SoloHash - 0.5% Solo Mining 'Pool' - UK Based - BitAxe Friendly

[owen_a]

https://solohash.co.uk

Hi all,

I decided to build a Solo based 'pool' here in the UK due to high latency to other pools, and simply just due to the sheer lack of pools over this side of the pond.

Some of the pool infrastructure is based in AWS (Amazon Web Services) with a fast website for tracking stats in near real-time (whenever there's updates from the pool backend which are normally every minute).

There's a flat 0.5% fee which is the lowest I've seen compared to other pools. The reason why it's so low is because it's built with performance and cost in mind. I'm an experienced software engineer and systems architect. It's all serverless except the pool/bitcoin node.

Website: https://solohash.co.uk
Fee: 0.5%

Feel free to hop into the Discord server for any help or queries or simply to say hello!: https://discord.gg/kmqT48GtCF
I am always available for help with any issues as you will see.

Low Difficulty (recommended for home/hobby miners):
EU: solo.solohash.co.uk:3333

High Difficulty (recommended for mining rentals/farms):
EU: solo.solohash.co.uk:3334

Quick Points / Features

• High Performance - The pool has a very fast and efficient server. Shares are processed very quickly, avoiding stale shares/blocks due to a its own dedicated internet line.
• Low Latency - Reported latency from current users to the pool is in the region of 18-25ms. This is extremely low compared to others. This ensures your shares are received as quickly as possible, processed, and any potential blocks are submitted to the network.
• Tuned Nodes - All nodes are fine tuned and connected to hundreds of other nodes nearby with latency in the range of 2-20ms. This is essential for block propagation from potential block submissions.
• VarDiff - Enabled for miners that do not send a suggested_difficulty stratum message such as the Avalon Nano 3 / Antminer. This ensures any miner is submitting a sensible amount of shares to the pool.
• Realtime Stats - Miner and pool statistics are updated regularly. No long delays.
• Low Fee - Low pool fees for any found blocks, meaning you get more of the reward compared to other solo pools
• Fast Website - The website is built as a Single Page App meaning no full page reloads when switching between pages and slow load times. Built with modern technology.

FAQ
Q: Why aren't my stats showing?
A: If your miner submits a share, then the stats for your miner will be available within the minute. The stats are cached for one minute to reduce repetitive calls to the database.

Q: Should I use port 3333 or 3334?
A: It's recommended you use port 3333 for casual miners with a hashrate less than 100Th/s. For anything higher, use port 3334. This means your miners will start from the minimum difficulty for that port, thus reducing the amount of shares being submitted to the pool. VarDiff is enabled if your miners do not send a suggested difficulty stratum message.

Q: How do I connect?
A: Use your bitcoin wallet address. You can use aliases to keep track of your individual miners as explained on the website.

Q: When will I find a block?
A: Pure probability. You may find one within a day, week, month or year. Solo bitcoin mining is based purely on luck. Miners are constantly, by random, generating thousands upon thousands of hashes per second. Only one will result in a valid block submission. This is the 'lottery' we speak about with solo mining.

I am also found within the BitAxe community (OSMU) discord as an active member. I have several BitAxe miners mining on the pool.

All miners are welcome, whether you have a mining farm or just doing it as a hobby like I am.

Happy mining!

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Just as a FYI, kano.is has been 0.5% fee for years and has been in operation since 2014. He also has nodes in Europe as well as the rest of the world so latency is not an issue.

That said, yes you 2 have the lowest fees.

[paid2]

Who would be crazy enough to risk a BTC block reward on a random new pool?  Nobody knows you OP.

We already have excellent solutions that have been doing fine for years:

-solo ckpool (admittedly there is only one node in the US)
-kano.is as suggested above, which is perfect
-ViaBTC, which also has nodes almost everywhere (but higher fees than kano)

[owen_a]

Just as a FYI, kano.is has been 0.5% fee for years and has been in operation since 2014. He also has nodes in Europe as well as the rest of the world so latency is not an issue.

That said, yes you 2 have the lowest fees.

Ah, well there you go. I'm not saying this pool is a replacement for anybody, and everybody should jump ship, but since I haven't found any other within the UK, I thought it may be attractive for UK miners. Which judging from messages I've received in our discord, it seems it is. I just wanted to put it out there since not everybody uses Reddit (where i originally posted).

[owen_a]

Who would be crazy enough to risk a BTC block reward on a random new pool?  Nobody knows you OP.

We already have excellent solutions that have been doing fine for years:

-solo ckpool (admittedly there is only one node in the US)
-kano.is as suggested above, which is perfect
-ViaBTC, which also has nodes almost everywhere (but higher fees than kano)

You're right, I've actually given up trying to gain access to my previous account on here since I locked it after the data breach on bitcointalk back in 2014 or so.

Regarding those pools, yes they're great, however this is purely UK based since the last time I checked, there's nothing over this side of the pond from the rest of Europe and the US.

I'm happy to answer any questions about the pool from what I might have missed in my original post. However, if we all didn't try another 'pool', we'd all be stuck with slushpool which would undeniably just take over the network.

[Nexus9090]

Who would be crazy enough to risk a BTC block reward on a random new pool?  Nobody knows you OP.

We already have excellent solutions that have been doing fine for years:

-solo ckpool (admittedly there is only one node in the US)
-kano.is as suggested above, which is perfect
-ViaBTC, which also has nodes almost everywhere (but higher fees than kano)

You're right, I've actually given up trying to gain access to my previous account on here since I locked it after the data breach on bitcointalk back in 2014 or so.

Regarding those pools, yes they're great, however this is purely UK based since the last time I checked, there's nothing over this side of the pond from the rest of Europe and the US.

I'm happy to answer any questions about the pool from what I might have missed in my original post. However, if we all didn't try another 'pool', we'd all be stuck with slushpool which would undeniably just take over the network.

I'm in the UK too and use CKPool as my daily driver. I dont see any great latency issues to CKpool no more than anywhere else to be honest. typically in the range of 60-80mS.

Your biggest challenge is one of trust.

While you may have a few friends and online buddies who are happy to use your pool, you have no payout history and a low trust because of it. Convincing anyone to join a new pool is going to be hard to do until you can prove your trust and payout worthyness.

Afterall, who's going to point their hard earned hashrate at your pool if you've no history of payouts?

While its a nice idea I'm not sure shaving 20mS off the latency and 0.5% is a big enough enticement to be honest, especially with zero history.

[owen_a]

Who would be crazy enough to risk a BTC block reward on a random new pool?  Nobody knows you OP.

We already have excellent solutions that have been doing fine for years:

-solo ckpool (admittedly there is only one node in the US)
-kano.is as suggested above, which is perfect
-ViaBTC, which also has nodes almost everywhere (but higher fees than kano)

You're right, I've actually given up trying to gain access to my previous account on here since I locked it after the data breach on bitcointalk back in 2014 or so.

Regarding those pools, yes they're great, however this is purely UK based since the last time I checked, there's nothing over this side of the pond from the rest of Europe and the US.

I'm happy to answer any questions about the pool from what I might have missed in my original post. However, if we all didn't try another 'pool', we'd all be stuck with slushpool which would undeniably just take over the network.

I'm in the UK too and use CKPool as my daily driver. I dont see any great latency issues to CKpool no more than anywhere else to be honest. typically in the range of 60-80mS.

Your biggest challenge is one of trust.

While you may have a few friends and online buddies who are happy to use your pool, you have no payout history and a low trust because of it. Convincing anyone to join a new pool is going to be hard to do until you can prove your trust and payout worthyness.

Afterall, who's going to point their hard earned hashrate at your pool if you've no history of payouts?

While its a nice idea I'm not sure shaving 20mS off the latency and 0.5% is a big enough enticement to be honest, especially with zero history.

Valid concerns. However it takes hashing power to achieve what you mentioned, more so than back in 2014. It's harder nowadays to actually find a block. SoloHash isn't going anywhere, so I guess keep an eye out for when we do find a block.

[Biffa]

I wish you luck OP, it'll take a few lucky blocks and proven payouts before most will trust you, but the more the merrier I reckon 

[philipma1957]

I wish you luck OP, it'll take a few lucky blocks and proven payouts before most will trust you, but the more the merrier I reckon 

yeah using small pools is tough.

I mined with mmpool.org for over 7 years

they ran off claiming they were hacked. we had gone two years without a block.

and https://pool.laurentiapool.org/#/ just shut down on I mined there for two years at least he closed before he ever hit a block.

ck pool has been around more than 10 years I talked him into starting it years and years ago.

lots of begging and pms but he did it and has been good at it.

For me to mine at a new pool risking a 3 coin loss is not something I want to do.

[paid2]

and https://pool.laurentiapool.org/#/ just shut down on I mined there for two years at least he closed before he ever hit a block.
--snip--

Oh I was not aware that Laurentiapool was closed now... 

What a shame, do we know the exact reason? Their website is unresponsive, did they sent some explanations?

(sorry for being a bit off-topic OP)

[VKBIT]

and https://pool.laurentiapool.org/#/ just shut down on I mined there for two years at least he closed before he ever hit a block.
--snip--

Oh I was not aware that Laurentiapool was closed now...  

What a shame, do we know the exact reason? Their website is unresponsive, did they sent some explanations?

(sorry for being a bit off-topic OP)

You can ask CK about that since he developed Laurentia for other group/person. Based on that idea, I later reached out to CK for help, but he declined (which worked out, as he would have likely charged a fortune). Fortunately, I managed myself and launched a similar SPLNS here: https://bitcoin.vkbit.com.

[owen_a]

I wish you luck OP, it'll take a few lucky blocks and proven payouts before most will trust you, but the more the merrier I reckon  

Thank you! Much appreciated! That's the idea, hopefully we'll get a block soon! It's just obviously much harder with the difficulty now than back in the day when other pools came online and were lucky to have the mining power early on to get the payout history.

[Ejarwan]

Great initiative, It’s always a plus to have a UK-based pool option, especially with reduced latency for miners nearby. Of course, it’s a challenge to get started against the established big players, but every pool had to prove itself at the beginning. Personally, I think if you manage to hit a few blocks early on, it could bring in more people. Wishing you the best of luck in landing those first few blocks!

[owen_a]

Great initiative, It’s always a plus to have a UK-based pool option, especially with reduced latency for miners nearby. Of course, it’s a challenge to get started against the established big players, but every pool had to prove itself at the beginning. Personally, I think if you manage to hit a few blocks early on, it could bring in more people. Wishing you the best of luck in landing those first few blocks!

Much appreciated! We're hovering at around 33 users and 80Th/s at the moment which is a new record I've seen. I noticed a spike in hashing power up to 1Ph/s that was quite nice a couple weeks ago - everything was stable and the hardware was barely touched. I'm available 99% of the time for any questions or assistance and just for general chat on Discord. Fingers crossed for our first block!

[owen_a]

Whilst not bitcoin, a miner successfully found Bitcoin Cash block 905047 at the end of June. Fully paid out and one happy miner! Found with a hashrate of around 1Ph/s.
Block explorer link here: https://bch.tokenview.io/en/block/905047

We also have 97 DigiByte blocks found and paid out to users.