But yes I do mean ensure the tx is valid and not a double spend.
Well that requires 0.0 KH/s. Not sure where you get the idea that a pool is needed or even useful in any way to validate tx?
We buy 25,000 BTC per month. We validate all tx using a bitcoind. Even if you wanted redundancy you could put multiple bitcoind nodes on multiple servers around the world but a pool wouldn't help that either.
I've been posting while under the weather and so may not be making myself particularly clear. I apologize and allow me to clarify.
Your are correct, the tx validation does only require a bitcoind, it does not require a pool. We want the default bitcoind used by the merchant gateway to be always on and always available, hence clustering and running in multiple availability zones worldwide.
The purpose of the pool is to provide assurance to the merchants using the system that their transaction will be included in a block as quickly as possible (one reason for regional sub-pools).
You are correct in that you could submit the tx to anywhere on the bitnetwork and probably have it included in the blockchain faster, but in general I like the concept of knowing that folks interested in OpenPay are mining the OpenPay transactions and getting the benefit from them.
I also think the concept of sharing in not just the coinbase but any tx fees and not charging the miner any fees is a fair and equitable concept that will hopefully get more folks mining on our pool.