This page describes in details some features of this pool.
If you simply want to start mining, go to
Start Mining page.
Chia is a Proof-of-Space coin, therefore it is mined on HDDs. First, a program called "plotter" is used to generate large files called "plots" (this process is called "plotting"). Then, plots are used to mine Chia. More plots you have - more Chia you get.
This pool uses custom plot format and custom plotter. All necessary software is embedded in our client program and all required operations are done automatically.
After being downloaded, configured, and launched, our client starts to make plots.
Our plotter is highly optimized and tries to utilize all available resources to produce plots as quickly as possible.
Conventional plotters use only one big temporary file during plotting.
This file is usually located on SSD because very fast access is required.
Our plotter, in contrast, uses multiple temporary files and places them on the same HDDs where plots will reside.
Combined speed of those HDDs is enough to completely eliminate need of any SSD.
To speed up plotting even further, as much RAM as possible is used to hold temporary data.
This allows quick plotting even if only one HDD is used.
On systems with 128GiB of RAM or more, all temporary data will fit in RAM.
In this case maximum performance is achieved, and number of HDD does not matter.
Approximate time required to generate one plot on 4-core CPU with Hyper-threading
Number of HDD |
RAM (GiB) |
Plot time (275MiB/sec HDD) |
Plot time (200MiB/sec HDD) |
3 | 64 | 30m | 40m |
32 | 35m | 50m |
16 | 45m | 1h |
8 | 50m | 1h 10m |
2 | 64 | 40m | 50m |
32 | 45m | 1h |
16 | 1h | 1h 20m |
8 | 1h 10m | 1h 40m |
1 | 64 | 1h 5m | 1h 30m |
32 | 1h 40m | 2h 20m |
16 | 2h 5m | 2h 55m |
8 | 2h 25m | 3h 20m |
Most HDDs are faster at the begining of the disk and slower at the end.
For best performance all temporary files should be located in high speed area of the disk.
This will be achieved without any effort in most cases when empty HDDs are used.
Our plotter produces intermediate form of plots first, called "sparse" plot.
Sparse plots are faster to generate and suitable for mining too, but 13% larger than final plots will be.
After filling all directories with sparse plots, the client starts to convert them into final ones.
This is called "finalization" and takes 15–30 minutes for each plot.
During finalization some disk space is freed, allowing to generate more sparse plots.
This process can repeat multiple times.
After everything is done there should be no more than one sparse plot in each directory.
Our plots in their final form are 16–23% smaller than standard 101.3 GiB plots currently used by other pools or for solo mining and generate 20–30% more reward per GiB.
Available compression levels and corresponding plot sizes
Compression Level |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
Sparse plot size (GiB) |
96.1 |
94.1 |
92.1 |
90.1 |
88.1 |
Final plot size (GiB) |
84.5 |
82.9 |
81.3 |
79.7 |
78.1 |
Extra reward (%) |
20 |
22 |
25 |
27 |
30 |
By default, compression level 1 is used and 84.5 GiB plots are generated, but you can choose any compression level you want before start plotting.
Be careful, plots with higher compression level require more CPU work during mining for decompression.
The client runs benchmark at startup and shows how many plots of each size can be safely used for mining on your PC (assuming 90% CPU load).
Approximate maximum number of plots can be used for mining on 4-core CPU with Hyper-threading
Compression Level |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
Proof time (ms) |
32 |
65 |
135 |
300 |
750 |
Number of plots |
940000 |
550000 |
220000 |
80000 |
22000 |
Using less number of plots will reduce CPU load proportionally.
Particular compression level should not be used if corresponding proof time is greater than 4 seconds.
If you want to minimize CPU load as much as possible, use lower compression levels.
Mining starts as soon as first sparse plot gets ready.
Each plot generates approximately one share in 24 hours.
Reward is divided among all participated miners proportionally to the amount of submitted shares.
Standard mining fee on this pool is 3.5%.
With our client it is possible to delegate plot generation to another person without giving him the ability to mine on generated plots:
- Add "-p" option to the client command line and launch it. The client will ask you for a password, come up with some password and enter it. Alternatively, a password can be specified directly in the command line after "-p" option (less secure).
- The client will show public key based on that password. Give this public key to the person who will make plots for you. Do not tell him the password!
