Pool vs solo mining: which should you pick?

What is the difference between pool and solo mining?

Pool mining pays you small, steady amounts for your part of the pool's work. Solo mining pays whole blocks, but only the blocks your own rigs find. Both run on the same servers and ports.

How does pool mining pay you?

In pool mining, every miner submits shares. A share is a piece of work that proves your rig is mining. The pool pays for everyone's work together, under one of two schemes:

• PROP (proportional): each block the pool finds is split across the round, the shares since the previous block. Each miner gets a part in proportion to the shares they contributed.
• PPS+: every accepted share is paid as it arrives. A found block adds a small extra on top, from its transaction fees.

Either way, income arrives as many small, steady amounts. The pool statistics show, live, which reward scheme the pool runs and its fee.

How does solo mining pay you?

Put "solo:" in front of your wallet address, and you mine for whole blocks instead. You are paid only for blocks your own rigs find.

A win pays the full block reward minus the solo fee. The pool sets the solo fee apart from the pool fee.

The trade-off is variance, meaning how much your income swings. Long dry spells are normal, and a win pays everything at once.

Which one should you choose?

Let the solo mining calculator help you decide. Enter your hashrate, and it shows two things:

• The median time to your first block.
• Your odds of a block over a period you choose.

A simple rule: if the median time to a block is longer than you are happy to wait, mine in the pool. Solo fits large rigs and patient miners.

How do you switch between pool and solo?

Switching is instant. Add or remove the "solo:" prefix in your miner's wallet field, then restart the miner.

Nothing else changes. Your address keeps its history on the dashboard.