This may not be the appropriate thread, but I was hoping to get some insight from others who believe in Bytecoin. Introducing ASIC miners like the Antminer X3 have completely changed BCN mining. For those now stuck with an Antminer X3 (or similar ASIC miner), Bytecoin is (in my eyes) the only solid choice when it comes to ASIC mining. The list of available Bytecoin mining pools was not big prior to the Antminer X3, and has become even smaller since.
One BCN mining pool in particular owns ~70% of the current Bytecoin network hashrate, which obviously poses several potential risks. I believe most people begin using this pool for the following reasons:
- They currently mine ~70% of all Bytecoin blocks, so payouts would [presumably] be larger than mining elsewhere
- They advertise a fee of 0%
- They offer "ASIC friendly" ports specifically for ASIC miners
- They offer to pay miners 500,000 BCN (the approximate cost of one Antminer X3) if they mine 500,000 BCN on their pool
- They recently had a promotion giving away a Antminer X3 miner to whomever found the most blocks, and other prizes for 2nd and 3rd place
- They offer to purchase users Antminer X3 miners for original purchase price, while letting them use it to mine for 3 months and keep 30% of the profit
With no fees, I wonder how a pool owner(s)/operator(s) are able to offer such costly promotions to attract miners, whom will essentially cost them even more money when they have to payout another person half of a million Bytecoin (assuming they stay long enough to meet the criteria). Even without attractive promotions, how would it be possible to offer zero fee mining while paying the associated costs of operating and running the world's largest Bytecoin mining pool? Lastly, why would anyone be concerned about someone so generously offering all of this?
The answer (but first some details) -
- My first day of mining on the pool using x1 Antminer X3 (220 Kh/s) was 2018 MAY 01
- I started mining with a second Antminer X3 (220 Kh/s) on 2018 JUNE 21
- For this purpose, I will only list mining payouts using BOTH Antminer X3 miners (a total of 440 Kh/s)
- Binance.com exchange users are provided with a standard unique Bytecoin address without needing a Payment ID, & was the address used to mine
- Information regarding mining payouts will be referenced using the deposit history details on Binance.com exchange
Now, back to the answer - In addition to the security of Bytecoin being completely compromised by having a single mining pool own such a large majority of the entire network, this pool undoubtedly kept a large number of my mining income! Based on my hashrate of ~440 Kh/s, payouts were generally extremely low, abnormal, and very inconsistent (at time of this post, using the calculator found on the pool, a hashrate of 440 Kh/s should yield ~2,547.57 BCN per day). There were also days I would receive no payouts/deposits, while my best day of mining with this pool earned me 1,540 BCN, I received a total payout of only 337 BCN the very next day with zero changes made on my end. On average, my true 24-hour earnings for mining on the pool over a period of 10 days was 537.9166666666667 BCN per day (FAR from the estimated 2,547.57 BCN per day the pools own calculator currently estimates)!
So, what happened to the other 2009.653 BCN per day I mined (a staggering difference of just over 20,000 BCN throughout the course of ten days mining on the pool)?! Back to the original question at hand - besides the Bytecoin dev team, who would spend such a significant amount of money to host a complex mining pool which also requires massive amounts of time for maintenance, support, updates, and everything else required to run such a pool, and why? It's nice to imagine there might be someone out there willing to spend all of the time and money required to operate a cryptocurrency mining pool of this magnitude simply because they are kind and generous, or perhaps they so strongly believe in Bytecoin and do it just because they are a believer! But let's not kid ourselves..
A free, zero fee mining pool not owned, endorsed, or supported by the official devs should be enough to realize something is off! Just think about it..
In summary, this is a very real and urgent danger, and I will no longer support Bytecoin if a single entity controls nearly 3/4 of the entire network, as it becomes much too risky. I strongly advise to mine Bytecoin elsewhere, and a quick Google search to find other pools is all it takes (my search led me to
https://bytecoin.pt/, as they have a low fee and use a PPS (pay per share) payment mechanism, but I haven't been mining their long enough to provide any other info as of now). Lastly, we must all unite to make this change happen, and especially if you are invested or tied to Bytecoin in ANY way (owners of cryptonight ASIC miners, Bytecoin miners, holders, investors, traders, believers, etc.)
