In our HPC sales process, we are often finding that the first question we are asked is, "How big is your cluster?". We want our pool to grow fast so we can get the most lucrative compute jobs online as soon as possible. Because HPC pricing is time sensitive, 100 miners mining for an hour is worth more than 1 miner mining for 100 hours.
OK I see how having a big cluster is good for marketing. But the weird terms of use severely limit your potential pool size.
You aren't going to find a more advanced user base of early adapters than here on BTCTalk. So what does is mean when when the whole "future earnings insurance" idea goes over like a lead balloon, confusing some very smart people and even generating accusations of OMGPonziScam? It means keep it simple sweetheart.
If you want to get everyone to consider using your pool, you must offer a more competitive rate for the same quality of service as OzCoin, DeepBit, or BTCGuild.Look at how well CoinSauce did by initially offering 100% PPS. All you need to do is
beat the market rate of 95% and viola, instant user base of up to 200Petaflops!Don't try to make your users share the burden of future risk, it's now obvious that they are not interested. Bitcoins talk, BS vaporware walks. /tough love
Focus on your core competency of linking *coin miners' supply of processing power to the HPC market's demand. The drama and risks of running a pool dilute and threaten the CoinLab brand.
Have you thought about partnering with existing pools instead of running your own? The tax implications alone are sufficient reason to deal with a small number of pool operators instead of a large number of pool users.
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