- What is a share? A share is a proof-of-work solution that meets a lower difficulty target than the actual Bitcoin network difficulty. It’s essentially a “near miss” in terms of solving the actual block.
- Why submit shares when solo mining? Even when solo mining, miners often connect to a pool-like structure (sometimes called a “solo pool”) for several reasons:
- To provide a consistent interface for mining software
- To handle the complexities of block construction and submission
- To monitor mining performance
- What is the point of the share? Shares serve several purposes:
- Proof of Work: They demonstrate that your miner is actually working and not just idling.
- Performance Measurement: The rate of share submission helps in calculating your hashrate.
- Luck Estimation: The frequency of high-difficulty shares can help estimate how close you are to finding a block.
- What is it solving? When your miner submits a share, it’s solving the same cryptographic puzzle as it would for a full block, but to a lower difficulty. The puzzle involves finding a nonce that, when combined with the block header data, produces a hash that is below a certain target.
- How does this relate to actual block solving?
- The mining process is probabilistic. Each hash attempt has a tiny chance of solving the block.
- By setting a lower difficulty for shares, the pool (or solo mining software) can get regular feedback on the miner’s performance.
- If a miner happens to find a solution that meets the actual network difficulty, that solution is immediately submitted as a solved block.
- In solo mining context:
- The “pool” (in this case, your solo mining setup) is essentially asking your miners to report any solutions they find that meet a certain difficulty threshold.
- This allows you to monitor your mining progress and ensures that if your miner does solve a block, the solution is captured and submitted to the network promptly.
- Analogy: Think of it like a lottery where you need to guess a 10-digit number. Instead of only reporting when you guess all 10 digits correctly (which might take a very long time), you report whenever you guess the first 5 digits correctly. This allows you to track your progress and ensures you don’t miss the jackpot if you do guess all 10 digits.
In summary, even though you’re solo mining, the submission of shares helps in monitoring your mining operation, measuring performance, and ensuring that any valid block solutions are captured and submitted promptly. The shares themselves don’t solve the block, but they prove that your miners are working and provide valuable data about your mining operation.
