Also, I have read a lot on pool and solo mining and as far as I can tell, one is a fixed income based on your participation (hashrate vs pool hashrate) and the other is a complete gamble. I understand how solo mining can be like playing the lottery, but it seems to me the odds are a lot better than the lottery.
Solo and pool mining are attempting to achieve the same thing. With pool mining the job is broken down and the work shared between many hashers, unlike Solo mining, where its just you, on your own doing the work.
'Many hands make light work', but the reward of that work is shared between all the participants, so you only get a small share. The advantage is that the small shares come more often. The BIG 25 coin rewards generated by solo mining come less often, a lot less often, but the reward is HUGE.
The thinking is that its better to have a smaller, but more regular income than wait months/years/10/100 years for a BIG reward.
But statistically you should get the same payout over a long enough time span....
