I've used
http://zenmine.pro since July, on and off (lately I mainly use different pools for Zen). Zenmine.pro had 3 Msol/s, and lately 2 Msol/s. It's the 2nd largest Zen pool. Avg block time is about 25 minutes, so no shortage for payments.
I stopped using this pool and I'm leaving this here as a warning. If the pool OP wishes to do something about it then fine. He now has the opportunity to address it. There have been long time payment issues with Zenmine.pro which have gone unfixed, despite repeated reports.
1. if you're lucky, you can see that the pool doesn't pay because the reported hashrate graph for your miner shows zero, even though you can see your miner submitting shares and that they are being accepted (I even checked with tcpdump). You can then contact the pool OP and ask to be refunded. Good luck with that. It worked once for me about 2 months ago but I had to insist. Other times I just let it go. Happened about 4 times since August to me alone. Once was for a full day, on some hefty hashrate.
2. a far bigger problem is when both graph and tcpdump/miner show valid submitted shares and correctly reported hashrate, but the pay is below what you should obtain. This is what happened to me in the past 7 days. I decided to test Zenmine.pro again, and so I pointed ~10 Ksol/s for the first 4.5 days then ~5 Ksol/s for the last 2.5 days. Difficulty in the past 7 days has been between roughly stable 500k and 600k (you can check this easily if you install the Zen node software). Below is a screenshot of the miner on the pool. Sadly it only shows the last 3 days or so, but you can see I had ~10 Ksol/s, then ~5 Ksol/s. You can also see that the pool reported 0 hashrate for about 5h yesterday, which is again false, see point 1. above.
I should have been paid an average of 10000/550000/2^13*11*86400 = 2.10 zen/day for the first 4.5 days, and then 1.05 zen/day for the remaining 2.5 days. In total I should have received about 12 zen for the last 7 days. Let's say 10 zen.
As you can see in the screenshot below, I got 2.4 zen for the last 7 days, and 0.4 zen for the past 1 day (I note that in the last 24h difficulty was lowest, below 500k). Before you ask about "luck", keep reading.
Some facts:
- Zenmine.pro had usually about 3 Msol/s, and lately 2 Msol/s. It's the 2nd largest Zen pool. Luck lately has been 110%, at around 30 minutes to find a block, so no shortage for payments (https://i.gyazo.com/d8ab42cbe1066655d0d4fd9d5dc4998c.png)
- today I met 3 other people who said they also had payment issues on this pool, cut their losses and left.
- accessing your miner's webpage on the pool takes up to 3 bloody minutes to open (stays blank, as if hung), e.g. https://zenmine.pro/#/account/znk4BuKAj6qLmudDn1NseFsJiVuX6QDKsUW this has been the case for months, it's been reported, but was never fixed
- obscure payment threshold, and when you stop mining the unpaid Zen remains on the pool; you have no means of withdrawing it (apart from asking the pool OP personally)
- the Telegram chat channel for this pool is largely in russian.
- the pool OP is not always responsive.
- I contacted the pool OP about this most recent issue and got a short reply ("I'm seen as quick as possible.") and nothing since then. It's been 10h. I'll post if I get news.
- there are a few individuals on the pool's Telegram chat who defend the pool vigorously, despite evidcence, and use some surreal logic (stay away from arguing with an individual called "Alex D", who I expect to show up here to reply; he'll claim he doesn't mine on Zenmine.pro though ...).
- asking about issues with the pool I seem to get defensive answers from "loyal" individuals (like Alex D), such as it's normal to take 2 minutes to open the miner page; that it doesn't affect functionality; that a different pool pays less during 7 days because he checked stats of carefully chosen miner (whose hashrate can only be seen for the past 4h) yet refuses to share the stats, etc.
- checking previous chat logs I found other people reporting problems but not really getting anywhere.
The pool OP should have fixed these payment issues ages ago and should have credited the miners without the miners having to come crawling asking for refunds and insisting there is a problem. Some got nowhere and took losses, then moved on. That's not fair!
We, the mining community, have started to get used to being ripped off because "well, that's the game". We don't have to take it! Pool OPs hide behind anonymity yet want our money. They have the possibility and the means to rip us off but there is no trust system - no identity, no verifiable achievements, no verifiable references. Sometimes they have a few "loyal" fans or folks who claim they personally know the pool OP, yet they are all equally anonymous. Sometime they ask you to try their pool and decide for yourself, swearing they won't rip you off, and that they're different to the other pools ... just like all other pool OPs. Then it can be fine for the first month or few months, and payment issues appear later, and you may not even notice.
Let's put pressure on pool OPs to start showing something more for themselves if they want our money. It's much too easy to be ripped off by these guys. I'm tired of it.
