Economics·8 min·updated November 13, 2026

Pool Fee, Uptime and Reserve: Costs Often Forgotten in Mining Calculations

An advertising calculation often assumes that an ASIC runs continuously and every hour is equally productive. A real farm has updates, restarts, connection losses, maintenance and unexpected downtime.

#pool fee#uptime#reserve#risks

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Uptime

Uptime is the share of time during which the equipment is actually running. If you set it to 96%, approximately 4% of the potential time produces no revenue. Causes may include electricity, internet, temperature, maintenance or pool errors.

High uptime matters, but chasing it at the cost of overheating is dangerous. Equipment safety and service life are more important than a few extra hours.

Pool fee and reserve

A pool fee is usually deducted from the reward for organizing shared mining. A reserve is not a fee; it is a model buffer for lower profitability caused by price, difficulty, downtime or unexpected costs.

A good calculation shows these values as separate lines instead of hiding them inside one attractive percentage.