So, namecoin and bitcoin have merged mining, we all know that, heck, the main dashboard on the slush's pool website shows all the namecoin blocks that are discovered and mined... So they've disabled the namecoin payouts for years now, namecoin is still being mined by the pool... So where is all the namecoins mined going? Straight into his pocket? 1 NMC = ~ 40 US cents and the pool's scoring hashrate is ~ 30 Petahashes. That is a hell of a lot of coin. If it isn't going down his fat gullet, then where is all of it disappearing to?
Slush wasn't merged mining for over a year, it only just started up again (I assume it's an option on the site somewhere to opt-in to receiving them). And while 1 NMC = $0.40, a pool only generates ~2.5 NMC blocks per BTC block.
It's hardly a "lot of coin" compared to the BTC being taken in via fees. EDIT: Okay, it's actually about a 20% increase in pool revenue for a 2% fee pool if they keep 100% of the merged mined NMC. Of course, selling that many coins will drop the price quite a bit.
