No there is no difference in difficulty; if there was everyone would want to pool mine to get something for nothing. LOL.
I may not understand your question; if you are asking what is the benefit for you personally; none at this time since you can find a few blocks a day, it doesn't make much difference to you at this time.
But if we were solo mining feather, with a 100 difficulty, you would not get anything for 15-30 days; at that point the pool would come in handy, because the lookback would be 60 days (its dynamic), and members of the pool would be paid every time any other member of the pool finds a block, making regular payments would satisfy some miners as they go - if we had a high difficulty like that.
Rob H.
Ok, let me try to explain my question better:
When I normally join a pool, let's say I am joining for a coin which has a difficulty of 500. When I mine at that pool I submit shares that are a target difficulty of 16 (NOT a difficulty of 500).
Every round when a block of difficulty 500 is found they compare how many difficulty 16 shares I have submitted and pay me based on a ratio of my difficulty 16 shares as compared to the total of difficulty 16 shares.
Now, let's say Gridcoin's real difficulty is 500. When I join Gridcoin's pool, I am still mining at difficulty 500 which means I am NOT submitting shares, I am only solving blocks.
HOW am I EVER going to get paid from the pool when there are no shares being submitted...?
