How does pool mining work compared to solo mining?

[99bitcoins]

I understand that with solo mining you broadcast when your find a hash below a certain target. What about pool mining? Do you have to collect all the hashed and send them to the pool every so often? Can someone give me a simple explanation of how that works?

[Transisto]

Figure it out yourself, mine in a pool in the meanwhile.

[bcpokey]

Not a terribly helpful answer. I'm not sure I 100% understand it, but I'll give you what I think I know.

Pools assign work units, similar to the current block being worked on, however at difficulty 1 (or higher depending on your hashing power), which are called shares. The idea is that you solve your mini-block, and submit it back to the pool, to show your proof of work, out of every X shares submitted, one will also solve the "real" block being worked on (by chance).

So you are in essence solving an easier problem, that can potentially solve a more difficult one, and everyone doing this over and over and over eventually do find a block.

[99bitcoins]

Not a terribly helpful answer. I'm not sure I 100% understand it, but I'll give you what I think I know.

Pools assign work units, similar to the current block being worked on, however at difficulty 1 (or higher depending on your hashing power), which are called shares. The idea is that you solve your mini-block, and submit it back to the pool, to show your proof of work, out of every X shares submitted, one will also solve the "real" block being worked on (by chance).

So you are in essence solving an easier problem, that can potentially solve a more difficult one, and everyone doing this over and over and over eventually do find a block.

Sounds reasonable, thanks. I'm actually looking for some articles that go into more detail. It looks like it really depends on how the pool operator decides to do it so it seems to vary from pool to pool.

[whitetoo]

Click on "What is pooled mining" top left
It gives decent explanation on the various systems within pool mining as well:
https://mining.bitcoin.cz/

[middlemarkal]

the easyiest pool/mining software for BTC is BITMINTER.COM   

[DastanX]

pool = cash every 15mins
solo = cash never lol

srsly you need much gh/s to do it solo ex. 20 gh/s need approx 22days depents great on luck

[MashRinx]

I understand that with solo mining you broadcast when your find a hash below a certain target. What about pool mining? Do you have to collect all the hashed and send them to the pool every so often? Can someone give me a simple explanation of how that works?

Pretty much what DastanX said.  Unless you have some very serious hardware, you want to mine in a pool.  Most pools pay out relative to the amount of work you contribute during a given time period.  Some do it per time 'shifts' others do it per block, etc.  The way they calculate those payouts can differ as well, as well as the fees charged.

Good luck.

[110240]

I tried solo mining for 2 days and it sucked... the reports are not wrong, it doesn't work on a normal or even very fast computer