Greetings Eligius Miners,
It seems that the nature of the mining community has changed substantially since Eligius was started, and a lot of what pooled mining means to miners seems to have changed along the way. Eligius's CPPSRB reward system was designed to effectively reduce miner variance to be as close to straight PPS payouts as possible, and it does do so better than any other reward system. However, it seems that most miners today would much rather gamble on other reward systems with higher variance vs work towards steady low variance payouts. Not enough miners seem to appreciate the value of Eligius's reward system anymore, and it's unfortunate. In my opinion, pooled mining's purpose is to reduce variance as much as possible, but it seems that fewer and fewer miners share that opinion vs focusing on the gambling aspect of higher variance pools. There are are miners who still appreciate the low variance payouts of a PPS or PPS-like system such as Eligius's CPPSRB, however. I don't think any system that sits on one side or the other of the debate over variance is better than the other, but a matter of miner preference. Pretty much all miners seem to fall in one of those two categories today.
With all of that said, much brainstorming has gone on over the last few months to try and come up with a workable solution to this changing landscape for Eligius and its miners, and I believe I have what would appear to be the perfect solution, once implemented, to be beneficial to the miners who want steady low variance payouts
and to the miners who forego a lower variance payout in exchange for the potential profits of a higher variance system. I can't go into details now, however, since, honestly, I'm pretty sure another pool or entity would just poach the idea and throw more resources at getting it implemented more quickly than Eligius has the volunteer resources to do. But, suffice it to say, once the system is completed and up and running Eligius will by far be the most advanced mining pool. Best of all, miners can be virtually guaranteed payouts that can be greater than any other mining pool with long term earnings that have the potential to significantly exceed 100% PPS over the long term, not just when luck allows. Sound too good to be true? Well it isn't... and that's why I can't give the details just yet.
When this is all done, I'd be very surprised if anyone wanted to use any other pool than Eligius. That's how excited and confident I am about this.
"But wk, how can this be? You can't pay miners more than 100% PPS without getting the extra money from somewhere!" Well, that's part of the details that I won't share right now. No, Eligius isn't selling out. No, Eligius isn't going to be subsidizing this in any way. No, Eligius isn't going to be selling anything at all, actually.
Let's put it this way. This is probably one of the best ideas to hit the mining scene since... mining. I'm super excited about it. So much so that I'm going to be shifting my schedule around so that I can dedicate a significant amount of time to development starting very soon, at my own expense (time away from paid work). But I'm not willing to share the details right now. I can't. There are others with more time and resources available than I who are pretty much guaranteed to steal the entire premise for their own profit once I publicize it, and I can't let that happen. I'm not going to share any significant details much beyond what I am here until I'm basically ready to flip the switch ON. I can't take all of the credit for this, and I'll be giving credit where credit is due as details come out.
"OK, sounds awesome. But if you're not going to share details right now, why say anything at all?"Because I want Eligius miners to know that something awesome is in the works, and that it's going to greatly benefit Eligius miners and the mining community in general. Also, there is going to be incentive for miners who are Eligius veterans when this idea is implemented, and I want all of the miners who continue to support Eligius to know that they are going to benefit from all of this very soon. I will have some perks as a thank you to those continuing to mine and support the pool when things are completed, so, don't give up on us just yet!
"Very soon? How soon is very soon?"Assuming I can get my personal schedule modified as I plan to, I expect to have everything up and running within roughly a month. It's a substantial overhaul, and it's going to take a lot of time to complete.
"That's not very soon..."When you see everything that's going to be done to make this happen, you'll understand that it's going to be a feat to make this happen in that time frame with the resources available to me.
"Sounds complicated."Admittedly, yes... there's probably going to be a little bit of a learning curve for everyone to take advantage of all of the benefits afforded by the new additions to the pool. I'm going to try to make sure everything is explained very clearly. Additionally, I have a friend who is going to work on professional translations of various portions of the website soon after these changes are implemented. But, overall, you won't *need* to do anything different to benefit from all of this.
"I'm sold. What do I have to do?"Just keep mining and supporting Eligius, and you will be among the first to benefit from the changes.
"I think you're just BS'ing just to get attention/get more miners/take over the world/etc"You're welcome to believe what you like. I'm not, however, and when you see how things are going to work later you're going to be kicking yourself for not getting on board sooner. I think my personal track record in the community should show that I'm definitely not the type to go around trolling.
"But but! Tell me more!"I can't! I realllllly want to, though. I really do, but unfortunately the community in general just can not be trusted not to snatch up the idea and exploit it for greedy purposes before I can get things implemented at Eligius. At Eligius mining is and shall continue to be no-fees, but the pools who benefit greatly from their fees will have a lot incentive to implement this as soon as they hear about it... and honestly, I'm not here to help them line their pockets. I want miners to line their own pockets!
"But if it's really that great they're going to steal the idea after you implement it anyway, so, what's the difference?"Because Eligius is not-for-profit, with no mining fees, it's still going to be the best and most profitable pool to use under this system, and I want to make sure people get a chance to do that before others jump on the bandwagon, which can't really happen overnight anyway. I welcome the competition, since mining should be as decentralized as possible, but admittedly, this is certainly going to put Eligius back towards the top of the charts, which will benefit the entire bitcoin mining community as a whole.
"Seriously, this sounds like a scam."No scams. There's no direct benefit to me by doing so. I'm basically volunteering considerable time and effort to make this happen. I don't profit from operating the pool, nor will I when this is done. I've no motives other than I'm very excited to make this happen and want to contribute to community by doing so. The benefit to me is that I'll still be mining on the best possible pool.
OK, that's enough Q/A for now. Feel free to ask questions, but don't be offended if I won't answer everything. And please don't spam this thread with nonsense.
With that... I'm getting to work!
-wk
TLDR version: Eligius is getting some major upgrades over the next month to bring it back towards the forefront of the mining community, with details to come as things get closer.
