Way's to check what pools are actually doing with your mining power

[FutureSeeker2021]

I am in the market for a solo pool but would like to know what  they are actually going to pay me in the block reward transaction.Plus would like to gather information about work etc. they are having my miners do. Are they using my hashrate to mine other coins? What methods does a Pro miners use to scout out these pools.  I have heard you can gather information from pools though certain tools and methods . What are these tools and how do you use them to gather as much information as possible about the work the pool is having you do and what will actually happen if a block is solved.

Please list the tools and how to use them Please.

[DaveF]

Check this post: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5397166.msg60503248#msg60503248

You can see where the block reward will go and some other information.

If they are merge mining other coins and stuff behind the scene you will never be able to check for that, but most of them are worth so little it does not really matter.

So long as you stick with the larger pools it's not something to worry about.

-Dave

[BitMaxz]

About how you get paid by mining on their pool they have different payment methods most of the pools have PPS+, PPLNS, and SOLO payment methods.

If you want to know more about them check this "How to Choose the Optimal Payment Method (PPS+, PPLNS, SOLO)?"

It's viaBTC pool PPS+ is fixed earnings and PPLNS are unstable earnings you will see some spikes here if you use this method it depends on luck, difficulty, and miner fees. I use PPLNS before but I get less profit than mining on the fixed earning the PPS+ includes a little bonus on the miner fees while the PPLNS rewarded you from miner fees in full.
And then solo mining this one you will get the full block reward.

About what they do with your hashrate some pools like Nicehash they do sell your hashrate to other people/buyers and most of them use your hashrate to mine altcoin. Unlike real pools like ViaBTC, Kano.is and other Bitcoin pools they only mine BTC and if you join in merge mining I don't think they do mine altcoin but they only rewarded you altcoin for free.

[ABCbits]

If they are merge mining other coins and stuff behind the scene you will never be able to check for that, but most of them are worth so little it does not really matter.

This isn't 100% accurate. For example, to perform merge mining on RSK you need to put specific OP_RETURN data on Coinbase transaction[1]. For example, coinbase transaction[2] all block mined by Binance Pool[3] contain OP_RETURN which says "RSKBLOCK...".

[1] https://developers.rsk.co/rsk/architecture/mining/implementation-guide/.
[2] https://mempool.space/tx/ba9d31359e5e19167f3f18fb56b8cd11cd85b995eac26a9d53c642c6a02798bc
[3] https://mempool.space/mining/pool/binancepool

[DaveF]

If they are merge mining other coins and stuff behind the scene you will never be able to check for that, but most of them are worth so little it does not really matter.

This isn't 100% accurate. For example, to perform merge mining on RSK you need to put specific OP_RETURN data on Coinbase transaction[1]. For example, coinbase transaction[2] all block mined by Binance Pool[3] contain OP_RETURN which says "RSKBLOCK...".

[1] https://developers.rsk.co/rsk/architecture/mining/implementation-guide/.
[2] https://mempool.space/tx/ba9d31359e5e19167f3f18fb56b8cd11cd85b995eac26a9d53c642c6a02798bc
[3] https://mempool.space/mining/pool/binancepool

Fair enough, up until I saw you post I never heard of RSK, but is RSK actually worth anything?

NMC and ELA and all the others I don't think come to $50 of extra mining income per block. Although to be honest I have not checked in years.

Lets revise it to you can find out about some merged coins, but it's not like the pools are going to get rich by mining them and not telling you.

-Dave

[NotATether]

Plus would like to gather information about work etc. they are having my miners do. Are they using my hashrate to mine other coins?

That is possible if you have SSH access to the box and you are connecting to domains rather than IP addresses - you need to create new certificates for those domains, that are signed by some CA, and then place them on your box. Since you are the one who initiates the connection, you will be able to decrypt the traffic going and coming between that mining pool and yours.

You also need a second machine that is running a CA which will issue those certificates, as you can't just create any certificate without a CA. You could also use a self-signed certificate, but I am not sure if applications will like that.

Then, you can run Wireshark on the miner and just have it run in the background while you mine and inspect the packets that it dumps.