Which mining pool should I join?

[giantjoezilla]

I'm sure this question has been asked before, but I need to do my time in the newbie section anyways.  Plus it might save me a lot of time.

So I used the complete guide to mine bitcoin on xubuntu 12.04 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gw7YPYgMgNNU42skibULbJJUx_suP_CpjSEdSi8_z9U

I got everything setup and I'm at the part where you start mining in a pool, but now I have to choose a pool.  So then I looked up Comparison of mining pools https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Comparison_of_mining_pools.  There is a lot of information to go through there, and at some point I'm going to read through it all, but I have other things to do right now.  Like mining, and I have LiteCoin rig to build.

So whats a decent fairly easy to use mining pool that I can join to get started?  I was thinking BitMinter since their fees are low.  I'm in the US, should I pick something closer, or does that even matter? 

What do you guys think?  Please let me know.

[giantjoezilla]

Is self bumping allowed?

[spiralis]

So whats a decent fairly easy to use mining pool that I can join to get started?  I was thinking BitMinter since their fees are low.  I'm in the US, should I pick something closer, or does that even matter?  

What do you guys think?  Please let me know.

For what my newbie opinion is worth, I started with Ozcoin using cgminer and that was OK.  I found cgminer was disconnecting (is that the word?) at least once a day, usually when I was away from the computer, so I ended up losing mining time.   I started with BitMinter a little while ago and I really like their simple, idiot proof, Java client.  I get better hash rates, as well.

[Drizzle]

I started mining this month (had a stint before in bitlc and made the mistake of leaving bitcoins there, you can check the story on the site), and so far I've been mining on both Slush's and BitMinter using cgminer. Both work very well, except that Slush had a DDoS which kept the mining down for about a day, which is why I went to BitMinter. Always good to have a backup pool configured for such cases.

From my point of view the advantage of Slush's is the nice tracking: it tells you your current MHash and the rate over the past 10 rounds, so you can make sure your mining works as expected. It also tells you how long the current round has been going and you get an estimate of how far along this round is. The advantage of BitMinter is that it gives you about 10 times more namecoins (both pools mine namecoins alongside bitcoins).

[giantjoezilla]

That's helpful.  Thank you.  I want to use cgminer so I can switch to ltc when the time comes.

[skyangel]

Depending on your hardware, I would mine LTC and then exchange it for BTC on BTC-e.

[GerMG]

btc guild or bitminter

[cpengr]

btc guild or bitminter

Why do you recommend them?

[b14d3r11]

I'd personally suggest BTCguild it seems to have a decent PPS price and if your doing real well with you mining you could even go for the other pooling method they have

[giantjoezilla]

Depending on your hardware, I would mine LTC and then exchange it for BTC on BTC-e.

You would think that would be the way to go, but right now when I use both calculators I get the same profit for both. 

[spiralis]

I'd personally suggest BTCguild it seems to have a decent PPS price and if your doing real well with you mining you could even go for the other pooling method they have

BTCguild guild is actively discouraging new miners these days, because of the whole 51% share thing.  You can read all about it in the mining pools forums.

[jimhsu]

The one with the lowest fees, and doesn't have a huge proportion. (as mentioned, BTC guild is actively discouraging signing up).

[nottm28]

I joined up with Slush's pool by default when I followed instructions from startbitcoin.com - after mining for 2 months I decided to try other pools like bitminter but ended back up with Slush - he's had his problems with DDoS recently but the guy works non_stop to keep his pool up.

And up it is. I like Slush's pool because his fees are plain and clear - 0.2% - that's it - not 0.1% if you mine but 0.25% if you want to use the API or 0.5% because we are great etc...

The guy just charges 0.2% and that's it. I wrote a simple text based java app (run from the command line - willing to share - just shout) that calls Slush's API every ~60 seconds and prints out the Pool status and your own miner status(es). The app simply 'pings' when the pool finds a block and pings more if one of your workers stops mining.

I also like the way I can see what my share is for each block found in the pool block history page - bitminter doesn't show me 'my share' for each round for example.

Plus he invented pooled mining which is a big deal imo...

[abigfish]

my vote goes to SLUSH's pool too ..from what i've read/reasearched ...wow this pool operator is a REALLY hard working dedicated and friendly guy who constantly tries to keep the pool working perfectly ...good active communication ...big pool ..and something about shared BTC LTC mining ...thus more rewards...

[mikeynzb]

Join:

P2Pool
FeatherCoin is a Geek
FC Simple Pool

on: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178286.0

Why? because featercoins are most easy to get compare to lite and bitcoin. And popularity is high.

Get some feathers

 

[nottm28]

Join:

P2Pool
FeatherCoin is a Geek
FC Simple Pool

on: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178286.0

Why? because featercoins are most easy to get compare to lite and bitcoin. And popularity is high.

Get some feathers

 

Yeah but I can convert bitcoins to cash (via the mtgox monster) where can I sell feathers?

[seocrow]

I've tried a few but currently recommend ltcmine.ru

Great support and very security conscious

[Gleason]

I like Slushpools and eclipseMC.

-Brian

[giantjoezilla]

I ended up using Slush's pool because I couldn't get Bitminter working.  But my hash rates suck.  I got 3 HD 7850's and I'm only getting 100MH's per card.  I wonder if I need dummy plugs?

[mikeynzb]

Be patient, probally a couple of dayz or weaks, somebody will launch a feathercoin exchange.
Follow the feathercoin thread its very populair.

chears