Ethereum’s present reliance on Proof of Work (PoW) mining is not ideal, and while we continue to work with gusto towards a Proof of Stake solution (PoS), we have to live with PoW as gracefully as possible (at least until the eventual switch!). Meanwhile, in the interest of overall network health, mining decentralization and diversity is a clear imperative:

[caption id="attachment_2623" align="alignnone" width="622"] Mining Pool Diversity from March 28 via https://etherchain.org/statistics/miners[/caption]

Though there are some instances of open source Ethereum pool mining software available, the uptake has been low, and there appears to be a large efficiency gap between proprietary and available open source pool software.

We propose to change that.

As of today, the Ethereum Foundation is offering a bounty to a developer or team who wishes to begin this project, based on the “performance” of the end result:

100 ETH per % hashpower that adopts the software, up to a maximum of 8% per independently controlled pool or 33% total, whichever is lesser. (eg. pools A,B,C with 6% each -> 1800 ETH, pool A with 25% + pool B with 5% -> 1300 ETH, pools A,B,C,D,E with 7% each -> 3300 ETH)

To support development in the meantime, DEVgrants will add an additional $10,000 grant, once the project is underway.

We are open to a variety of approaches, so long as the end result provides an easy-to-setup mining pool under a permissible source license that offers similar returns to existing ethereum mining pools (dwarfpool, ethermine, etc). We will award the bounty to the project that we find the most interesting and viable.

For applicants who don’t shy away from the heat of public debate, please leave a 1-2 paragraph proposal in this reddit thread. Vitalik and others will review the content and discuss its merits publicly. If, on the other hand, you wish to make your proposal in private, you may email grants@ethereum.org. Please note however that your project will be publicly disclosed (and inevitably discussed ad nauseum) in due course.

We welcome everyone to put their heads together on solving this issue, seeing it as yet another opportunity for the awesome Ethereum community to rise to the occasion!