Pools
To reduce randomness and achieve a more uniform distribution of bitcoins, miners use specialized web services – pools (from English: Pool – common fund). Each participant searches for their version of a block and sends the results to the pool.
The pool receives rewards like a powerful solo miner. The bitcoins obtained are distributed among participants according to the rules set by the pool owner.
Standard client programs are oriented towards working with a complete transaction database. The client program can operate completely autonomously, like a full-fledged network. This mechanism ensures the network's operability without a dedicated server and central agent, but it requires maintaining a huge archive of all transactions. As of June 2015, the database size was over 42 GB. After the first launch, obtaining, analyzing, and storing the transaction database may take more than a day. If the number of transactions increases to levels comparable to currently popular payment systems, the problem of data storage and transmission may make it impossible to use standard software clients on most home computers.
