A thread problem and a query for solo mining

Question

Once the blockchain synchronization was complete, I wrote the command

start_mining my local/remote wallet address [threads=number of threads I wish to use]

for starting the mining process. I specified 3 in the number of threads I wanted to use for mining but after executing the command the terminal says

Mining has started with 1 threads, good luck!

Miner thread was started [0]

So although I have mentioned to use 3 of the 4 threads of my processor for mining, it shows the above message for initializing 1 thread only. I do not understand that. 35 blocks have been mined since the time I have started the mining process but still after refreshing my wallet, the balance has not changed even in fraction. My starting balance was 0.000000000000 [12 decimals] and I expected my balance to be at least 0.000000000001 after 35 blocks have been mined on the blockchain because I am also a part of the network now contributing my hash power to it. Is it normal? I used to get better rewards on the Minergate pool than what I am now getting when I'm running a full node. Please explain like I'm five. Don't the miners get rewards in fractions (like in pools)? Do the miners get reward only when they mine a complete block. This is the first cryptocurrency for which I am running a full node. I am mining on CPU as I do not have a graphic card.

Answer 1

First and foremost, note that CryptoNight uses 2 MB per cache. Thus, the optimal number of threads is total amount (in MB) of cache divided by 2. If you want to start solo mining and specify the number of threads it can be done as follows:

start_mining [<number_of_threads>]

Note that if this command is entered in simplewallet, it will mine to the address of that particular wallet. If you want to mine to a different address, the command is as follows:

start_mining <address> [<number_of_threads>]

If you enter the command the brackets should be removed from the number_of_threads. Thus, a valid command would be:

start_mining 44AFFq5kSiGBoZ4NMDwYtN18obc8AemS33DBLWs3H7otXft3XjrpDtQGv7SqSsaBYBb98uNbr2VBBEt7f2wfn3RVGQBEP3A 2

Is it normal?

This is the difference between pool mining and solomining. With pool mining, you represent a share of the total hashrate of the pool. If the pool hashrate is relatively large, in case of MinerGate, it will find blocks relatively often. That is, if MinerGate has about 20% of the total hashrate, every one in five blocks, on average, should be found by the pool. Given that you contributed to this hashrate with your share (i.e. your own hashrate), you should expect small "balance updates" every one in five blocks. By contrast, with solomining your balance will only update if you find the block yourself. Given that your hashrate when solomining is much smaller than the total hashrate of a pool, it could take a while before you find a block and thus see your balance updated. If you possess 0.1% of the total hashrate and solomine, you should, on average, find a block once every thousand blocks.

In the end the rewards will probably be the same, but solomining with a lower hashrate will obviously have a lot more variance. However, with solomining you probably incur fewer fees.