🔧 Pool Mechanics: Shares & Work Distribution
Understand how pools coordinate thousands of miners efficiently
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0 / 5 completedHow Mining Pools Work
Pools coordinate work distribution and track contributions through a share system. Let's explore the mechanics interactively.
Interactive Pool Simulator
Adjust miners and pool hashrate to see how the pool distributes work and finds blocks. This demonstrates the collaborative nature of pool mining.
The Share System
What are Shares?
Shares are proof-of-work submissions that are easier than finding an actual block. The pool sets a lower difficulty target, allowing miners to submit valid shares frequently. This proves they're actively mining and allows the pool to measure each miner's contribution.
Work Distribution
The pool server assigns each miner a unique section of the nonce space to search. This prevents duplicate work and ensures the entire pool's hashrate is used efficiently. Miners continuously receive new work assignments.
Valid Block Detection
When a miner finds a share that also meets the network difficulty, it's a valid block! The pool immediately broadcasts it to the network and credits all miners based on their recent share submissions.
Pool Infrastructure
Pool Server
Coordinates work distribution, validates shares, tracks contributions, and manages payouts. Must be highly available and scalable to handle thousands of miners.
Network Node
Maintains connection to the blockchain network, receives new blocks, validates transactions, and broadcasts found blocks. Critical for minimizing orphan risk.
Database
Stores miner accounts, share submissions, found blocks, and payout history. Must handle high write throughput as shares arrive continuously.
Payout System
Calculates rewards based on shares, applies fees, manages minimum payout thresholds, and sends transactions to miners' wallets automatically.
Why This Matters
Understanding pool mechanics reveals the infrastructure and coordination required to make collaborative mining work. Pools must balance technical complexity with fairness, reliability with decentralization. The share system is elegant: it transforms an all-or-nothing lottery into measurable contributions that can be rewarded proportionally.