What is a stale share?
- Author
- CRYPTO PORT Editorial
- Published
- Updated
- Reading time
- 4 min
In short
A stale share is work a miner submits to a pool that arrives after the next block has already been settled, so it no longer counts. Network latency and misconfigured hardware are the usual causes. A high stale rate means the same computation earns less credited contribution.
Key points
- Work submitted too late to be counted
- Usually caused by latency or misconfiguration
- A high rate reduces credited contribution
- Often improved by pool distance and connection setup
Definition
A share submitted to a mining pool for a block that had already been decided by the time it arrived, so it is not credited as contribution.
A pool hands out work units and miners return solutions as shares. Once someone finds a block, every earlier work unit is obsolete. Anything computed before that notice arrives will be rejected on submission.
The rate is driven mainly by round-trip latency to the pool server. Choosing a physically distant server, running on an unstable link, or loading the machine so heavily that it processes notices slowly all add up. A small fraction is unavoidable.
The connection protocol matters too: schemes where the pool pushes new work immediately shorten the window of wasted computation. Pools normally display the stale rate on their dashboards.
Watch out for
- · A rising stale rate signals hardware or network trouble and quietly erodes credited work
- · Pools differ in how they treat and account for stale shares
- · Switching pool endpoints frequently can increase wasted computation rather than reduce it