Antpool PPS Fee Rate at 2.5%, 30%+ Lower Than Major Pools
So far since June 8, 2015, Antpool had enabled PPS(Pay Per Share) mining mode with fee rate at 2.5%. Previously, Antpool only supports PPLNS(Pay Per Last N Shares) mode for free. Miners in Antpool can switch mode anytime according to personal preference.
As a mining mode which can stabilize and protect earning of miners, PPS is strongly recommended to miners who are sensitive to hashrate fluctuations. PPS fees in bitcoin pool industry basically remained at around 3.6% -4%. In contrast, Antpool, which has the lowest fee rate in the mainstream pools, reaches more than 30% discount rate.
It‘s worth noting that some pool offers “free” PPS service to miners, such pools with unknown profit mode are untrusted. Antpool operations personnel suggest that do not fall for them in order to avoid the implicit property loss.
I can only say one thing:
as a miner, I have tried out all pools to find the one that best suits my needs and most times I was mining to two or three different pools concurrently, trying to see differences. There are many Bitcoin pools promising higher rewards which, unfortunately fail to deliver for two reasons: 1, their operations are not transparent and it takes you a while to realize you are not getting paid as much as you should and 2, you might put some serious hashrate in them and never get paid after some point. I know very well, it has happened to me before, one of the most “profitable” pools never paid me for 45 days of work in the end…
Now, it is not a good thing for a pool to gather so much hashrate, as Antpool does, but on the other hand, Antpool IS the most efficient pool and one of the most transparent ones, so this doesn’t leave us with many choices. Decentralization is they key, I believe more pools should copy and implement the way Antpool operates.
You have my permission to use my words above as a recommendation to other miners, as advertisement, or in any way you see fit.