After much consideration and review of how our anti-pool hopping system is looked upon by members of the Bitcoin community, we have chosen to change the way in which it is working.

In the Past:
If a user participated in less than 50% of the round, their shares would be reduced by 10%, unless a donation was set, in which case, no penalty was applied.

This allowed for our users with legitimate disconnects, or reasons for being unable to mine during long rounds to avoid being hit with a penalty.

Some people seem to belive that this is a negative aspect of the anti-hopping system due to the easily cheatable nature of the system and the fact that pool hoppers are still given a large incentive to exploit our pool.

From Now on:
If a user participates in less than 50% of the round, their shares will be reduced by 50%, regardless of donation. 50% of the penalty fee will be directed toward the donations account and will be applied to server costs and future monthly contests. The other 50% of the penalty will be removed from the total shares for the round, which will in-hand cause the value of all remaining shares in the round to increase.

Example -

100,000 shares are in the round.

User A has 5000 shares and is NOT a hopper. Their estimated earnings before penalties are applied is 2.5 BTC.

User B has 5000 shares and IS A hopper. Their estimated earnings before penalties are applied is 2.5 BTC.

Once penalties are applied, User B's shares are reduced to 2500 where 1250 has been credited to donations and 1250 has been removed from the round. After the penalty is applied, User B's unconfirmed earnings are 1.265 BTC and User A's unconfirmed earnings are 2.5316 BTC.

At this time, any donation currently set on your account will remain in place. Donations will be processed prior to any penalties. As a reminder, donations are entirely voluntary and are not required to use this pool.

We will use this new method of calculating penalties for a one week trial period, at which time we will decide whether or not it is effectively deterring pool hopping and effectively rewarding loyal members of the pool.

Regards,

BitcoinPool Staff