Two steps:

Set up a DATUM Gateway pointed at your own Bitcoin node, then point your miners at your Gateway. See our Get Started guide for the full walkthrough.

For the Worker or Username enter a Bitcoin address. If you'd like to assign it a public worker name for the stats, append a period followed by whatever name you'd like as such: bitcoinaddress.publicworkername Use anything for the password (eg, "x" is fine).

Note: You can use the same address for multiple miners. Appending additional information to the bitcoin address will allow you to see stats for each miner in the dashboard as well as receive alerts. Miners that do not specify a worker name will see "default" as the name.

First, miners using CONVOY can construct their own block templates using DATUM, keeping the power to decide which transactions go into the blocks they mine, and in what order, instead of handing it to the pool. That keeps Bitcoin more censorship resistant.

Second, we are a non-custodial pool. Miners are paid directly by the Bitcoin network. CONVOY uses the same transparent method. All CONVOY does is coordinate the correct split.

Third, our reward system is a Transparent Index of Distinct Extended Shares - TIDES - this gives miners the ability to verify that they are getting the exact reward that they should be as and when blocks are found.

"Decentralized Alternative Templates for Universal Mining"

DATUM lets miners keep the power of block template creation instead of handing it to the pool. This is the decentralized vision for mining: transaction and fee policy for each block stays with many miners instead of a handful of pools.

To use DATUM, head to the DATUM setup guide.

CONVOY constructs blocks so that miners are paid in the generation transaction whenever possible. This means the Bitcoin network is paying miners directly with CONVOY transparently ensuring the rewards are split correctly.

This is a restriction within Bitcoin itself. Freshly mined bitcoins cannot be spent for 100 blocks so as to avoid the disruption that would be caused by spent bitcoins suddenly disappearing should there be a reorganization of the blockchain.

No account is necessary - simply put your Bitcoin address as a worker name in your miner interface.

Our reward scheme is called Transparent Index of Distinct Extended Shares - TIDES. As blocks are being mined, they generate the reward by a weighted percentage of effort to the most recently found proofs. The proof period that funds are distributed across has been chosen such that each proof should be paid on average 8 times.

More in the TIDES documentation.

Currently, the threshold is 0.01048576 BTC or 1,048,576 sats. If you stop mining altogether or change to a new Bitcoin address, the pool will attempt to make discretionary payouts for balances above 0.00065536 BTC, should it be practical to do so.

As long as you keep earning, your rewards below this threshold will accumulate until the payout threshold is exceeded, then the payout will occur automatically. Payouts can be made before reaching the threshold if you set up Lightning.

At launch, CONVOY offered a radically more transparent and disintermediated option for traditional pooled mining than the alternatives, but the pool itself was still solely responsible for construction of block templates.

Now, miners can construct their own block templates using DATUM, keeping decision-making power over transaction and fee policy for their own blocks instead of handing it to the pool.

You can ask questions in the CONVOY community chat, inspect live pool, node, and Lightning data on this site, and read the documentation.