Bitcoin Pool Beta

This is the second pool to open this day, and brings to five (5) the number of currently operating public mining pools.

The mining pool is currently in Beta test mode.  The pool offers a shared block payout.  Only shares from the current block in the current round are accepted.

http://www.bitcoinpool.com

http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Pool

A modified miner, poclbm-mod, was also released.  The miner performs with greater efficiency when used with a mine pool versus the stock poclbm miner.

Since our mining pool update a week ago, the total network strength level had indicated jumped significantly but has since settled slightly.  Even if difficulty plateaus at this level, that will be little consolidation to miners who find that solving a block by themselves has become an unlikely occurance

While the largest pool, slush’s Bitcoin Pooled Mining (BPM), remains closed to new registrations, having additional options for pooled mining means those solo miners still have a chance to earn something, even if it is just a fraction of what mining used to earn.