How to Select Cryptocurrency Mining Pools?

Since there are complicated and numerous payment models of mining pools, many people feel puzzled in terms of the pool selection. Because no detailed guidance can be read on the network, EastShore will provide some suggestions on the pool selection in current issue.

Most beginner may make such a common mistake that when promotion is conducted by certain pool, they usually rush for it. Such an act will waste a lot of time and the resulting losses are usually greater than the short-term gains.

How to Choose Cryptocurrency Mining Pools IMG 03

Proportion of hashrate in major pools in the past year

Payment Models of Some Mainstream Pools

At present, the payment models of the pools mainly include: PPS, PPS+, FPPS, PPLNS and SOLO mode. Different payment models result in various charges by the pools.

PPS(Pay-Per-Share)

The income will be stable so long as the miners work normally, and the payment mainly results from the existing bitcoin funds in the pools, so it can be cashed immediately without waiting for the blocks to be completed or confirmed. It has nothing to do with some external factors such as the pool luck and transaction fees.

Advantages: Reduce risks of mining workers and the risks are borne by the pool operator.

The beginners can try PPS, although the profit is low, it is relatively stable every day.

PPS+(Pay Per Share Plus)

As the PLUS version of traditional PPS settlement, PPS+ includes the distribution of transaction fees on the original basis.

FPPS

Full PPS, which distributes the block rewards and bitcoin transaction fees to the mining workers, the pool only charges a small portion as the service fee. The proportion of current FPPS service fee is about 4%. Compared with the traditional PPS settlement (no distribution of transaction fees), it can increase the profits by 10%-20%.

PPLNS(Pay Per Last N Shares)

PPLNS literally means “pay per last N shares”. When valid block is found in the pool, the profit will be distributed according to the ratio of the user’s hashrate to the pool hashrate in the last N difficulty rounds. It should be noted that if you are mining in the pool but happen to leave during certain period when no blocks are found before N shares or N hours, then the profits before N will be invalid.

Advantages: 1) higher long-term average income; 2) lower rates

Disadvantages: Mining workers’ profits will be unstable since they are based on the block outcome of the pools.

SOLO Mining

It means single-handed mining activity. Calculate the blocks alone to obtain HASH value. If done, all the block rewards will be harvested alone. Currently, the SOLO model is only the choice of those with big hashrate. For ordinary users, it is extremely arduous.

Comparison of Mainstream Pools

Currently, quite well-known pools have antpool, f2pool, etc.

F2pool

The first bitcoin pool in China which supports mining services of more than 30 kinds of cryptocurrencies. Pay revenue at 8:00 every day with locked payment address.

F2pool: https://www.f2pool.com/

Antpool

Owned by Bitmain with AntMonitor miner monitoring system, the minimum payment unit: 0.001BTC.

Antpool: https://antpool.com/

pool.btc.com

Hashrate ranks first of the whole bitcoin network at present, provides European mining areas with BTC pool batch tools and BTC intelligent agent functions.

pool.btc.com: https://pool.btc.com/

poolin

Half LTC rate and the total issued PINs for Pool Pass have reached 2.1 billion. Apart from the participation in decision-making, election for supervision and other rights, the users who hold a certain amount of cryptocurrency can enjoy additional privileges, such as rate concessions, exclusive customer service, multiple incentive PINs and commission deduction.

poolin: https://www.poolin.com/

ViaBTC

Dedicated PPS+, integrated PPS and PPLNS, providing multi-currency wallet services.

ViaBTC: https://www.viabtc.com/

How to select the appropriate pools?

Ensure connection to pools: Some networks (companies) may screen port 3333.
Select the pools of high hashrate: Pools of high hashrate can ensure the capacity of blocks as well as the resulting benefits. It is recommended to select PPS or PPLNS of some large pools.
Network of minimum losses enjoys priority
Select spare pools in case of emergencies (mining disaster)

At present, the benefits of major pools are basically the same with each other. Once the pools are confirmed, it’s better not to make any changes. The process of returning the results of miners to the server as well as other data on the network are prone to various factors such as geographical locations, local network speed and pool servers. It’s recommended that the mining workers with relevant capabilities should build the P2pool pools by themselves.

Appendix

A series of articles on cryptocurrency mining for beginners on EastShore: