- optionally select your desired speed (to-do)
You really need to add this option. Most pools use PPLNS and I don't think it works great with current system. If you mine for 1hr at insane speed, and then just switch it off, I'm pretty sure pool pays you a lot less. Also buying hashing power for a short period of time might screw you over if pool was unlucky during that time. Renting stable 10MH/s for 24hrs is a lot better than renting 500MH/s for 1hr IMO.
Will do it soon ... it on our high-priority top to-do list.
I would just like to add a few things about mining and renting hash power. When you hire a rig, you don't hire it because of the constant speed it offers, but because it can mine you some coins. To mine coins efficiently, it is all about proper timing. And what you need besides proper timing? High hashing speed - so that you can take all the blocks for yourself and maximize the profit.
Try to be more "open" minded and you will realize at the end, that this is a great service. NiceHash offers you proper timing (you can put order up and take it down whenever you want) and high hashing speed. Everything else are details and mind obstructions laid by other prior services.
It is strange, that not one of you talks about the main benefit you gain as a buyer -
reliability. You don't have to be worried about rigs going down, you don't have to contact providers or open tickets to get a refund, you don't have to measure and monitor speeds constantly to see if the provider didn't trick you out for few khs.
If you asked me 2 months back if I would risk some BTCs to hire some hashing power to mine a coin - my answer would be no - not because I wouldn't know which coin to mine, but because I wouldn't trust anyone to hire rigs from. It is no problem to risk small amounts, that is acceptable, but imagine situation you would like to invest large amount, like 5 BTCs to get a decent amount of coins when there is a chance to get them at low diff rate. If the expected turn-over is then 5.5 BTCs, that means to actually earn 0.5 BTCs, you need to hire 100% reliable rigs. Now, how many rigs do you need to hire to get 1 GH/s hashing power? A lot! And how many of these will perform 100% reliably during this period? 80% if you are lucky. The rest, you will have to beg for refunds, extensions, wasting your time doing this and minimizing your profit.
NiceHash takes everything to the next level, because as a buyer, you can actually play by statistics and then actually win, even if the statistics tell you the profit is only 1% - at the end, you actually get this profit, hassle free.
If you ask me now, would I risk some BTCs to buy hashing power on NiceHash? Yes I would! Just let me find a coin on which it is worth (I am a bit rusty in that now, haven't been up with the scene lately). The only remaining thing to worry about is which coin (and pool) to pick - nothing else! And that is the major benefit of NiceHash.
And yes, in some cases, mining with 3 GH/s might be an overkill - if there is just few MH/s of network power, it is pointless to come in with 3 GH/s on a coin that adjusts diff quickly. A 100 MH/s hashing power would be enough. Now this is a feature that will come in soon - you will be able to limit your maximal hashing power.
After thinking for a while, there are other use cases for the service - not explored yet. Just let me give you some hints (assuming offered hashing speed is few GH/s in near future):
1. You can fork (shit) coins with this.
2. You can compete with multipools directly - if you can quickly detect these "holes" of low diffs on coins, you can extract a lot of coins out of this. I believe some already have algorithms for that and combining them with offered hashpower from NiceHash could really earn you some decent amount of coins, way above what you pay for hashes.
3. Use slush0's stratum proxy and you can solo mine with few GH/s - that one alone is worth trying once at least