Bitcoin mining is an expensive task these days, as mounting electricity costs – combined with a fluctuating Bitcoin price – are making it hard to achieve a return on investment for miners. But that isn’t keeping people from giving it a try anyway, as there is some good money to be made. One of the lingering questions is why so very few people use P2Pool mining, rather than centralized mining pools.

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P2Pool vs. Traditional Mining

From a convenience point of view, traditional mining pools make a lot more sense to Bitcoin miners. All they have to do is register a new account, set up their mining software to point to the mining pool, and earnings will start trickling in after a few hours. Plus, most regular Bitcoin mining pools offer a somewhat decent user interface, making them more approachable for novice users.

However, there is nothing wrong with P2Pool mining in general either. While the layout is far less pleasing on the eyes in most cases, the process remains virtually the same. One of the major differences is how users will not have to register an account to start P2Pool Bitcoin mining, which some might see as an advantage.

On paper, there should be no reason either solution is far more popular compared to the other> But in reality, it is clear that P2Pool mining is not as popular as it could – or perhaps should – be. Human nature can be partially blamed for that, as our society has grown accustomed to using centralized solutions and platforms.

At its core, P2Pool mining is true to core bitcoin values, as this is the only way to decentralize the mining process. However, there are some vast differences as well, a mining share difficulty is much higher where P2Pool mining is concerned, resulting in fewer shares being submitted and validated. To some users, this creates the illusion of something being wrong with the mining process, although this is not the case.

One of the main things to take into consideration when getting involved in the Bitcoin mining scene is whether or not the earnings are maximized at any given time. Both traditional and P2Pool mining optimize user earnings in a different way, although they should produce similar results over an extended period of time. Regardless of which option one chooses, it is important to keep in mind one is competing against the rest of the Bitcoin network to earn money.

Raising Awareness About P2Pool Mining

At the time of publication, the number of Bitcoin P2Pool mining options was fairly limited. Setting up the software itself is a bit of a challenge for mining pool operators, whereas centralized mining pools take less effort in the beginning. Additionally, P2Pool mining requires more CPU power and memory for both miner and pool operator to optimize

Last but not least, P2Pool miners are paid part of the transaction fees generated by the Bitcoin network, This is something a lot of people tend to overlook, and the amounts might not add up to high values, but it’s still worth mentioning. More awareness regarding decentralized Bitcoin mining needs to be raised to reduce the number of centralized mining pools.

Source: Bitcoin Wiki

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