One of the more popular minerstat features is profit switching and while we support switching between different coins, we also support various profit switching pools.
In this article, we will outline different types of multi pools, their characteristics, special features, and all the important things that you need to keep in mind when choosing such a pool.
🔬 Multi pools categories
When we talk about the multi pools we have in mind pools that allow mining of different coins or different algorithms and offer a reward in an alternative cryptocurrency.
We could divide such pools into two larger groups.
Auto-exchange pools
Auto-exchange pools are regular pools where you can mine different coins or you can mine different algorithms and the pool will switch to the most profitable coin within this algorithm. Such pools also offer an auto-exchange feature where all mined coins are automatically exchanged to the cryptocurrency of your choosing, which is either defined in the pool’s dashboard or through the password parameter. Usually, such pools offer auto-exchange to BTC, but a lot of them also support other cryptocurrencies.
Marketplaces
Marketplaces are pools that allow selling and buying of the hashing power. As a miner, you are put into the position of a seller and the buyer is the one who determines which coin will be mined and to which pool the hashing power will be redirected. For such renting, the buyer pays you a certain amount in a cryptocurrency that is supported by the marketplace while the buyer gets the coins that are mined by you.
💰 Multi pools reward methods
Besides the different categories, every pool also has its own reward method. The reward method usually plays the largest role in hourly or daily earnings on the pool and why it differs so much from what different mining calculators are reporting. Here are a few reward methods that are most popular with multi pools.
Pay-per-share (PPS)
Pay-per-share or PPS reward method is the method that miners love the most, but it represents the highest risk for the pool. It means that the miner is paid for every (valid) share he or she contributes to the pool. However, since the pool only gets the coins if the block is found, this means it has to pay its miners also when there are no blocks found. That’s why pools usually prefer to use other reward methods. The ones that are using the PPS reward method, usually also have higher fees.
Proportional reward (PROP)
The proportional or PROP reward method works the opposite. In the PROP scheme, the miners are paid when and if the block is found and the reward depends on how many valid shares were submitted by the miner and contributed to finding that block. If one miner contributed 10% of the total shares that were needed to find the block and the reward in the block is 100 coins, the miner will get 10 coins.
Pay-per-last-N-shares (PPLNS)
The pay-per-last-N-shares or PPLNS reward method works in a similar way as the PROP scheme, however, it extends the period of the number of shares a miner has submitted over the last few blocks. This prevents so-called pool hopping (which a miner is doing if he or she is using profit switch too frequently) and penalizes disloyalty to the pool. On such pools, a miner will see that he or she earns a very small reward, but with time, the earnings slowly climb to the expected number.
Dynamic pay-per-last-N-shares (DPPLNS)
The dynamic pay-per-last-N-shares or DPPLNS reward method works in a similar way as the PPLNS, but with an additional mechanism that dynamically decides for how many last blocks the submitted shares will be checked. It also eliminates the issue of very small rewards at the beginning of the mining.
📜 Multi pools collection
In this section, we will present multi pools that we know of. Some of them are also our partners, which means that you can quickly start with mining on them through your minerstat dashboard. The ones that aren’t our partners are also supported with minerstat as you can mine on any pool you like. If we missed any pool, let us know and we will add it to this list.
To keep it fair, we will list pools in alphabetical order. The data was last updated on 22nd March 2020.
Luxor ⭐️
- Reward method: PPS;
- Fee: 2–3%;
- Number of coins: 11;
- Number of miners: 10,000;
- Special features: Auto-exchange to BTC through Catalyst service.
Mining Dutch ⭐️
- Reward method: PROP, DPPS;
- Fee: 1.9%;
- Number of algorithms: 30;
- Number of miners: 9,000;
- Special features: Auto-exchange to BTC and other cryptocurrencies.
Mining Pool Hub ⭐️
- Reward method: PPLNS;
- Fee: 0.9%;
- Number of algorithms: 18;
- Special features: Auto-exchange to BTC and other cryptocurrencies.
Mining Rig Rentals⭐️
- Reward method: Paid at a fixed price for the time the rig is rented;
- Fee: 3%;
- Number of algorithms: 100+;
- Special features: Rig renting service with payment in BTC and other cryptocurrencies.
MoneroOcean
- Reward method: PPLNS;
- Fee: 0%;
- Number of algorithms: 10+;
- Special features: Auto-conversion to XMR.
NLPool ⭐️
- Reward method: DPPLNS;
- Fee: 0.5%;
- Number of algorithms: 20;
- Number of miners: 5,000;
- Special features: Auto-exchange to BTC and LTC.
NiceHash ⭐️
- Reward method: PPS;
- Fee: 2-5% fee;
- Number of algorithms: 31;
- Number of miners: 200,000;
- Special features: Marketplace with payments in BTC with additional service of crypto-to-crypto exchange.
Prohashing ⭐️
- Reward method: PPS, PPLNS, DPPLNS;
- Fee: 0.99-3.99%;
- Number of algorithms: 16;
- Number of miners: 1,500;
- Special features: Auto-exchange to BTC and other cryptocurrencies.
Zergpool ⭐️
- Reward method: PROP;
- Fee: 0.5%;
- Number of algorithms: 92;
- Number of miners: 20,000;
- Special features: Auto-exchange to BTC and other cryptocurrencies.
Zpool ⭐️
- Reward method: PROP;
- Fee: 0.25-1.25%;
- Number of algorithms: 70;
- Number of miners: 25,000;
- Special features: Auto-exchange to BTC and other cryptocurrencies.
Others
There are other multi pools available, but due to the smaller number of miners or inactivity on social networks, we didn’t describe them in detail: A Hash Pool, Blazepool, Block Masters, and others.
