What is a mining pool
A mining pool combines hashrate from many miners and splits a found block among them. One machine waiting alone for a block is a rare event on today's network. A pool turns that long wait into a share of the blocks the group finds.
Why the work is grouped
One block pays the miner who finds it. That is the race in Bitcoin mining, and the next block is a fresh race. A small amount of hashrate can go a long time between blocks it finds on its own. A pool gives every member work on the same block template and sets an easier target than the network. A result that clears the pool's target is called a share. A share is not a block. It is proof the machine did the work, and the pool can check it. Now and then a share also clears the real network target. That one is a Bitcoin block, and the pool splits it.
Pools do not all split the same way. Pay per share pays a set amount for each share, whether or not a block landed in that stretch, and the pool carries the uneven days. Pay per last N shares pays from blocks the pool actually found, weighted toward recent work, so the uneven days stay with the miners. Either way, more hashrate is a larger part of that split.
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The fee on a rented day
On Infinity Hash the pool fee is 4% of that day's mined bitcoin, and it is already taken out of that bitcoin. The rest of the day's breakdown is on Bitcoin mining rewards and payouts. Bitcoin mining and electricity is the electricity taken from that same mined bitcoin. Mining difficulty still moves under the pool, and a Bitcoin halving still cuts the new bitcoin inside a block the pool finds.
Where rented hashrate is pointed
The farm points the machines at the pool. Your side of it is the TH you rented. You do not pick a pool, and you do not run pool software. The machines are SHA-256 ASIC miners. Hosted hashrate and buying a miner is the rental of the TH the pool is hashing.
Frequently asked questions
A single machine can go a long time between blocks. A pool finds blocks as a group and splits them, so the same hashrate is a share of the group's blocks instead of a long wait for a block of its own.
A hash that clears an easier target set by the pool. It proves the work. It is not usually a block the Bitcoin network accepts.
From the hashrate you contributed, counted through the shares your machines submitted. More hashrate is a larger part of the split.
No. The farm points the machines at the pool. Your side is the TH you rented.
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