Over the past few days there has been conversation relating to understanding payouts from mining on GHash.IO. We have just posted a blog on our website detailing how to read some of the data presented in our mining statistics 'Last Blocks' table. Hopefully it will help out some users.
Blog Link:
http://blog.cex.io/ghash-io-reading-the-last-blocks-spreadsheet/Reading the last blocks spreadsheet:When visiting the GHash.IO website, it’s important to make sure that you completely understand all of the information that is being thrown your way. There are a large number of mining statistics available to the individuals who wish to join the mining pool, and these stats can be helpful when it comes to gauging your investment over the long term. The “Last Blocks” spreadsheet on the GHash.IO will tell you everything you need to know about recent blocks that were mined by the Ghash.IO pool. Let’s take a look at each individual stat found on this sheet to make sure you know exactly what it is that you’re reading.
IDThe ID is a number given to each block that is mined by the GHash.IO mining pool. This is simply a unique identifier that can be used to reference a certain block at a later date. A block only receives an ID on the Last Blocks spreadsheet if it was mined by the GHash.IO mining pool. The IDs are handed out in order of when the blocks were originally mined.
CompletedThe Completed column on the spreadsheet points to the specific time that the block was mined. This information can be useful when searching for a specific block that was found during a certain time period.
BlockThe Block is another form of ID for the block that was mined by GHash.IO, but this is the block number as recorded by the blockchain of the particular cryptocurrency that is being mined. Ghash.IO does not mine every block on each blockchain, which means there will usually be gaps between the block numbers listed on the Last Blocks spreadsheet. The block number is useful when searching for more information about a specific block that was mined on a particular blockchain. For example, you can find out basically anything about a certain Bitcoin block by searching for the block number on blockchain.info.
ValueThis column lists the block reward for each block. Although the block reward is predictable due to the transparent nature of cryptocurrencies, there are also transaction fees to think about when it comes to the final payout. Most miners will know the size of a particular block reward due to their familiarity with block reward halving schedules, so the most useful information in this particular field could be the amount of transaction fees that have been added on to the base block reward.
StatusThe Status of each block is determined by the number of confirmations that it has received. Payouts are not made until six confirmations have passed on the blockchain. This is a safety precaution to make sure that the legitimacy of mining rewards are as secure as possible. The 120 number comes from the number of confirmations that are needed before newly mined bitcoins can be spent in the original Satoshi client.
DurationThe Duration column allows you to see how long it had been since the previous block that was mined by GHash.IO. This is not the amount of time it took to mine that one particular block, but rather the amount of time it took to attempt to mine all of the blocks since the previous block that was successfully mined by GHash.IO.
Hash RateThe Hash Rate is the amount of hashing power provided by the GHash.IO mining pool during the mining of that particular block. This is not the network hashrate of the entire Bitcoin network.
Your SharesThis field is the total number of shares you owned during the mining of a particular block, as compared to the total number of shares available in the GHash.IO mining pool.
ScoreYour score is simply the percentage of your shares of mining power as compared to the rest of the GHash.IO mining pool.
Total WorkMost cryptocurrencies are still based on proof-of-work, so the Total Work column is the amount of work output by the entire GHash.IO mining pool in order to mine one block. It should be noted that the work from previous blocks which were not mined by GHash.IO are also included in this number. Work is basically the number of computations run by the entire GHash.IO mining pool during the search for a block reward. The amount of work that is needed to actually mine a block is closely related to the current Bitcoin difficulty.
PayoutThis is your personal payout from a particular block mined by the GHash.IO mining pool. Your payout should be proportional to the amount of the overall mining power that you own in the pool.