Topic: Pool hopping..... yea or nay? (Read 380 times)
With a little more time under my belt, I found out what works and what doesn't. Every so often, when Slush hasn't found a block for many hours, I jump into slush until they hit 2 or 3 blocks, and jump back out. It actually works quite well if you have a little luck with the timing and blocks. Most times, it will increase my daily earnings a good 10-15%
Thank you. I agree. Running a month here, and month there will be difficult to calculate after all the diff changes. I'll leave well enough alone for now.
As I'm in the long game.... i figured I'd keep it simple. Run 30 days on slush. Run 30 days on btc.com. See if there's that much of a payout/earning difference during that time frame (after I take difficulty increase into acct). There's gotta be a reason more miners operate on btc.com than slush. If there's a notable difference, I'll stay with the better payer. If the difference is negligible, I'll go with the easiest to use/understand interface.
I think the more correct test would be to run two identical mining gear against the two pools in parallel, that is, no hopping of those two.
If you have a large group of miners, then you "could" hop those based on that information. Add more miners/pools to evaluate more in real time, and stats will improve over time. A year evaluation is far more valuable than a month, and a day is nearly worthless.
Usually once you find a pool good enough, it tends to remain that way making hopping unnecessary and in fact a waste of hashing time.
Ideally you could just run cgminer's balance mode and dedicate a single unit to this task (and permanently evaluate all the pools you want from it), but i don't know how harmful this switching is. From experience, I'd say its harmful without #xnsub, it wastes too much time switching and the hashrate is impacted significantly. So, multiple (identical) units pointed different pools would be best to have those pools profits properly checked realtime.
As I'm in the long game.... i figured I'd keep it simple. Run 30 days on slush. Run 30 days on btc.com. .
The results you are going to get out of this "test" should not be taken very seriously ! , since you are going to be mining at PPS on btc.com and PPLNS on slushpool, the difference between wining and losing is totally based on slushpool's luck for that month.
Since the two pools pay for block fees, overall pool fees are the what is going to determine what pool pays you the most but you need to let them run for long enough , one month is not enough IMO.
for my case, I don't have very stable internet connection, power cuts here and there and PPLNS was not the best option for me, so I move PPS+ and the payout are a lot higher despite the higher pool fees.
Just my opinion here but I would say most on a pool like BTC.com are in a couple categories. Misinformed about mining and fell for the flashy website. Entirely business focused and more concerned with a known expected payout per day. This one is just pure guess but i imagine they also have a large amount of their own hashrate. Then there are the farms that probably receive e a discounted fee to keep their hashrate stable.
I personally like PPLNS and am only using pps+ at the moment for the purpose of a review. I am also just a home miner who only answers to himself so I have that luxury
I personally like PPLNS and am only using pps+ at the moment for the purpose of a review. I am also just a home miner who only answers to himself so I have that luxury
Yeah, home miner here as well. I couldn't care less about daily payout. Not concerned if its weekly monthly or whatever. Just want to accumulate at the best rate for long term storage.
And the only number I'm worried about is what the price of btc will be in 2027, and how much I can accumulate by then. That will determine if I can fully retire with 25yrs of service, or if I need to work another 5yrs for the $1/4mil lump sum D.R.O.P payout.
Just my opinion here but I would say most on a pool like BTC.com are in a couple categories. Misinformed about mining and fell for the flashy website. Entirely business focused and more concerned with a known expected payout per day. This one is just pure guess but i imagine they also have a large amount of their own hashrate. Then there are the farms that probably receive e a discounted fee to keep their hashrate stable.
I personally like PPLNS and am only using pps+ at the moment for the purpose of a review. I am also just a home miner who only answers to himself so I have that luxury
I personally like PPLNS and am only using pps+ at the moment for the purpose of a review. I am also just a home miner who only answers to himself so I have that luxury
In short it's not worth it but you might feel better about the situation as you've done something to mitigate the issue. Purely psychological in this case as your friend is reacting to what has already happened, It's like sandbagging your house for flooding after the water reaches your doorstep.
Now if your buddy were trying to gamble and game the situation, by watching the block stats and trying to guess when those 12 hour windows of no blocks will be then he could be said to maybe do better. It would be marginal though. His biggest issue is that once you leave slush, you then ramp down and when they do find a block or their next set of 5 you receive nothing. Miners just have to accept that you will have blocks that take 5,10,15 times longer than expected.
I also consider myself very much a set it and forget it guy. It is good to evaluate your situation every now and then though.
Now if your buddy were trying to gamble and game the situation, by watching the block stats and trying to guess when those 12 hour windows of no blocks will be then he could be said to maybe do better. It would be marginal though. His biggest issue is that once you leave slush, you then ramp down and when they do find a block or their next set of 5 you receive nothing. Miners just have to accept that you will have blocks that take 5,10,15 times longer than expected.
I also consider myself very much a set it and forget it guy. It is good to evaluate your situation every now and then though.
Thanks for your valued opinion. That also goes to others who have responded.
