<p>Its totally open to anyone! You can create your own mining pool and get miners based on your <strong>reputation</strong>. Miners getwork from mining pools and submit their work to the mining pool and get their payouts. There are different types of payouts like PPS, PPLNS and ... <br/>
There are new mining pools like <strong>P2Pool</strong> which is totally a decentralized pool and it doesn't have an operator. You might be interested to check those out.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-30T04:34:08.830Z
2015-01-30T04:34:08.830Z
abeikverdi
<p>You, the miner, are the one being paid by the pool operator for doing some computation. It's a free and open market. You can switch pools if you're unhappy with the reward or the honesty of an operator.</p>

<p>To become a pool operator there's no election process or formal checking whatsoever. Again, it's a game based on reputation. Just like any other business, if an operator misbehaves (by stealing funds or something), they lose reputation and therefore users.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-24T12:35:57.797Z
On Traditional Pooled Mining: How miners choose which nonce to try to create different solutions between each other? @Luca Matteis
alper
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-07-01T08:38:49.630Z
2014-07-01T08:38:49.630Z
Luca Matteis
<p>How does one get to be a mining pool operator? Is there an election by people who want to pool their computing resources? What checks and balances exist to ensure that a pool operator doesn't misappropriate funds?</p>

<p>This question was inspired by my comment, and a response on this question? <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/28220/what-prevents-miners-in-a-pool-from-retaining-the-reward/28222?noredirect=1#comment33824_28222">What prevents miners in a pool from retaining the reward?</a></p>

<mining-pools>
How do mining pool operators work?
Tom Au
# How do mining pool operators work?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-06-30)

How does one get to be a mining pool operator? Is there an election by people who want to pool their computing resources? What checks and balances exist to ensure that a pool operator doesn't misappropriate funds?

This question was inspired by my comment, and a response on this question? [What prevents miners in a pool from retaining the reward?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/28220/what-prevents-miners-in-a-pool-from-retaining-the-reward/28222?noredirect=1#comment33824_28222)

**Tags:** mining-pools


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2014-07-01. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

You, the miner, are the one being paid by the pool operator for doing some computation. It's a free and open market. You can switch pools if you're unhappy with the reward or the honesty of an operator.

To become a pool operator there's no election process or formal checking whatsoever. Again, it's a game based on reputation. Just like any other business, if an operator misbehaves (by stealing funds or something), they lose reputation and therefore users.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: On Traditional Pooled Mining: How miners choose which nonce to try to create different solutions between each other? @username_2  

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### Answer by username_1 on 2015-01-30. Score: 2

Its totally open to anyone! You can create your own mining pool and get miners based on your **reputation**. Miners getwork from mining pools and submit their work to the mining pool and get their payouts. There are different types of payouts like PPS, PPLNS and ...   
There are new mining pools like **P2Pool** which is totally a decentralized pool and it doesn't have an operator. You might be interested to check those out.


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