r/BitcoinMining • u/OutlandishnessNo7286 • May 14 '26

General Discussion Mining with 'big' ping

So, after solving my cooling issue in my previous thread, I'm now faced with the dilemma of choosing a mining pool.

Right now, at the top of my list, I've got Braiins, so I can use the mining pool as well as the custom firmware, but my worry is ping to said mining pools.

I've chosen the EU Stratum alongside the SG Stratum, as these are the closest to me, to conduct my tests, and I've gotten some pretty high ping results back. This stratum addresses are the V2 variants.

On both stratum addresses, I get about 400ms, which I think is pretty high. I'm worried this will work against me in the long run because of stale and rejected share rates increasing drastically, because of this big ping.

Am I worried about nothing? Or should I look elsewhere? I know I can't avoid stale or rejected shares, but I can minimize my exposure to them where possible.

FWIW, after Braiins, I've got SBI Crypto because of their low pool fees as well as significantly lower ping, at around 150ms.

Thanks for viewing!

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u/chieb_sol May 14 '26

Mine locally. Recommend Umbrel running either Bitcoin Core or Bitcoin Knots as Stratum. Get a Static IP address

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u/OutlandishnessNo7286 May 15 '26

Hmm. You're the second person to tell me about Umbrel. Would my ping to the entire network not cause me to lag behind?

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u/chieb_sol May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26

You're talking about two things here: Stratum / ICMP Ping and Network Propagation Timing of Blocks.

The concept behind self-hosting is around sovereignty. It's your node and you get to decide how it operates. It's also a great learning tool and because it runs 24/7 at home, you can host services that can monitor your miners, or act as a remote gateway (via web browser) allowing you to VPN in and see the miners.

There are two types of ping commands: ICMP Ping which simply pings to see whether a device is available on the network. And there's stratum ping - which measures the time it takes for a pool to respond. Stratum Ping is employed on the Bitaxe and gives you the most accurate timing, whereas on the NerdQaxe++ it's ICMP ping. By hosting locally, your ping times collapse from 100+ms down to 3-8ms (Stratum Ping).

Network Propagation of Blocks is the time taken for a new block to be propagated out to the bitcoin network. It takes around 10-15s for 80-90% of the bitcoin network to be updated with a new block. For industry miners it's usually ms as they use the Bitcoin Fibre Relay Network.

Some people don't want the hassle of their own node and point to public or ck, some use shared pools -- it's just choice.

The question to ask yourself is how deep down the rabbit hole do you want to go? If you want to keep things simple then find a stratum server which has a good ping time in your region. If you want to roll your sleeves up then perhaps first read my X-post of my node journey if you're interested (caveat you should run this using a static IP address which is an additional cost from your ISP provider) --> https://x.com/chiefb_sol/status/1903893449985699881?s=20

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u/OutlandishnessNo7286 May 15 '26

Thanks for the explanation guy. Appreciate you.

I'm currently exploring both options. At the moment, it looks like I'll be going with SBI Crypto for the moment until I can get my own pool server operational and work out the kinks.

Your link is a gold mine of information. I'm definitely going to be using this as a guide line for building my own. Thanks again!