Chia Community Pooling Survey Results

5,425 Responses

How familiar are you with cryptocurrency?

Conclusions

This question establishes a baseline for the experience level within the Chia community. Our results showed that, while the majority of farmers still have some experience in cryptocurrency, Chia has successfully brought a large number of new entrants into the crypto space by making it more accessible.

Key Insights

  1. 1
    For about one in five farmers, Chia is their first experience with cryptocurrency
  2. 2
    About one-third of farmers have never farmed or mined a cryptocurrency prior to Chia
  3. 3
    Two-thirds of farmers have been involved in buying, selling, and mining cryptocurrency in the past
  • 65%

    I've bought, sold, and mined cryptocurrencies in the past

  • 16.8%
    I've bought or sold cryptocurrency, but never particpated in mining/farming
  • 18.2%
    Chia is my first experience with cryptocurrency

What are the most important factors for you when choosing a Chia pooling option?

Conclusions

By far, the most important consideration for potential pool participants is the security of their funds, followed closely by the size of the pool, the pooling fees, and the frequency of payouts. User experience and the pool’s community were ranked as less important by farmers.

Key Insights

  1. 1
    Over two-thirds of farmers ranked security as the first or second most important factor
  2. 2
    Given the amount of farmers who rank both pooling fees and the size of pools near the top of their importance list, we predict there will be significant competition to lower pool fees, creating a positive feedback loop to attract more netspace into given pools, thus attracting farmers who are considering the pool size as a major factor
  3. 3
    Though user experience lagged behind in terms of importance to farmers, we expect that once a secure ecosystem of trusted pools emerges, the UI/UX experience will become a determining differentiator.

How much space do you intend to farm?

Conclusions

This section revealed the origins of the explosive netspace growth as largely coming from an influx of new small-scale farmers. When correlated with the number of unique reward addresses and distributions of farmed blocks, we find that the network’s decentralization continues to rise.

Key Insights

  1. 1
    A plurality of farmers (almost 40%) are farming between 10-50 TB.
  2. 2
    Almost half of all farmers intend to farm 50 TB or less.
  3. 3
    Less than one in four farmers plan to farm over 150 TB of space.
  • 11.7%

    <10 TB

  • 37.5%

    10 - 50TB

  • 26.9%

    50 - 150TB

  • 11.4%

    150 - 300TB

  • 5.4%

    300 - 600TB

  • 3.6%

    600TB - 1PB

  • 2.62%

    1PB - 10PB

  • 0.9%

    >10PB

Which of these payment methods do you prefer?

Conclusions

This section intended to find farmers’ familiarity with and preference for various payment methods based on their prior cryptocurrency experience. Since the survey, further details of the pooling protocol have been released, including its point calculation and partial-proof mechanisms, which will further impact the types of payment methods to be used. Note that regardless of which method is used, 1/8th of all farmed XCH + all transaction fees always goes to the individual farmer who farmed the block, and 7/8ths goes to the pool: this is inherent to the design of the pooling protocol.

Key Insights

  1. 1
    A plurality of farmers aren’t yet familiar with these different payment methods.
  2. 2
    About one in four farmers expressed a preference for PPS payment methods.
  3. 3
    PPLNS seems to be the least popular payment method among farmers, even though in other cryptocurrencies it has become one of the most widely used as of late.
  • 18%

    PPLNS (pay per last N shares)

  • 25%

    PPS (pay per share)

  • 21%

    PROP (proportional)

  • 35%

    I'm not familiar with any of these

  • 1%

    Other responses

Do you prefer to be paid in XCH, or for your earnings to be transferred in a different currency (e.g. NiceHash)?

Conclusions

This question was asked to gauge the commitment of the farming community to the underlying XCH asset versus other currencies. We found that the farming community is largely focused on gathering native XCH rather than converting back to fiat currency or other digital cryptocurrency assets.

Key Insights

  1. 1
    The vast majority, three-fourths of farmers, want their pools to pay out only in XCH.
  2. 2
    About fifteen percent of farmers would like the option to take payments in BTC or ETH.
  3. 3
    The remaining ten percent of farmers would like the option to take stablecoin or fiat payments if possible.
  • 5.1%

    I am wary of cryptocurrency and would prefer to take my earnings in fiat currency (USD, EUR, eg)

  • 5.9%

    I prefer to take my earnings in a stablecoin like USDT

  • 14.2%

    I prefer to take my earnings in BTC / ETH

  • 74.8%

    I want XCH only

Are you interested in joining a local Chia community in your area?

Conclusions

This one really blew us away: seeing that over two-thirds of Chia farmers expressed interest in joining a local Chia community bodes well for the future of this community. We intend to use this data to try and connect these local farmers and make it easier for the global Chia community to unite.

Key Insights

  1. 1
    Chia farming has already become a worldwide phenomenon: we received responses from farmers in over 125 countries.
  2. 2
    While Asia was the largest contributor to netspace growth in the first weeks of the Chia network, a large community of farmers began brewing in Central and Eastern Europe, with Germany, Poland, Russia, and Hungary showing significant growth in particular.
  3. 3
    Most recently, the Americas has become the nexus of network growth: given the trends that emerged through our data collection, we predict the network’s decentralization on a geographic level will continue to rise.
  • 65%

    Yes

  • 16.8%
    No

Conclusion

Thanks for reading the results of the Chia Decentral pooling survey! We hope you found these insightful. The survey is still up at the link below: feel free to take it if you’d like to share your thoughts, get connected with other local farmers in your area, or join our optional e-mail list to stay informed on the latest Chia news.

Purple pool float in a blue pool.

Once the pooling protocol is out, we will release an overview of pools as they launch: if you are a pool operator, please reach out to Neal#6651 on Discord if you’d like to be included.