Post
Topic
Board Mining
Re: Merged mining now live
by
Confucius
on 13/10/2011, 06:03:03 UTC

Pools can't have their cake and eat it too.  They can't use language which indicates a "fair split" and then perform an unfair split.

I completely agree and have never said otherwise.  If a pool says that it is giving you a "fair split" and then gives you an "unfair split" then they are cheating or incompetent (my problem with some of the proportional pools).  If they simply imply that the deal is fair but, when read carefully, it is not specifically state to be fair then it is dishonest or incompetent in my opinion (just like most advertising put out by large companies these days).  I'm much more interested in hearing what people think about a pool which explicitly states "We pay x BTC per share you submit" and nothing more.  Do you believe that they are guilty of fraud if and only if they use those shares to generate namecoins?  Is it really any business of the miner what the pool does with the hashes they have accumulated if there has been no agreement about what can and cannot be done with the hashes?


Principally, I believe omitting details in an advertisement that are directly related to your inputs (hidden fees, contracts etc, merged-mining etc) is not appropriate.
If it directly concerns you or your inputs, you should be informed.

I don't believe a hash has to be intellectual property for you to claim responsibility of that hash generation.
You cannot own a hash, a hash is an array of alphanumeric characters. You can however claim responsibility for submitting a generated hash to a pool.
If you claim responsibility of the hash you submitted that becomes your input.

Therefore, if you agree the above statements, we can logically conclude that you should be fully informed about how your inputs (claim of hash generation == work), are being used by the pool.

Remember, Bitcoin implements a Proof-Of-Work system for coin generation.
Only once you are fully aware of how your work is being utilized, can you then determine for yourself, what a 'fair split' is.