Solo Mining vs Pool Mining ?

[hackjealousy]

the problem with this is you have no idea if it is due to bad luck or a setup issue.

This.

Unless you are confident in your software setup, and have monitoring in place to ensure that everything is working correctly, and that you will know if it's not, the risk of mining for days/weeks/longer on a broken or underperforming setup outweighs any disadvantages you may encounter mining on a pool.

</my_two_satoshi>

Set up your own pool (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=158105.0) and mine on the testnet first to debug your setup.

[DoomDumas]

the problem with this is you have no idea if it is due to bad luck or a setup issue.

This.

Unless you are confident in your software setup, and have monitoring in place to ensure that everything is working correctly, and that you will know if it's not, the risk of mining for days/weeks/longer on a broken or underperforming setup outweighs any disadvantages you may encounter mining on a pool.

</my_two_satoshi>

Exactly why I prefer to mine on a pool rather than solo, since a while now.  I'd found lots of block in the pool, that would have rewarded me much more if I had found them solo mining, BUT, in solo mining I dont have a way to know the rigs are hashing fine, on the pool, I see if there is problem, reboot machines, fix setup issue..

It's clear that I would have found half of those block if I were solo mining..

At current difficulty, and the rise comming, I would'nt feel comfortable to solo mine under 10 Th/s, even at that level of hashing power, I would still use a pool.

[rocks]

the problem with this is you have no idea if it is due to bad luck or a setup issue.

This.

Unless you are confident in your software setup, and have monitoring in place to ensure that everything is working correctly, and that you will know if it's not, the risk of mining for days/weeks/longer on a broken or underperforming setup outweighs any disadvantages you may encounter mining on a pool.

</my_two_satoshi>

Exactly why I prefer to mine on a pool rather than solo, since a while now.  I'd found lots of block in the pool, that would have rewarded me much more if I had found them solo mining, BUT, in solo mining I dont have a way to know the rigs are hashing fine, on the pool, I see if there is problem, reboot machines, fix setup issue..

It's clear that I would have found half of those block if I were solo mining..

At current difficulty, and the rise comming, I would'nt feel comfortable to solo mine under 10 Th/s, even at that level of hashing power, I would still use a pool.

That's why my suggestion was the OP should at least expect a block every 6 months on average before trying this, and if it was me I'd prefer on the order of 1-2 months. This way if you go a period with no blocks you can understand that statictically odds are you have something wrong that needs to be fixed.

I also think you should only solo mine in a stable difficulty environment. Right now the full "bet payoff" for ASIC mining is over the next 3 months, just pool mine and get that value, then go for high variance if you want.

[driksson]

On this date: 2013-10-20
It took eligius 5 hours 35 minutes and 56 seconds to find a block, using a total of: 1,540,824,552 shares. This was mining at 328.33 Th.
The amount of shares your avalon had, was a fraction of that.
The fastest mined shares on eligius are based on shares in the millions..
You finding 4 shares, just proves luck within the share space.

[driksson]

So my  4 module, Batch #3 unit I have had since August 7th.

It has found 4 blocks on Slush's pool in less than 3 months.  Thats 100BTC vs 47 BTC earned on Slush pool.


I am considering using my Avalon (110 gh/s)  to solo mine and my Bitfury (170gh/s) to Pool mine.


What are you guys thoughts?

You are crazy if you are solo mining today with anything less than 25 TH/s.

The variance is going to kill you. You have a very significant chance of losing it all.

yeah well i just found 2 blocks yesterday on a 110gh/s machine.


The calculators are not very accurate for solo block generation as they cannot predict chance of luck, etc.  My idea is dedicate some hash power to solo mining and some to pool mining.   When solo mining becomes luckier than pool mining i switch to all pool mining and maximize my return.

that is an extreme luck. Look at total amount of shares mined on your pool for those blocks, and HOW MANY shares you were participating in..then you can easily calculate your amount of luck.. Extreme!

[BenTuras]

...BUT, in solo mining I dont have a way to know the rigs are hashing fine, on the pool, I see if there is problem, reboot machines, fix setup issue..

Why not set up your own pool, with statistics ?
You'll see shares being found and when really lucky find a block.
It's a doable challenge, I've done it.

[Evil-Knievel]

This message was too old and has been purged

[Zelek Uther]

I've been mining 24x7 since June 2013 and I have never found a block.

Since getting a KnCMiner Jupiter in October 2013 I've been running pretty decent hashrate too.  I'm currently at 1.7 TH/s. 

Think about that for a moment.

[BitBlitz]

Who cares?  As long as you understand the likelihood, and potential cost of pursuing it-- do what you want.
It doesn't hurt anyone else if you never find a block again  

[deisik]

Who cares?  As long as you understand the likelihood, and potential cost of pursuing it-- do what you want.
It doesn't hurt anyone else if you never find a block again 

I'm curious if the OP has found a block ever since...

Have been investigating the issue (pool vs solo mining) and came around this thread...

[mirahan]

bump for OP block find curiosity, especially these days 

[philipma1957]

bump for OP block find curiosity, especially these days 

Does it matter what op tells you?

We have solo mining service right here



https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=763510.0


run by ck  the writer of cgminer a huge mining program.

fee is small  he has paid 30 plus people off

math to figure odds is easy

2.5th is about 1000 to 1 shot at todays rates for 1 day of mining

so 2 s-5's  = 1000 to 1 each day

[techgeek]

Well if you do pool mining, you get more work offered since the pool finds more blocks in general.

Unless you have a matched performance of hashes, but why waste money on just to find blocks? so most people just opt in a pool.

Larger the pool, the more chances of more work. +/- the rejected work