Mining Pool Comparison

STRATUM
DATUM
Characteristic
Almost all Centralised Pools
Ocean Pool (Non DATUM)
Self-Hosted
Ocean Pool
Non Pooled
📊Proportion of network hash
Approx > 97%
Approx < 0.25%
Near 0
Approx < 0.75%
Near 0
📝Sign Up
Sign up required, often with KYC
No sign up
No sign up
No sign up
No sign up
⚙️Transaction Selection
Pool has complete control, policy often unclear
Pool has control but miners choose from defined policies
Miner controls selection via node config
Miner controls selection, pool determines which shares to accredit
i
Miner controls selection via node config
🔍Payout Auditability
Challenging, especially with FPPS
i
Auditable (Tides)
Entire block if/when found
Auditable (Tides)
Entire block if/when found
📈Payout Variance
Very low with FPPS, Low with PPS+
Moderate (small pool ~1%)
Very high.
i
Moderate (small pool ~1%)
Very high.
i
💸Payout Source
From pool's wallet (Custodial)
Direct in Coinbase or Lightning
i
Direct in Coinbase
Direct in Coinbase or Lightning
i
Direct in Coinbase
💰Fee
Varies by pool
Set by pool (~2%)
No fee
Set by pool (~1%)
No fee
🧰Setup Complexity
Mining software only
Mining software only
Software + node + STRATUM server
i
Software + node + DATUM
i
Software + node + DATUM
i

Payout Source | STRATUM - Ocean Pool (Non DATUM)

The number of payouts in a coinbase transaction are limited by mining hardware used by the miner. Depending on what hardware is used the number of payouts could be from 16 addresses and up.

Payout Source | DATUM - Ocean Pool

The number of payouts in a coinbase transaction are limited by mining hardware used by the miner. Depending on what hardware is used the number of payouts could be from 16 addresses and up.

Transaction Selection | DATUM - Ocean Pool

Currently ocean regularly samples templates, and has the ability to not credit shares. Miner could detect this lack of acreditation quickly in theory.

Payout Auditability | STRATUM - Almost all centralised pools

Many pools have a "black box" algorithm for calculating FPPS payouts which eliminates the top X / bottom Y blocks from the calculation making it difficult to audit the payouts.

Setup Complexity | STRATUM - Self-Hosted

There are multiple options for running a Self hosted stratum server including public-pool which is availible on Umbrel & Start 9 Community Registry.

Setup Complexity | DATUM - Ocean Pool

The DATUM gateway softare is availible on Umbrel & Start 9.

Setup Complexity | DATUM - Non Pooled

The DATUM gateway softare is availible on Umbrel & Start 9. To run Non-Pooled

Payout Variance | Lotto Mining

When mining alone with a small amount of hashrate the chance of finding a block is very slim. You can calculate the odds using the Probability Calculator