Bitcoin Forum

in a mining pool, individual crypto miners join together and pool their resources to increase their chances of earning block rewards. the rewards for solving blocks are paid out according to how much computing power someone has contributed to the pool. so the more computing power available, the higher the chances of rewards.
over the years, Bitcoin mining has developed into an industry of its own. today, it is no longer possible to solve a Bitcoin block with a normal computer, as the process requires special application-specific integrated circuits, also called asic units, which have been developed specifically for Bitcoin mining.

generally, the larger the pool you join, the more frequently you can earn rewards on average. the largest pools (such as AntPool, F2Pool and Poolin) do not guarantee you higher rewards in the long run compared to medium-sized but sufficiently active pools, but they do ensure that your rewards roll in more frequently, tough in smaller amounts.

and how the whole thing then looks visually, i wanted to show you with these 4 slides. maybe then one or the other has a better understanding to this topic

https://talkimg.com/images/2023/09/26/PC6Zg.jpeg https://talkimg.com/images/2023/09/26/PCPkI.jpeg
https://talkimg.com/images/2023/09/26/PCRgd.jpeg https://talkimg.com/images/2023/09/26/PCtd5.jpeg
https://twitter.com/BTCillustrated (https://twitter.com/BTCillustrated)

There's no point including "Proportional" in any pool discussion.

It's easily gameable so that short term miners will get paid way more for their shares vs the long term miners.