Mining is a central operation of all proof-of-work (PoW) based cryptocurrencies. The vast majority of miners today participate in "mining pools" instead of "solo mining" in order to lower risk and achieve a more steady income. However, this rise of participation in mining pools negatively affects the decentralization levels of most cryptocurrencies. In this work, we look into mining pools from the point of view of a miner: We present an analytical model and implement a computational tool that allows miners to optimally distribute their computational power over multiple pools and PoW cryptocurrencies (i.e. build a mining portfolio), taking into account their risk aversion levels. Our tool allows miners to maximize their risk-adjusted earnings by diversifying across multiple mining pools which enhances PoW decentralization. Finally, we run an experiment in Bitcoin historical data and demonstrate that a miner diversifying over multiple pools, as instructed by our model/tool, receives a higher overall Sharpe ratio (i.e. average excess reward over its standard deviation/volatility).

翻译：绝大多数矿工今天都参加“采矿池”而不是“采掘”,以降低风险,实现更稳定的收入。然而,参与采矿池的增加对大多数隐蔽地的权力下放程度产生了负面影响。在这项工作中,我们从采矿者的角度审视采矿池:我们提出了一个分析模型,并使用一个计算工具,使矿工能够最佳地分配对多个集合的计算能力(即建立采矿组合),同时考虑到他们的风险反向水平。我们的工具使矿工能够通过分散多个采矿池,实现风险调整后收益最大化,从而增强PoW的权力下放。最后,我们在Bitcoin历史数据上进行了实验,并表明,按照我们的模型/工具的指示,采矿者在多个集合上实现多样化,获得了更高的整体精锐率(即,对标准偏差/波动的平均超额奖励)。