a consistent basis, rather than randomly once every few years.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pandacoinpnd.org/individual-mining-and-mining-pools/ |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150321102332/http://pandacoinpnd.org/individual-mining-and-mining-pools/ |archive-date=21 March 2015|title=Individual mining vs mining pool |date=2014-08-30}}</ref><ref>Ittay Eyal with Emin Gün Sirer:"[http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~ie53/publications/btcProcFC.pdf Majority is not Enough: Bitcoin Mining is Vulnerable] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161203222953/http://www.cs.cornell.edu/%7Eie53/publications/btcProcFC.pdf |date=2016-12-03 }}" in the 18th International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security(FC).2014</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Eyal|first1=Ittay|title=The Miner's Dilemma|url=https://www.cs.cornell.edu/~ie53/publications/btcPoolsSP15.pdf|publisher=Cornel University|accessdate=2017-05-23|deadurlurl-status=nolive|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809213507/http://www.cs.cornell.edu/%7Eie53/publications/btcPoolsSP15.pdf|archivedate=2017-08-09|df=}}, In the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland), 2015.</ref>

==Mining pool methods==

Mining pools may contain hundreds or thousands of miners using specialized protocols.<ref name=t12>{{cite book | author = Antonopoulos, Andreas M. | date = 2014 | title = Mastering Bitcoin. Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies | ___location = Sebastopol, CA | publisher = O'Reilly Media | isbn = 1449374034 | page = 210 | url = http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000001802/ch01.html | access-date = 7 January 2017 | deadurlurl-status = nolive | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20161201131627/http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000001802/ch01.html | archivedate = 1 December 2016 | df = }}</ref> In all these schemes <math>B</math> stands for a block reward minus pool fee and <math>p</math> is a probability of finding a block in a share attempt (<math>p = 1/D</math>, where <math>D</math> is current block difficulty). A pool can support "variable share difficulty" feature, which means that a miner can select the share target (the lower bound of share difficulty) on his own and change <math>p</math> accordingly.

===Pay-per-Share===

Line 48:

==Multipool mining==

Multipools switch between different [[altcoin]]s and constantly calculate which coin is at that moment the most profitable to mine. Two key factors are involved in the algorithm that calculates profitability, the block time and the price on the exchanges. To avoid the need for many different wallets for all possible minable coins, multipools may automatically exchange the mined coin to a coin that is accepted in the mainstream (for example [[bitcoin]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://prohashing.com/ |title=Prohashing.Com mining pool |deadurlurl-status=nolive |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180114183727/https://prohashing.com/ |archivedate=2018-01-14 |df= }}</ref> Using this method, because the most profitable coins are being mined and then sold for the intended coin, it is possible to receive more coins in the intended currency than by mining that currency alone. This method also increases demand on the intended coin, which has the side effect of increasing or stabilizing the value of the intended coin.{{citation needed|date=February 2018}}

==See also==