Bitcoin Forum

This probably sounds like a stupid question, but I can't find an answer I understand yet.  ???

How does a mining pool know you've done work and contributed to the pool for shares?  If I mine 2000 Satoshi per day, in a pool, as I understand it, I've done some work and I'm rewarded with Satoshis which are paid out when I hit 5000 Satoshi.  But, what prevents me from saying I've done more work than I really have?  I take it that it's not possible to craft some network traffic to send to the pool which says I've crunched X hashes when I've really done nothing;  I suppose you have to send some proof.  Does the pool check in a specific way to make sure you really have done the work given to you for mining?  (I'm not even sure if a pool gives you work to do; is it up to you to calculate as much as possible then call getwork() or something like that to keep going?)

Thanks for any clarification.

Search POW (Proof Of Work) and all your questions will be answered.

Thanks!  So far, I gather I am given some work, and the pool can do a single calculation (as opposed to doing all those calculations to check) to verify the work was actually done.  I can't fake it because of all the compute work needed; it can't be done any other way.

I'll have to dig into the HashCash POW scheme to get some more details, but I think I've got a reasonably good idea of it now.  Thanks again.  :)

What VRobb said  8) 8) 8)

Is there like an auto reply or a site you could monitor the activity or completion of the task?