Do I need to register an account to mine?

Registration is not required. Just configure your miner according to our instructions and start mining. Your first submitted share will automatically register you with our pool.

Why is my reported hashrate zero or different from what my miner reports?

Pool and miner hashrates are re-calculated every ten minutes. Therefore it can take a maximum of ten minutes for your hashrate to update depending on the submission time of your first valid share. The hashrate we display at the pool is a rough approximation of your hashrate based on your submitted shares and can therefore differ significantly from the hashrate displayed locally. When in doubt always consider the value displayed by your miner as the correct one.

What is a SOLO mining pool?

Solo mining pool is a mining pool configured in such a way that each miner works independently of the others. The block reward goes to only the miner who found it, others do not get anything. Block search time depends on your hashrate and effort.

What is a PPLNS mining pool?

PPLNS is short for "Pay Per Last N Shares". The image below illustrates the system. One round has an arbitrary number of shares which is solely based on sheer luck. Proportional reward systems only consider shares of one round when calculating rewards. PPLNS however, uses a quite constant number N of shares for calculating rewards. This number N changes only with the difficulty:

 

As you know the number of shares needed to solve a block within a round is different. Round one and three needed (difficulty * 2) shares to be solved. Round two and four are quite short rounds. There were less than (difficulty * 2) shares necessary to solve them. Round five however is a very long round which means the pool needed more than (difficulty * 2) shares to solve the block. From this follows that:

• Rounds one and three are like proportional rounds. All of your shares from the given round are considered for reward calculations
• For rounds two and four, shares from the previous rounds are considered for calculations as well (marked green). In other words: regardless of round boundaries we always consider the last (difficulty * 2) shares. Your portion of the amount of shares is used to calculate your reward.
• Round five however is very long. In this round your lowermost shares (within the marked red part) are silently dropped if they are not within the last (difficulty * 2) shares.

PPLNS favors constant and/or occasional loyal pool members over pool hoppers. Pool hoppers are betting for a "quick win" (like round two above) with low shares per round. If the round exceeds a certain amount of shares they "hop" to another proportional pool which started a new round more recently. This assures better rewards for pool hoppers over occasional or constant miners which are loyal to their pool. Pool hopping however implies that pool hoppers need to know when a round is started and how much shares are considered for reward. This is very easy with proportional reward system. While using PPLNS, this is no longer true. On long rounds (like round five above) the pool hoppers shares won’t be considered for reward calculations in favor of loyal miners. This is due to the fact that pool hoppers only mine on the beginning of rounds. On short and normal rounds pool hoppers won’t lose their shares. Due to the fact that shares from previous rounds from loyal miners are considered twice (or even more often on extremely short rounds) the pool hopper won’t get the same reward as from proportional reward system.

Assuming blocks have been found, payouts are processed and send every 10 minutes. This process is fully automated.

When will I get paid?

You won't see any balance in your account until a block has been found by the pool and after the block has reached a mature status. This may take a couple hours, depending on the coin. As soon as a block can be considered 'mature' by the pool, your shares will be used to calculate your contribution towards finding the block. The more you've contributed, the higher your cut of the block reward will be. Your cut of the block reward will then be credited to your pending balance. If your balance reaches or exceeds the pool's minimum payout amount, the pool will transfer your entire balance to your wallet and reset your pending balance to zero. The minimum payout for each pool is listed in its 'Start Mining' area.

The rewards you get on average are exactly proportional to your part in the total work done by the pool.

Why is my reward 0 after several hours of mining?

Our mining pools have reward system by found block. The miner receives a reward only if he finds a block. The miner does not receive a reward for shares or time spent.

What is effort?

Effort is a simple counter of your work in relation to difficulty of the network. If you find a block with a personal effort value equal to 100%, then the work you spent will be equal to the calculated one for various calculators. If you find a block with a personal effort value equal to 50%, then the work you spent will be 2 times less than the calculated on various calculators, you will get 2 times more profit.

Why effort can be 300% or more?

Mining is a complex computing process. You cannot always find blocks with the same effort value. You can find several blocks with a effort value of less than 30%, and find another block with a effort value of 700%. The average value of effort always tends to 100%.

Why is the value of personal effort decreased?

The value of the current effort is calculated by the formula: effort = (spent work on finding the block) / (current network difficulty). If the network difficulty quickly grows 2 times, the value of effort will decrease 2 times. If the network difficulty quickly drops by 2 times, the value of effort will increase by 2 times. The value of effort is recorded at the time you find the block and is shown in the rewards section. The block search process starts anew, the value of the current effort is reset to 0%.

Why is the number of payouts less than the number of found blocks?

Payouts are sent at a set interval, usually every hour. The balance for several blocks can be paid in one payout if these blocks have been confirmed during this interval.

What does "Share Difficulty" mean and which port to choose?

The share difficulty of port is the minimum threshold value of the solution (share) that the pool is ready to accept from the miner. The miner's software gets the share difficulty of port and generates solutions (shares) for the pool with a difficulty not lower than the share difficulty value. To solve a block, a miner needs to find a solution (share) with a difficulty higher than the current blockchain difficulty. The share difficulty of ports on our pools is lower than the current blockchain difficulty. Any solution (share) on any port can solve a block. Therefore, the choice of the port does not affect the search of block. The choice of the port only affects the load of your equipment and traffic, as well as the charts of your statistics on the pool.

What is a proxies software?

The miners uses a special proxies software to filter shares. Proxies software submit only shares that solve the block, the other shares are deleted. The pool calculates hashrate and effort based on shares received from miners. But a miners using a proxies software does not send all shares to the pool. Therefore, the pool cannot calculate the real hashrate and effort of such a miners.