No! Absolutely not! In my previous piece on exploring the differences between the various pools I mostly looked at the bigger pools, and found the biggest difference between them was the consistency of the payouts, and the frequency, but that the overall amount was basically the same. In theory that should be true for smaller pools too, except for one thing.
Lady Luck. Also, community.
The luck factor was not one I expected. Mathematically, unless a pool is stealing from you, they should all even out over time minus fees. But so far, a couple weeks in, the two pools I have been pooling with have been pretty lucky while I’ve been part of them. Spacefarmers.io I joined just enough before they found a block that I had some points, then I found a block for them (more on that below) and then they found another one 3 days later. So it wasn’t at all consistent, but It did work out as good or a little better than the bigger pools. Not a lot, but some. With TruePool.io however, they have been on a tear since I joined and is the real reason I wanted to write this article.
With every pool there will be good times or bad times. There will be stretches of good luck and stretches of bad luck. The bigger the pool the smaller the overall effect of those stretches will be. This is the counterpoint to the consistency I was seeing in the bigger pools – the hot streaks.
There is some thought in the world, incorrect, that means if you hit a hot streak you are likely to then hit a cold streak to even out the odds. And that can happen. But its no more likely than hitting a cold streak just randomly. And the most likely outcome after a hot streak is just a return to normal odds. Of course. It will even out over a long enough time, but in the short term you are sitting on extra coin.
You can also get unlucky with a smaller pool. That didn’t happen to me, or this would be a bleaker article. But it can happen, and is just as likely as the hot streak. But if it does, what do you have left with a smaller pool?
Community. You have community. I have been going all-in on the smaller pool experience, and experience it has been. They both have very warm, friendly discord channels. Very active and with a real sense of early internet forum communities. Even members that have left for other pools stay sometimes to hang out, and are still welcomed. I was pretty open that I was switching around pools for articles and no one minded I might be off with their coins.
While I was with SpaceFarmers I farmed a block. Got my 0.25 XCH farmer reward and everything, although I am not counting it towards reward payouts per pool, but make sure you do not forget about them when calculating profits. They will come from time to time. And when you are with a small pool they make a bigger deal about it. TruePool.io puts you on the leaderboard, which gets checked. And people set their names in the UI with the smaller pools, and setup their accounts.
SpaceFarmers though goes all out when you win a block for them. They have a special discord status Bringer of the Block and you get your name in green. Its a small thing, but I loved it. The human mind craves attention and this plays right int it.
I had planned on farming a few more smaller pools before writing this but my experience has just been so positive so far with these two pools I had to write about them. Next up will be ChiaHub.io, the pool that captured a lot of the fleeing EcoChia farmers. Having talked to folks in that community as well I suspect that part of joining the community will be excellent as well. Let’s hope I bring my good luck with me!
