SOLO-MINER-FIRST

Why SOST doesn't have pools.

Most PoW chains become pool-dominated within weeks of launch. SOST is experimenting with a different default: keep block discovery close to individual operators while the network is small enough that it still matters.

THE THESIS

Solo first, decide later.

Pools are a powerful coordination mechanism. They smooth out variance for individual miners and make participation easier for people with small hashrate. They are also, historically, the single biggest source of centralization in proof-of-work networks. Two or three pools controlling 60-80% of block production is the norm, not the exception.

SOST's choice during pre-market testing is to not run an official pool and not ship pool-friendly tooling. That is a deliberate experiment, not a permanent rule.

Decentralization is easier to keep than to recover.

Current reward context. Since block #25,000 (V15) the split is 50% miner / 50% DTD. The DTD distributes the non-miner half of every block to active miners on-chain, deterministically and independently of any mining pool — so the non-miner share reaches participants without a pool operator. This does not by itself make pools impossible; it changes who the block value flows to.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

The honest tradeoff

The good

  • You mine to your own address. No custodian, no payout schedule, no operator that can disappear with your share.
  • No pool fees.
  • Your block is your block — coinbase tx pays directly to you the moment a node accepts it.
  • Network security is not concentrated in 2 or 3 operators that you have to trust.

The cost

  • High variance. Solo mining is binary. Most blocks you don't win. Then you win one. Over a long enough window the expectation matches your share — but the window can be days, not minutes. Run the numbers on the calculator.
  • Steady income is not on offer. If you need predictable mining revenue today, SOST is not for you. There is no exchange listing, no market price, and pre-market participation is voluntary stress-testing, not employment.
  • You run your own node. You sync, you keep the binary up to date, you watch the logs. That is the price of mining without an intermediary.
WHO IS THIS FOR

If you fit one of these, SOST is interesting

If you need stable yield, low variance and a UI that hides the chain — SOST is not where you start.

PRE-MARKET

Status today

SOST is in pre-market testing. The chain is live, blocks are being produced near the 10-minute target, miners are independent and explorer / RPC / wallet stacks all work. None of this means SOST will reach market value. See the Developer Note at the top of any page for the full disclaimer.

Live state: network status · explorer.

FUTURE

What might change

Solo-miner-first is a stance for the trial window, not a forever rule. The data gathered since the early trial window informs whether the network needs additional measures — for example latency-bound PoW, miner-address-bound challenge, or non-outsourceable mining (today these are research notes, not commitments). Any consensus change of that scale would only graduate to a real fork after public spec, tests, audit and coordinated activation.

If the network proves it can sustain decentralised solo mining, this stance keeps. If it doesn't, the design space is on the record and the community can decide.