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Pools

In this lesson, we review the Pooling protocol, and how it can benefit a Farmer starting out.

Learning objectives​

  • Benefits of Pooling: Understand the benefits of participating in a Pool.
  • Reward Splitting: Understand how the rewards are split among pool participants.

Content​

Script​

Expand for the full script

0:00
Pools are a great way to get started with Farming. Pooling allows farmers to smooth out their rewards by earning based on proof of space partials, as opposed to winning blocks.

0:20
A Proof of Space partial contains some additional metadata about the farmer that lets the Pool distribute shared rewards based on relative farm size. The more valid partials a farmer generates, the larger their share of the reward. When a submitted proof of space wins, the farmer that generated it still retains the right to farm the block, and processes it themselves.

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In return, they receive 1/8 the value of the reward, while the remaining 7/8 is distributed to the rest of the pool, based on valid partials. Because the block is still farmed by an individual farmer, the network remains sufficiently decentralized.

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The overall reward earned is largely the same over time for average sized farms, so Pooling is a great choice to get started.

Common gotchas​

  • Farming size still matters: The size of a Farm directly relates to how many valid partials are generated, and partials determine a farmers share of the pool reward (7/8). This means there is still a benefit to large farms joining a pool.

Knowledge check​

Question 1 - Reward Split

What is the reward split between the Farmer and the Pool?

Answer (expand when ready to see the answer)

1/8 goes to the Farmer who won the challenge, 7/8 goes to the pool to be distributed

Question 2 - Decentralized Pooling

How does the protocol maintain decentralization?

Answer (expand when ready to see the answer)

By letting the Farmers process and author blocks, the network remains decentralized. Since the pool has no way of knowing which Farmer will win, and does not have a say on which transactions will be included in the block.

Additional resources​

  • More farming basics: overviews of plotting, pooling, and rewards.
  • In depth architecture overview: describing the interactions between Farmers, Harvesters, Wallets, etc.
  • Chialisp detailed documentation: detailed information on all aspects of chialisp.
  • Support in discord: for further support join our discord server and ask in the #chialisp or #support channels.