If you're planning on using the computer's USB ports, check to see how much power is supplied to them.  I don't know the full specs of the sticks (maybe ping sidehack), but know that to get the higher levels of performance you need to be able to supply them power, which is usually through a powered USB hub.  The computer itself just needs to be able to run the mining software, which should not be a problem at all... I run cgminer on a raspberry pi.

Well, as long as the implementation of the auxpow code hasn't been touched in the new NMC codebase, then it should work as it previously did.  I believe Eligius is still merge mining blocks of NMC successfully.

Maybe forrestv could take a look into it to see if there's an issue.

Of course, my next question: if you are merge mining, have you found a share high enough to solve a block of NMC, but the block didn't get submitted?

Those are the USB sticks I referred to in my previous post

Well, since you're talking in terms of Euros, I'm going to assume you've got some VAT and import duties and all that other fun stuff to consider as well when making a purchase.  With a 500 Euro budget, you're not going to find any new hardware at all.  The only real "new" gear for sale is the S7 by Bitmain - and those are currently sold out.  You could probably pick up a used S5 and power supply for that budget.

To those thinking there might be a bug... it's called variance.  Take off the tinfoil hats.

p3yot33at3r, I haven't merge mined any coins for a while.  However, when I was, I only ever found 2 NMC blocks (maybe it was 3).  Back then, a block of NMC was actually worth a little bit of coin on the exchanges.  Not sure if jtoomin is merge mining, but it appears he's got the most hash, so he'd have a better chance of finding a block of NMC.  Here's from jedimstr earlier:

Umm... WTF?  You quoted my text verbatim from earlier in this post, but didn't put quotes around it and are trying to claim this is your own post?  Or, were you trying to reply to me and just screwed it up?

If this is just as a basis for a thesis and you're not looking to make a profit, there's no need for you to purchase 500 Euro worth of equipment.  Pick up a USB stick miner (look for the sidehack sticks).  That would get you mining.

Yeah... sorry to disappoint you torepia, but unless nexious has a very large bankroll or he feels like dumping a bunch of coins into the pool to make sure everyone is paid, chances are extremely good he's not going to implement any PPS.  It's too big a risk.  As kano pointed out, even with a bankroll of 250BTC in reserve, there's still over an 81% chance of bankruptcy even if the pool charges users 5% fee.

Well, uNOMP is basically the newer version of NOMP and doesn't require MPOS... it comes with a front end.  Here's an example of a uNOMP pool: http://www.miningpool.website.  I'd suggest following the guide here: http://blockgen.net/blog/setup-your-own-mining-pool/ or you can go directly to the uNOMP github site and follow their guides: https://github.com/UNOMP/unified-node-open-mining-portal

So another question... are you stuck on the idea of using MPOS?  There are other options out there... uNOMP for example.  CoiniumServ is another.  Heck, you could even install your own ckpool/ckdb instance (no nice web interfaces there, so you'd have to write your own UI).

So then it's an academic exercise.  When you say "solo mining pool" are you trying to do something different than just setting up a regular mining pool?  If you're the only user on the pool, then it's solo mining, right?

Anyway, if you're just trying to setup a bitcoin mining pool, maybe nexious would give you some pointers... he recently opened up his own bitcoin mining pool.

No... that's not how it works.  It's a guess based upon the time it took to solve a block.  Here's a simplified version of the formula to figure out how long you would expect it to take to find a block:
It only looks like the pool jumped up so much because the 49 seconds it took between blocks skewed the numbers that much.  I don't know how many blocks AntPool considers to calculate the average pool hash rate, but from the formula above you can clearly see that solving a block in 49 seconds would require 5.336EH/s (yes, that 5336PH/s).  That's going to play havoc on your averages since it's about an order of magnitude greater than the hash rate of the entire network.

So is this just an academic exercise?  I mean, why not point your hardware to ck's solo pool and not worry about it?

