9
P2Pool is a peer to peer mining pool, offering some advantages over centralized pools:
How can I find out how many people are using P2Pool?
4
In concept, P2Pool is much stronger than centralized pools. Unfortunately, most centralized pools still hold a high hash-rate.
You can see the global hash rate, and its distribution at http://bitcoinwatch.com/
My opinion is that miners are used to using slush, deep bit, and btcguild - and are either unaware of the incentives of P2Pool, or don't care.
The largest reason miners use the "big 3" is reduced volatility. Now medium sized pools w/ various "pay per share" methods have reduced that demand somewhat but p2pool is proportional and in proportional pools size matters. – DeathAndTaxes – 2011-10-13T17:48:38.740
Is P2Pool cheaper than other pools? Can it be? – ripper234 – 2011-08-31T16:05:56.137
1@ripper234 P2Pool charges a voluntary 0.5% fee, so it's much cheaper than some other pools. Deepbit charges 10% for example. – Chris Moore – 2012-02-13T06:07:14.493
1
You can find a graph showing the hash rate of the pool over time here: http://forre.st:9332/graphs/ (or at http://localhost:9332/graphs/ if you're running p2pool on your own machine).
– Chris Moore – 2012-02-13T06:05:40.380As currently phrased, this is fairly localised in time. What's the enduring question here? – eMansipater – 2011-09-08T18:28:00.373
1@eMansipater - "How should I talk to a database in Java" is also time-dependent, but that doesn't mean it's not a good question. I'd like to know the answer now - and if it change, let's change the accepted answer. – ripper234 – 2011-09-08T18:45:17.660
"Is X being adopted?" changes monthly if not daily. Talking to a database in Java, not so much (but that's still not an amazing question for SO. Much better would be "How should I talk to a database in Java in the following situation?" or "Which ways of talking to a database in Java meet the following criteria?" etc.) – eMansipater – 2011-09-08T18:50:20.133
1@eMansipater - perhaps "How do I find the hash 'market share' of P2Pool?" – ripper234 – 2011-09-08T18:53:01.767
Much better imo. – eMansipater – 2011-09-08T18:55:10.983