You could solo mine for a long time without finding a block. The math is fairly straightforward: your probability of winning each block is (your hashrate)/(total hashrate). Let's say you have one S19 Pro; that means you have roughly a 1 in 1.6 million chance of winning each block. There are only ~53,000 Bitcoin blocks per year so your chance of getting a block is basically zero.
In theory p2pool is trustless so you don't have to worry about sketchy operators but I don't know if anyone has used it in years.
Slush is the only old-school Bitcoin pool that still seems to be decent sized.
Being used by criminals doesn't mean anything; they want reliable and honest pools just as much as you do.
In theory p2pool is trustless so you don't have to worry about sketchy operators but I don't know if anyone has used it in years.
Slush is the only old-school Bitcoin pool that still seems to be decent sized.
Being used by criminals doesn't mean anything; they want reliable and honest pools just as much as you do.