To perform mining there should be required high computation devices to run the consensus algorithm, similarly, these devices required a good internet connection with high latency. It doesn’t use high bandwidth because the amount of data being sent across the network is a very low amount. Before moving ahead, we should be very clear with each term like latency and bandwidth.
Latency: Latency is the speed of the internet, like how much time is required for data from source to destination. Let’s have an example; let’s say the client ping the server and the server responds to the client’s request in 100ms; 100ms is the latency rate.
Bandwidth: Bandwidth means how many bits of data could be sent at once.
The most common question that arises from most miners is how much bandwidth is required to mine crypto, well it totally depends on which type of crypto you are going to mine, moreover which consensus algorithm they are using backend like proof of work or proof of stake.
How Much Bandwidth Does Bitcoin Mining Use
As we discussed, mining uses very low bandwidth due to the low amount of data being sent across the network, but it requires a high latency rate. Even 2 or 5 Mbps is good and enough for the big mining farms. Small packets are sent from the miner back to the Stratum (pool) after being received there, Stratum is a standardized protocol, and it is used in pool mining. It minimizes the size of data while it is in motion, additionally, it reduces hash rate hijacking by encrypting communication lines between pools and miners.
Why Does It Require a High Latency Rate
Although it requires low bandwidth, it requires high latency because it needs high speed to send data and receive responses. If the work is submitted to the pool too late, it is denied, and you are left with a stale rejected share. For rejected shares, you are not compensated, therefore you need a high latency rate.
Conclusion
To perform mining, we need low bandwidth even 2 or 5 Mbps is enough for the big mining farms, however it needs a high latency rate to make the performance efficient. High performance is required because when the work is submitted late to the pool, it would be denied, and you have to be left with rejected shares as well as loss of power and computational consumption.
