Question 1

How Do I Mine With CONVOY?

Accepted Answer

Set up a DATUM Gateway pointed at your own Bitcoin node, then point your miners at your Gateway. See our Get Started guide for the full walkthrough.

For the Worker or Username enter a Bitcoin address. If you'd like to assign it a public worker name for the stats, append a period followed by whatever name you'd like as such: bitcoinaddress.publicworkername Use anything for the password (eg, "x" is fine).

Note: You can use the same address for multiple miners. Appending additional information to the bitcoin address will allow you to see stats for each miner in the dashboard as well as receive alerts. Miners that do not specify a worker name will see "default" as the name.

Question 2

How Does CONVOY Differ From Other Pools?

Accepted Answer

First, miners using CONVOY can construct their own block templates using DATUM, keeping the power to decide which transactions go into the blocks they mine, and in what order, instead of handing it to the pool. That keeps Bitcoin more censorship resistant.

Second, we are a non-custodial pool. Miners are paid directly by the Bitcoin network. Here is a block found by the pool in 2011 (under the name Eligius). The generation transaction contains over 900 outputs - this is the Bitcoin network paying miners directly. CONVOY uses the same transparent method. All CONVOY does is coordinate the correct split.

Third, our reward system is a Transparent Index of Distinct Extended Shares - TIDES - this gives miners the ability to verify that they are getting the exact reward that they should be as and when blocks are found. Any dishonesty by the pool would be immediately provable even before blocks are solved, thus minimizing the need for trust even further. Unlike PPLNS or FPPS, TIDES does not merely approximate reward distributions, so miners are paid the full and exact pro rata portion of their contributed hashrate. More on TIDES below.

Question 3

What Is DATUM?

Accepted Answer

DATUM lets miners keep the power of block template creation instead of handing it to the pool. This is the decentralized vision for mining: transaction and fee policy for each block - which valid transactions get included, and in what order - stays with many miners instead of a handful of pools. This is essential to restoring Bitcoin's censorship resistance.

Miners using DATUM will enjoy a 50% discount on pool fees as a bonus to helping strengthen Bitcoin!

To use DATUM head here to find out how.

Question 4

How Does CONVOY Avoid Taking Custody Of Newly Mined Bitcoins?

Accepted Answer

CONVOY constructs blocks so that miners are paid in the generation transaction whenever possible. This means the Bitcoin network is paying miners directly with CONVOY transparently ensuring the rewards are split correctly.

Question 5

Why Can't I Spend My Bitcoins For 6480 Blocks?

Accepted Answer

This is a restriction within Bitcoin itself. Freshly mined bitcoins cannot be spent for 6480 blocks (roughly 45 days).

Question 6

How Do I Make An Account?

Accepted Answer

No account is necessary - simply put your Bitcoin address as a worker name in your miner interface. Check out our Get Started guide for more information.

Question 7

What Reward System Do You Use/What Is TIDES?

Accepted Answer

Our reward scheme is called Transparent Index of Distinct Extended Shares - TIDES. As blocks are being mined, they generate the reward by a weighted percentage of effort to the most recently found proofs. The proof period that funds are distributed across has been chosen such that each proof should be paid on average 8 times. Instead of a set amount of bitcoins per proof, the block reward is divided by percent, so transaction fees are included. Because of this design, each payout to you is fully auditable. Previous implementations of similar systems such as PPLNS would distort the payouts owed to miners by using "shifts" and much smaller proof windows, resulting in miners getting significantly less accurate payments for their contributed hashrate.

TIDES is the most accurate payout scheme available in Bitcoin today and unlike other schemes like FPPS it does not require the pool to serve as a custodial intermediary for payment processing.

Question 8

What Is The Payout Threshold?

Accepted Answer

Currently, the threshold is 0.01048576 BTC or 1,048,576 sats.

If you stop mining altogether or change to a new Bitcoin address, the pool will attempt to make discretionary payouts for balances above 0.00065536 BTC, should it be practical to do so. We reserve the right to change this policy from time to time.

Question 9

What Happens To Rewards Below This Threshold?

Accepted Answer

As long as you keep earning, your rewards below this threshold will accumulate until the payout threshold is exceeded, then the payout will occur automatically.

If you stop mining altogether or change to a new Bitcoin address, the pool will attempt to make discretionary payouts for balances at or above 0.00065536 BTC, should it be practical to do so. We reserve the right to change this policy from time to time.

Question 10

What Is CONVOY'S Vision For Radically Decentralizing Mining?

Accepted Answer

Miners can construct their own block templates using DATUM, keeping decision-making power over transaction and fee policy for their own blocks instead of handing it to the pool.

Question 11

I'm Really Curious About How This Pool Works, How Can I Learn More?

Accepted Answer

You can ask questions in the CONVOY community chat.

Dashboard Settings

Bitcoin mining as it was meant to be

Feature-rich, Miner-focused

There’s more with CONVOY

COMPLETE CONTROL

Decentralized alternative templates for universal mining (DATUM)

NON CUSTODIAL

Get newly generated bitcoins directly from the network

PERMISSIONLESS

Easy to join and use

TRANSPARENT

Verifiable and auditable

Get started

Point your miners at CONVOY

The CONVOY difference

Easy setup that gives you more control of your bitcoin mining.

Frequently Asked Questions