- That person, then, should specify your public key in his client using "-k" option, and generate required number of plots.
- After you get your new plots, add new plot directory in the client options if necessary, launch the client with "-p" option again and enter the same password.
- Look into plot summary. New plots should appear like this:
100 plots (100 untested,CL3) with public key 1a8hmt14cghiw7m2kq...
Check plot count, compression level (CL) and public key (note, that only the beginning of public key is displayed).
If public key differs from requested one, or "without public key" is shown, then it means that plots were not generated specially for you!
New plots will be tested and then private keys will be embedded into them.
Testing large number of plots can take a lot of time.
To avoid unnecessary delays, untested plots participate in mining too.
Do not forget your password until all plots are tested and private keys are embedded or you will not be able to mine on your plots.
Always use strong password.
Weak passwords like "123" can compromise this scheme in two different ways:
First, a person who make plots for you can guess the password and start mining on your plots.
Second, if you and someone else use the same password, a person who make plots can notice it, because public keys will be equal too, then he can cheat and give both of you the same set of plots.
Client command line options
-a <address> |
Chia address for receiving reward. Can be omitted to disable mining.
-a xch1d4...pao0wa
|
-d <path> |
Directory where plots and temporary files will be stored.
-d C:/Plots
-d "E:/My Plots"
This option can have additional parameters separated by comma:
- Maximum amount of disk space to use. Valid units are: B, KB, MB, GB, TB (bytes, kibibytes, mebibytes, etc):
-d,5TB <path>
-d,1600GB <path>
- Maximum number of plots:
-d,100N <path>
- Allowed file types:
-d,t <path>
-d,tsf <path>
where
- t - temporary files
- s - sparse plots
- f - final plots
- Disallowed file types:
-d,~t <path>
-d,~tsf <path>
-
Read-only specifier:
-d,r <path>
No modifications are made in read-only directories, they are used for mining only
Multiple parameters can be specified like:
-d,8TB,50N,ts <path>
Use "-d" option multiple times to specify more than one directory:
-d <path1> -d <path2>
Using more than one temporary directory per HDD is strongly discouraged.
Plotter always places exactly one temporary file in each directory where temporary files are allowed.
The size of each temporary file is 225GiB/N where N is the number of temporary files.
When there is an uncompleted plot, and the number of temporary directories changes, the plot is deleted and new plotting begins.
|
-c <level> |
Compression level (1-5) for new plots (default is 1). |
-m <size> |
Amount of RAM the client should use during plotting or finalizing.
If not specified, the client will try to use as much RAM as possible.
|
-w <name> |
Worker name displayed on the website |
-p [password] |
Password used for delegated plotting. The client will show public key corresponding to this password at startup.
Also, if there are untested plots with this public key, they will be tested and private keys will be embedded.
If "-p" option is specified without following password, the client will ask for it at startup.
|
-k <publickey> |
Public key used for delegated plotting. New plots will be generated for this public key. Only who knows the password for this public key will be able to mine on those plots. |
-s <path> |
Directory for settings and cache files.
By default, $APPDATA/NoSSDChiaPool is used.
Specify current directory "." to make client portable.
You can run client from readonly or nonpersistent file system, but you should always ensure that settings files are located in writable and persistent directory.
|
-u <policy> |
Automatic client update policy
- 0 - turn automatic updates off
- 1 - critical updates only (protocol changes, etc)
- 2 - security updates
- 3 - performance improvements
- 4 - any new version (default)
|
-4 -6 |
Use IPv4 or IPv6 (by default both are used) |
--p-threads <count> |
Number of plotting and finalization threads. By default equals to the number of logical CPU cores. |
--m-threads <count> |
Number of mining threads. By default equals to the number of logical CPU cores. |
--no-benchmark |
Do not run benchmark at startup. |
--no-plotting |
Do not make new plots. |
--no-finalizing |
Do not finalize existing sparse plots. |
--skip-test |
Embed secret keys into plots with public keys without testing. Use this option only if you already know that plots are correct.
|
--check-plots |
Test all plots for errors. |
--low-priority |
Lower mining threads priority. Use this option if mining disturbs other applications too much. Can increase probability of stale shares. |
--no-ntp |
Do not check system clock. |
The client requires correct system time during mining. If time deviation is more than a minute, the client will be completely unable to communicate with the server.
For Q&A visit our
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