So, if mining at a smaller pool is a problem due to higher variance, then yes your only solution is to mine with the big pools like F2Pool and Antpool and support their choice of SPV mining and centralising the mining power in single places (FYI Antpool is also BW.Pool) ...
... which obviously enough is a catch-22: people mine there and make them bigger because ... they are bigger
I don't think that "mining in a smaller pool" is the problem. When is a pool a "smaller" pool? And why isn't it getting bigger?
If we look at some of those smaller pools, we see that "luck" has ran away lately. You, kano, have your issues with Luke-jr, nevertheless, I'd like to look at Eligius for a second: 12%, 14% luck with a hashrate of 14 PH seems odd.
Cex with 48-hour blocks, too, seems to be beaten by bad luck,... kano.is too.
The problem is that "luck" also seems to being centralized at the moment. I do not know if this has to do with SPV mining of the bigger pools. And yes, I d know that variance and luck are factors which play a role. But I do know, too, that even a small miner like me has to pay the electricity bill. And I do know that I don't want to mine with the Chinese pools. Or with KnC.
So what I would like to see is that smaller pools start discussing possibilities how to survive. Because it is as easy as this: IF small time miners will not be able to pay their bills, they have three choices:
- quit mining
- pay mining with their own money
- switch to bigger pools
So let me look at these possibilities:
- Quit mining basically means that the big pools will get the bigger percentage. So basically no option.
- Pay mining with my own money: That's fine, if someone has only one or two miners. With 60 Th/s, this hurts. I can tell you. And my wife starts beating me....
- Switching to bigger pools - i.e. Chinese pools - is no option. We all have seen again and again in ecomonies what centralization means.
So all these options lead basically to the same conclusion: Mine with the bigger pools, or die.
That's not what I like to see. So despite all feuds, all miners and all small pools should start to discuss what they could do for avoiding this.