Multipool.us: Best practices for auto-pool mining.

We have been testing out many of the auto-switching pools over the past few weeks.  As a result of that testing and setup, we have come up with how to use the multi-pool's auto payout threshold in conjuction with Cryptsy.  This will allow you to better trade out your volatile alts for less volatile BTC and LTC.

We have found the best results using www.multipool.us.  The interface is clean and conformed.  They provide many scrypt and SHA coins to mine ( see full list here).  Best of all is the way they calculate profitability, which is better than we have seen in any other auto-switching pools.

Profitability is calculated by taking into account the current price at which each coin is trading, as well as the difficulty of mining that particular coin. 

https://www.multipool.us/help.php

There are really 2 options when mining in an auto-switching pool.  The first option is to auto-sell coins as they come in at an exchange, like Cryptsy.  The second option would be to hold the coins for a better value.  Both options have pros and cons.

Option 1. Auto-sell

The trick to this option is to have consistent payouts from the pool. This will make it easy to sell the coins off without creating a wall and spiking the volume. To help you figure out where you should set your auto-payout threshold, take a look at the chart for the coin on cryptsy.  This will offer a good idea of the volume of the market and the average trade amount. Try to keep the payout close to the average order amount without having the payouts stack before selling.
We have found having many smaller trades helps insure your coins are sold and helps prevent selling your coins undervalued, as each auto-sell is based on current pricing.  If you have your threshold set too high you may end up holding a bag of coins that keeps declining in value.

if you are unfamiliar with the Cryptsy Auto-Sell feature please check this post out:
http://www.cryptopros.com/2014/01/cryptsy-auto-sell-feature.html

Pros

• Coins usually sell quickly.
• Sales of coins follow market closer.

Cons

• Potential profit loss if price were to go up.

Option 2. Hold

This option is very simple and could pay off, but the risk involved is much greater.  It involves choosing between holding your coins in the pool or transferring them to an exchange like Cryptsy (we always transfer to an exchange to be flexible if the market has drastic changes). After making your decision, you would then just wait and see what happens.

Pros

• Coin could take off with high profit gains.

Cons

• You could be left with a bunch of worthless coins.

Conclusion

We use option 1, we found that you will see more profits buy selling coins at the current value and taking advantage of the lower difficulties. This could change over time but for the near future it seems to be the right option.
We use Cryptsy more as a tool then a true exchange.  They have a huge amount of trading pairs and their auto-sell feature takes the headache out of auto-switch mining.

Multipool.us Coin List

SHA-265	Scrypt
Bitcoin (BTC):	Litecoin (LTC):
Freicoin (FRC):	FeatherCoin (FTC):
PeerCoin (PPC):	Mincoin (MNC):
Terracoin (TRC):	WorldCoin (WDC):
Zetacoin (ZET):	DigitalCoin (DGC):
	NovaCoin (NVC):
	LuckyCoin (LKY):
	Argentum (ARG):
	PhenixCoin (PXC):
	MegaCoin (MEC):
	BottleCaps (CAP):
	Cryptogenic Bullion (CGB):
	DogeCoin (DOGE):
	Diamond (DMD):
	Grandcoin (GDC):
	Mooncoin (MOON):
	Earthcoin (EAC):
	Lottocoin (LOT):