Pool vs. solo mining

Why You Are Here

An article addressing the pros and cons of solo and pooled mining can often answer questions easier than simply asking in: [1]#bitcoin-mining.
Additionally, this page can serve as a reference for members of [2]#bitcoin-mining to direct those with questions.

What this topic discusses

The purpose of this page is to explain what the differences between pooled mining and solo mining. This Topic will give pros and cons of each to aid in the decision of a mining approach.

What is Pooled Mining?

Pooled mining "pools" all of the resources of the clients in that pool to generate the solution to a given block. When the pool solves a block, the 50 BTC generated by that block's solution is split and distributed between the pools participants.

What is Solo Mining?

Solo mining is when a miner performs the mining operations alone without joining a pool. All mined blocks are generate to the miner's credit.

Pros/Cons

Pool Mining Pros:

• Pool mining is a collaborative effort towards discovering a block.
• Pooled mining tends to generate a steadier income.
• There are some pools that don't have any fees.
• Pool mining tends to generate a level number of blocks as pooled miners are attracted at a rate consistent with difficulty increases.

Pool Mining Cons:

• Pool mining can suffer interruptions from outages at the pool provider.
• Pooled mining tends to generate a smaller income.
• The smaller income is a result, among other things, of the fact that most pools take a percentage of the coins its workers have discovered.
• If a pool cannot attract additional miners, or loses miners (e.g. due to policy or payout changes) the generation time increases along with difficulty.

Solo Mining Pros:

• Solo mining is less prone to outages resulting in higher uptime.
• Solo mining tends to generate a larger income over
• Solo mining doesn't incur any fees. For each discovered block, 50 BTC is paid to the miner

Solo Mining Cons:

• Solo mining tends to generate more erratic income.
• The generation of a block will tend to take several weeks with no payout.
• Solo mining generates fewer blocks over time as difficulty increases.

See Also

• Why pooled mining An article in favor of pooled mining.