Which P2Pool chain should a 1 kH/s miner pick?

At 1 kH/s, pick P2Pool nano if your mining software supports it; otherwise, choose P2Pool mini. Avoid the main P2Pool chain at this speed: your shares would usually be too far apart for a comfortable, steady mining experience.

Why the smallest chain fits your miner

Your speed of 1 kH/s means about 1,000 mining calculations per second. That is enough to contribute, but it is a small contribution compared with a large mining setup.

P2Pool is a mining pool without a central operator holding your mining balance. It has separate sidechains—networks that record miners’ contributions while they work together to find Monero blocks.

A share is proof that your miner has done a certain amount of work. Each sidechain has its own share difficulty: the higher that difficulty, the longer you should expect to wait for a share.

For your setup:

• Nano: the first choice for a small miner, when supported.
• Mini: a reasonable fallback, though shares can still be irregular.
• Main: generally a poor fit at 1 kH/s because its share difficulty is higher.

These are not different coins. You are mining Monero whichever P2Pool sidechain you choose.

More shares do not mean guaranteed daily payments

P2Pool pays through PPLNS, short for “pay per last N shares.” In everyday terms, your shares count for a limited rolling window. If your sidechain finds a Monero block while your shares are in that window, you receive your portion directly.

Two separate pieces of luck matter:

• How long your miner takes to find a share.
• Whether your sidechain finds a Monero block while that share counts.

A smaller sidechain generally lets you submit shares more often, but it may find Monero blocks less often because it has less total mining power.

That is why nano is not a promise of daily income. It makes participation more practical at your speed; it does not multiply your miner’s underlying earning power.

Check the live estimate before you settle in

Sidechain activity changes. Check each chain’s live statistics or a P2Pool calculator using 1,000 H/s, and look for:

• Estimated time between your shares.
• The current payout-window length.
• Estimated time between the sidechain’s Monero blocks.

Prefer a chain where your expected share interval is comfortably shorter than its payout window, while also considering how frequently it finds blocks. These are averages, not deadlines.

Do not switch chains just because you have a quiet afternoon. At 1 kH/s, short tests tell you little about long-term results.

Make sure your setup actually uses that chain

Select nano or mini in your P2Pool software, not merely in a calculator. If your version does not offer nano, check its official documentation for upgrade support or use mini.

Also confirm that your miner is producing accepted work. A displayed speed alone does not prove that your connection and configuration are working. A browser service promising XMR payments is not automatically direct P2Pool mining.

The bottom line

For a 1 kH/s miner, start with nano; use mini if nano is unavailable. Leave main to larger setups, check live share estimates, and expect uneven payments rather than a daily payout schedule.