As I'm in the long game.... i figured I'd keep it simple. Run 30 days on slush. Run 30 days on btc.com. See if there's that much of a payout/earning difference during that time frame (after I take difficulty increase into acct). There's gotta be a reason more miners operate on btc.com than slush. If there's a notable difference, I'll stay with the better payer. If the difference is negligible, I'll go with the easiest to use/understand interface.
In short it's not worth it but you might feel better about the situation as you've done something to mitigate the issue. Purely psychological in this case as your friend is reacting to what has already happened, It's like sandbagging your house for flooding after the water reaches your doorstep.
Now if your buddy were trying to gamble and game the situation, by watching the block stats and trying to guess when those 12 hour windows of no blocks will be then he could be said to maybe do better. It would be marginal though. His biggest issue is that once you leave slush, you then ramp down and when they do find a block or their next set of 5 you receive nothing. Miners just have to accept that you will have blocks that take 5,10,15 times longer than expected.
I also consider myself very much a set it and forget it guy. It is good to evaluate your situation every now and then though.
Now if your buddy were trying to gamble and game the situation, by watching the block stats and trying to guess when those 12 hour windows of no blocks will be then he could be said to maybe do better. It would be marginal though. His biggest issue is that once you leave slush, you then ramp down and when they do find a block or their next set of 5 you receive nothing. Miners just have to accept that you will have blocks that take 5,10,15 times longer than expected.
I also consider myself very much a set it and forget it guy. It is good to evaluate your situation every now and then though.
The time to pool hop comes near the 1/2 ing .
If you are fully ramped on a ppns pool and switch to a pps+ right before the 1/2 ing you get higher hash power right before the 1/2 ing. Then when the 1/2 ing hits you can stay on the pps+ pool.
Of course we don’t have many ppns pools that are big enough left to make this worth while.
A 2 or 3 block a week 5n pool would be good. You could leave it 10 days before the 1/2 ing.
Hit 5 times while collecting fully from the pps+ pool.
If you are fully ramped on a ppns pool and switch to a pps+ right before the 1/2 ing you get higher hash power right before the 1/2 ing. Then when the 1/2 ing hits you can stay on the pps+ pool.
Of course we don’t have many ppns pools that are big enough left to make this worth while.
A 2 or 3 block a week 5n pool would be good. You could leave it 10 days before the 1/2 ing.
Hit 5 times while collecting fully from the pps+ pool.
Usually hoping = not good. But what it seemed like your friend did was:
He was being paid on a PPLNS system, no blocks were found so nothing was paid.
He switched to another pool either PPLNS or PPS.
PPLNS you only get paid for your share towards the block.
PPS you get paid per share you submit even if the pool doesn't find a block.
I would read up on the different payout methods and judge for yourself what risk you are willing to take. Some useful info is stickied in this forum but here is a link: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/btc-mining-pools-list-104664
He was being paid on a PPLNS system, no blocks were found so nothing was paid.
He switched to another pool either PPLNS or PPS.
PPLNS you only get paid for your share towards the block.
PPS you get paid per share you submit even if the pool doesn't find a block.
I would read up on the different payout methods and judge for yourself what risk you are willing to take. Some useful info is stickied in this forum but here is a link: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/btc-mining-pools-list-104664
Friend of mine and I both started mining btc about the same time and speak daily.
He's got more of an electronics brain, and mine is more electrical. So, I'm not great with the technicals, where he is.
We both started mining on Slushpool. Everything's going fine for me. I'm in a nice Ron Popeil, set it and forget it, mindset. (You might have to google that if you're under 40yo).
Buddy opened an acct with btc.com and has been hoping back n forth.
I know there's different payout methods, and I'll admit, figuring them out is probably beyond my stone-age comprehension level.
Today my friend says.... "Screw this, Slushpool is taking forever to find blocks, I'm jumping over to btc.com"
So my question to the experienced miners...... 1.) is my buddy taking advantage and getting better payouts by jumping back and forth? 2.) is there a 'mining payout for dummies' explanation that will help me decide if I should stay with Slush or move elsewhere?
I haven't seen my estimated daily payout drop except for when difficulty rises.
(Note: I'm running about 120TH avg now, will be 160-170 in November)
He's got more of an electronics brain, and mine is more electrical. So, I'm not great with the technicals, where he is.
We both started mining on Slushpool. Everything's going fine for me. I'm in a nice Ron Popeil, set it and forget it, mindset. (You might have to google that if you're under 40yo).
Buddy opened an acct with btc.com and has been hoping back n forth.
I know there's different payout methods, and I'll admit, figuring them out is probably beyond my stone-age comprehension level.
Today my friend says.... "Screw this, Slushpool is taking forever to find blocks, I'm jumping over to btc.com"
So my question to the experienced miners...... 1.) is my buddy taking advantage and getting better payouts by jumping back and forth? 2.) is there a 'mining payout for dummies' explanation that will help me decide if I should stay with Slush or move elsewhere?
I haven't seen my estimated daily payout drop except for when difficulty rises.
(Note: I'm running about 120TH avg now, will be 160-170 in November)
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