I recently came across a project called Parasite Pool, currently in beta, which introduces an alternative model to traditional Bitcoin mining.
The concept is framed as a response to the growing centralization in mining, where a handful of pools control most of the global hashrate often using distribution models (such as FPPS or PPS) that can disadvantage small-scale home miners. Parasite aims to refocus on the individual miner, offering some notable features:
No fees for participants;
- Very low payout threshold (10 satoshis);
- Lightning Network payouts with simplified integration;
- Block reward distribution that gives 1 BTC to the block finder, and the remainder to other participants;
- Payouts are made only after a block is found (no pre-payments).
The project is still in testing and has not yet found a block, but it aims to provide a more decentralized and accessible alternative for smaller miners.
The full article explaining the technical and economic design is available here, written by ZkShark.
https://zkshark.substack.com/p/parasite-pool-igniting-the-mining Has anyone here heard of Parasite Pool or tried it out?
I'm interested to know whether it might be a viable option over time,
especially as we head into future halvings.
https://parasite.space/I have fucked around with small pools on and off. every small pool but two have failed.
more than one has cut and run when a block got hit.
I can explain why they are not that good. but frankly A pool has to be able to hit a block in under a year.
if a pool has 1eh it should hit a block once a week
if a pool has 500 ph it should hit a block once every 2 weeks
if a pool has 250 ph it should hit a block once every 4 weeks
if a pool has 125 ph it should hit a block once every 8 weeks
if a pool has 62.5 ph it should hit a block once every 16 weeks
people can wait a month or two even three or four months but all of the above could be 3x to 5x slower with bad luck
that is what kills the pools off. a bad luck run grinds the miners down
