HashRelay vs. No Relay
An honest look at what changes when you add HashRelay to your mining infrastructure
Feature Comparison
| Dimension | Without HashRelay | With HashRelay |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic Security | Plaintext Stratum, easily sniffed or tampered | Full TLS/QUIC encryption, undetectable |
| Transmission Stability | Distinct traffic fingerprint, unstable connectivity | Standard TCP/QUIC transport, stable connectivity |
| Hashrate Theft | Traffic visible, hijacking possible | E2E encryption, zero tampering |
| Multi-pool Management | Separate proxy per pool, fragmented | Unified interface, all pools in one place |
| Miner Config Changes | Must reconfigure each miner per pool change | Only change relay mapping, miners untouched |
| Connection Overhead | 1,000 miners = 1,000 pool connections | 1,000 miners = 2–4 aggregated connections |
| Monitoring Coverage | Depends on pool dashboard, delayed | Per-miner real-time stats, second-level latency |
| Fault Alerting | Manual inspection or wait for pool alert | Auto-detect & instant push notification |
| Weak Network | TCP packet loss → throughput collapse | QUIC mode: stable under 30%+ packet loss |
| Config Changes | Requires service restart, brief miner downtime | Hot push via persistent connection, zero downtime |
| Ops Complexity | Multiple separate tools, fragmented view | Single system, unified operation |
Real-World Scenarios
Cross-Border Mining Farm
Miners connecting to overseas pools face unpredictable cross-border network conditions — high latency, packet loss, and unstable Stratum connections.
Plaintext Stratum over cross-border links suffers high latency, packet loss, and frequent disconnects. Hashrate efficiency takes a serious hit.
Miners → HashRelay client → QUIC/TLS encrypted tunnel → overseas server → pool. Traffic is encrypted end-to-end for stable, low-latency transmission.
Large Farm (5,000+ Miners)
At scale, raw connections to the pool trigger rate limits and bans. Server and bandwidth costs are enormous.
5,000 miners = 5,000 pool connections. Server under heavy load, bandwidth high, pool may ban the IP.
5,000 miners aggregate to 10 tunnel connections. 99.8% connection reduction. No pool bans. Server load minimal.
Multi-Coin Mining Farm
Running BTC, ETH, and LTC simultaneously means maintaining separate proxy stacks per coin.
Separate proxy per coin (3+ systems). Fragmented monitoring, separate alerting, complex upgrades.
Single HashRelay instance handles all coins. Unified dashboard, unified alerts, unified management.
Cost & Operational Impact
| Item | Without HashRelay | With HashRelay |
|---|---|---|
| Pool connections (1,000 miners) | ~1,000 | ~2 |
| Server concurrency pressure | High (thousands of fd) | Minimal (single digits) |
| Cross-border bandwidth | 1× | ~0.3–0.5× (aggregation reduces overhead) |
| Miner reconfiguration frequency | High (per pool change) | Minimal (change relay mapping only) |
| Fault detection time | Minutes to hours | Seconds (auto-alert) |
| Ops team time | High (multiple systems) | Low (unified platform) |