wait when was "backup_latehop" added.. what does it do versus backup? just makes sure you dont use the percents? is this c00ws or ed64? what
c00w's (well, both I guess).
In the user.cfg.default it says:
#backup_latehop = prefers this for backup if PPS pool
has high share count, recommended for all backups
backup_latehop is my implementation.
What it does:
Instead of selecting the backup pool with the lowest stale percentage (as far as I understood, that's the main selection criteria) it selects the backup pool with the highest pool share count.
This does NOTHING to your expected payout (especially not on PPS, but should also not change anything on PPLNS/Scored) and is just a counter measure against people irrationally leaving hopping proof pools on long rounds. It is intended to help these hopping safe pools (used as backup) who are "stuck" on longer rounds by giving them a boost in the end. Also some people seem to like to hop into backup pools that have a high CDF (which is irrational... but anyways). The description is not by me, and I'm generally not too happy with the descriptions in user.cfg.default --> I might do a change + pull request there.
Variance of backup payouts will increase if you add scored + PPLNS pools as backup additionally to the *PPS ones already present, but in the longer run there's no difference. There should be also no difference between backup + backup_latehop. backup prefers lower stale rates, but backup pools might get hopped hard and overload - backup_latehop should get lower loaded servers usually, as people choose to manually hop away on long rounds. I implemented it as a different method because it's hard to have both (there will always be a server that has the most shares and there will always be one that has the lowest stale rate - how to decide then?!) and people might want to choose.
I personally use backup_latehop, as I see it as a kind of "reward" from the more intelligent/rational miner type to pools. It is rational/intelligent to leave on prop. pools early, as you earn more. It is also rational/intelligent to hop into backup pools at any time and pools often suffer on longer rounds. Should this get exploited, you can always switch back to the usual backup method.