Quote from: jonnybravo0311 on August 26, 2014, 12:43:21 PM

Quote from: CryptoPanda on August 26, 2014, 12:27:15 PM

Quote from: jonnybravo0311 on August 26, 2014, 11:31:10 AM

Quote from: cryptoceelo on August 26, 2014, 11:20:12 AM

think of p2pool similar to bit torrent decentralised peer-to-peer.

p2pool that has different nodes you can connect to that make up the entire p2pool, you can either create your own node or join someone eleses, the fee paid depends on the pool you connect to.

to see the total power you can go to

http://www.blockchain.com/pool

or

http://p2pool.info/

I wouldn't use p2pool.info... it's got some pretty glaring mistakes (number of miners, etc). http://minefast.coincadence.com is much better.

@CryptoPanda, everyone in p2pool is mining in the same pool. There are no clusters mining separately from other clusters. It's all one, big, happy pool. You can find the total hash power of the p2pool network on any node - even the default UI. It is up to each individual node to determine any fees and donations that are charged. For example, my own node charges 0% fees (because I'm the only one who mines on it, so why bother charging myself). Windpath's node (minefast.coincadence.com that I mentioned above) also charges 0% fees.

Quote from: CryptoPanda on August 26, 2014, 11:27:58 AM

so are all using p2pool contributing to the same total hash power or there is some federation?
I just want to make sure that my variance wont be too big if i switch to p2pool

Yes, all p2pool miners are contributing to the global p2pool rate. That rate at this very moment is 2.25PH/s. Let me ask you - how much hashing power are you planning to bring to p2pool? Variance is a bear with p2pool because of the nature of the share chain.

that helps as lot thank you
So the current hash power is 1-2% of the total. That would mean quite a lot of variance.

I can bring 900ghs with 2 S3 antminers

OK... p2pool works by finding shares which are added to the share chain. Think of it like solving a pretty low difficulty block of coins. The problem is that as more and more hashing power is added to the pool, those shares become harder and harder to solve. Hence, p2pool has precisely the opposite problem that other more traditional pools have: the greater the hash rate of the pool, the higher the variance experienced by individual miners.

Let me give you a solid example (I'll even use math

). Right now, the difficulty to find a share is 9410019. With your 900GH/s from the 2 S3s, that means you should expect to find a share:

Code:

Difficulty * 2^32 / hash rate / 3600
9410019 * 2^32 / 900000000000 / 3600 = 12.47

So, every 12 and a half hours. Now, let's raise that share difficulty to 12,000,000:

Code:

12000000 * 2^32 / 900000000000 / 3600 = 15.91

Nearly 16 hours to find a share.

When I first started mining on p2pool, the share difficulty was barely in the hundred thousands. Now I've seen it upwards of 15 million. If you can handle the variance, then you'll be happy on p2pool. If that kind of variance is too much for you, then p2pool is not for you.

I can live with having a share once per 12 hours, but what does this share brings me actually?