From a purist's perspective luck is simply figuring out how long it actually took to find a block compared to how long it was expected to take.

The only measure we have of this is shares.  How many shares were submitted vs how many shares were expected.  As kano has previously pointed out, p2pool struggles with this (because of orphaned shares never making it to the share chain), and therefore, p2pool luck figures are overstated.

No, global hash rate is calculated based upon the current network difficulty and the block solve times.  That's why you see crazy spikes up and down in the overall hash rate - it's just an estimate.  The global rate has no knowledge of any pools or their hash rate.  Even pools only calculate their hash rate based upon submitted shares.  They really have no idea what at what rate your miner is hashing.  They estimate it based upon share submission.

That's why the difficulty adjusts every 2016 blocks... that was assumed to be a long enough time to get a pretty good overall feeling on how the network is performing and still be relatively resistant to variant spikes.

Don't worry about the double posting...

Using the same numbers as earlier, the S5 would expect to make 0.009541BTC a day.  Taking out power at $0.10 per kWh, the S5 net you about $1.25 a day - roughly the same as the S4.  This is where the efficiency comes into play.  Yes, the S5 has a lower hash rate, but because of the efficiency of the miner, it makes the same net as the S4.

Put it this way... Even if the S5 costs the same as the S4 (don't forget to account for a PSU), you'll continue to remain profitable with the S5 because it's earning back more per hash than the S4.  In other words, because it's more efficient, it'll weather the difficulty adjustments better than the S4 and continue to be profitable.

Glad to help.  I'm assuming the 453GH/s units are S3+.  I'm also assuming the 2TH/s unit is an S4.  The S3 requires an external PSU, so there's that cost.  The S4 requires you to purchase a power cord (a cost, albeit a minor one - unless whoever is selling it to you will provide the power cord as well).  Also, I'm not sure where you're located or what kind of power you have access to, but realize that the S3s can be spread out over multiple circuits, whereas the S4 will be on one only.  Further, the S3s will each require network cables.  The S4 would only require one.

Finally, understand that these units are tech from a few generations ago.  The S5 is a more efficient unit (~1155 GH/s for 590W) and the S7 is a more efficient unit still (4.86TH/s for 1210W).

Just for a bit more understanding of what it means to you from a profit standpoint (and this only uses current numbers - it does not make adjustments for any changes).  At the current network difficulty, exchange rate and we'll assume a power cost of $0.10 per kWh...

S3+ expects to make 0.003742BTC a day.  355W at the wall will cost you $0.85 a day to operate.  Current exchange rate means you'll make about $0.19 a day.

S4 expects to make 0.01652BTC a day.  1400W will cost you $3.36 a day to operate.  Current exchange rate means you'll make about $1.25 a day.

Really depends on your situation.  What are the upfront hardware costs?  What is the power cost?  What is the efficiency of the miners?  What are the hidden costs (i.e. you need to purchase external PSU for the smaller miners, but the larger one has PSU incorporated)?

I don't know if this is a translation thing... but you've got to provide a heck of a lot more detail than what you are here.  Otherwise I'm not sure anyone can help solve whatever problems you're facing.

There's plenty of proof.  Just take a look at ck's solo pool thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=763510.0.  112 blocks found by solo miners.  Some with high hash rates, others with low.

It's also exceptionally easy to figure out how long you would expect it to take to find a block.  Realize that it is not a guarantee that you will find a block in that time, but that it is probable.  As has been mentioned, you could theoretically find a block mining with your CPU, or never find a block at all mining with 1PH/s of hardware.  However, it is exceptionally unlikely you will ever find a block mining with a CPU, and extremely likely that you will find a block if you had 1PH/s.

Here's the simplified version of the formula for you:

So, an example.  The current network difficulty is 60883825480.  Therefore, from the above formula we can deduce the following:

31MH/s (the speed you were getting with your laptop) would take approximately 267,481 years to find a block
1PH/s would take approximately 3 days.