US 12,086,770 B2
Methods and devices for controlling a mining pool for multiple blockchain networks
Angus Adams, London (GB); and Steven Patrick Coughlan, London (GB)
Assigned to nChain Licensing AG, Zug (CH)
Filed by nChain Licensing AG, Zug (CH)
Filed on Apr. 6, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/131,812.
Application 18/131,812 is a continuation of application No. 16/805,614, filed on Feb. 28, 2020, granted, now 11,651,335.
Prior Publication US 2023/0245081 A1, Aug. 3, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. H04L 41/50 (2022.01); G06N 5/046 (2023.01); G06Q 20/06 (2012.01); H04L 9/06 (2006.01); H04L 67/10 (2022.01); H04L 67/288 (2022.01); H04L 9/00 (2022.01)
CPC G06Q 20/065 (2013.01) [G06N 5/046 (2013.01); H04L 9/0618 (2013.01); H04L 9/0643 (2013.01); H04L 41/5096 (2013.01); H04L 67/10 (2013.01); H04L 67/288 (2013.01); G06Q 2220/00 (2013.01); H04L 9/50 (2022.05); H04L 2209/56 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method of controlling a mining pool, the mining pool containing a plurality of mining units and a pool controller, the mining units being configured to mine in accordance with a plurality of blockchain protocols, the method comprising:
for each of a plurality of blockchain networks, generating a respective candidate block having a candidate block header and containing a plurality of transactions from that blockchain network, wherein each of the blockchain networks has a difficulty setting for that blockchain network, and wherein each candidate block has a coinbase value determined from a block reward for that blockchain network and transaction fees included in that candidate block;
for each of the candidate blocks, determining an expectation value based on the difficulty setting and the coinbase value for that candidate block;
based on a comparison of expectation values, selecting the candidate block associated with the highest of the expectation values; and
providing the candidate block header for the selected candidate block to the mining units for mining.