Bitcoin Forum

How many times has this been asked? Maybe a hundred or two? And of course it still stands. While one pool may have great luck one month you can't call it the best pool there is. And that can be said for a pool that is having bad luck. That certainly can't be the worst pool just because it is having bad luck. For some reason in my head and I don't know why I think the better pool is the larger one. Solve more blocks, more return. If your pool spends 12-18 hours on each block really, what kind of return can you get? I may have the whole thing askew in my mind on how it works but that's what I have in my head.

Ghash.io, yea I've used it and have had very decent return with them. People "say" they steal, but I think that's about all it is, talk. Where's the real proof. You can't pick a date range when Ghash is doing bad then use those days to speculate on how good the pool is, right? Unfortunately I don't have enough tera hashes to play with pools and have to pick one of them and just stick on it. Like flies on shit.

Slush's pool. I've heard good things and bad things. Saw an updated interface, looks pretty good.

What to do.

At least you realize the question is a very subjective one, and because of that, you're going to get all kinds of different answers.

You do have things a bit askew.  Generally, the larger the pool, the smaller your reward per block.  In simplistic terms, let's assume I've got 2 pools. Pool 1 solves a block every hour.  Pool 2 solves a block every 24 hours.  All things being equal, this means that pool 1 has 24 times the hashing power of pool 2.  Hence, your contribution on pool 1 is worth 1/24 of what it is on pool 2.  So, sure you'll see 24 blocks solved by pool 1 during the day and it all looks nice, but you're only getting small payments.  When pool 2 solves that block after 24 hours, you get a larger payment (24 times larger than each payment you get on pool 1).  However, as I stated, all things being equal at the end of the day, you've received the same BTC from each pool.

The larger the pool the less variance you should see, but yes in the end it should even out.

The answer is simple : P2Pool.

But if you don't want run a full node ... you can use a alternate P2Pool node : http://p2pool-nodes.info/

I vote Slush.  Been there for years.  Made a ton of BTC.  Happy.

problem of slush : the limit for withdrawn ...  :-\
counterparty of CEX.IO : if you don't reach limit of withdrawn ... you can wire a few of more BTC and retrieve the all amount.

P2Pool : no minimum ... if you have small power (like me), withdrawn can reach 30 days (but you are "paid" at the end...)

In the long term would be equal, but I prefer and support for:

kano.is ... cgminer creator
eligius ... 0% fee !!
slush ... stratum protocol creator

I would test p2pool , but i readed about reliability when it get high hash rates (2Ths) ... has been this corrected ?

 ::) reliability ?

well, somes persons don't understand the difference of poor hashing speed and "normal" hashing speed (connexion not power !).
like when i see on P2Pool, a farm with 2Ph/s and ... a hell of DOA stats in the same time.

If it were only that many times.  At least your asking what the best pools is instead of which pool makes you the most BTC with N hasrate.  But still it's a subjective personal choice most of the time.

But to attempt to be objective, not knowing what your goal or hashrate is, I would say BTC Guild.  That is the most reliable pool going that I know of.  Don't know much about Slush as I have never used it, except it is one of the first pools.

If you want to solo mine then I would say ck's solo pool.

Good Luck, and try to have fun.

If you are asking about which pools are more profitable, I took some time today to answer this here:

http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/36725/btc-hashes-second-rates-for-various-pools/36747#36747

You will want to consider other things like is the pool reputable? If they ever reached a too-high concentration of hashpower, how did they handle it? Have they been involved in scams? Have they confiscated miner funds for dubious reasons? And which is your personal favorite? You may want to try a couple pools and see how you like them.

All of the above may be more important than a small difference in mining income.

Vote for Antpool

I had tried ghash, btcguild and f2pool

If the price of bitcoin rises while I'm getting those smaller payments from the larger pool then drops, which is does all the time and finally the little pool pays out, I would make less at that pool right?

If the cows in the meadow next to the house face east when they fall asleep then the rising sun may wake them up earlier than if they faced west.

i.e. your question really is a rigged and pointless question.
Just reverse your "if" and the answer is the opposite :P

But it is still a legitimate question, right? Seriously.

Just for example purposes only.

Small pool. Constant hash rate of 1TH. 3 days to solve a block. Pay time. BTC price is 250/USD. Worker is paid.

Large pool. Constant hash rate of 1TH. Solving blocks all day, BTC price rises to 350/USD, maybe more while in this three day hypothetical. End of three day period BTC back down to 250/USD. :( worker is paid.

Removing luck and all those mysterious variances that everyone talks about, which worker received a better return?

If anything I've learned being on a bitcoin forum is the arrogance and entitlement people think they have because they know more about something then someone else. Hey, we all have assholes. Ain't that the truth.

Well if you can predict the BTC price and also when a small pool will do it's payout due to finding a block, you are clearly in the wrong business.
I'd suggest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychic

You're talking about a very short timeframe. In that case luck is the only thing that matters and you can't remove it.

Small pool lucky: you get a big chunk of coins paid out at the right time when the price is high. You make more than at the big pool.

Small pool unlucky: you get paid big chunks before and after the price spike. You make less than at the big pool.

There's nothing new here. At small pools luck has a big effect on the short term earnings.

I am suspecting to loose a lot with a pool.
https://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/difficulty say I should have douple of btc for my hash.
I am at ghash.io

You don't lose with a pool in general. Ghash has had bad luck for a long time though. Maybe Organofcorti can find out what's going on. See https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=77000.msg10946961#msg10946961

Earnings calculators show you what you'd make in an ideal environment.  Mining is anything but an ideal environment.  You might want to take a look at the pool's official thread to understand their payout method.  Also, you need to understand that your share of the coins is very much dependent upon your accepted contributions during shifts and how the pool as a whole is doing luck-wise.

over the long run it shouldnt be question of luck. but the ideal count give me 2x more, that makes me suspecting. didnt say its pool. can it internet connection or something else

Sounds like you had some downtime on your miners. Maybe internet connection down, or power outage, or something else. Have a look at organofcorti's profitability charts. If the pool was paying out just 50% of the expected average then the charts would look much worse.