RouteHash Policy

Effective 26 September 2026. Applies to the RouteHash web application, Stratum controller, and associated ledgers. Capitalized terms have the meanings in Article 1. This revision records SHA-256 House Pool DATUM modifiers and Community Pools (publicly Node Marketplace, including OCEAN TIDES) as separate from marketplace escrow, and uses Miner / Node Runner in place of the former Owner / Renter labels.

Article 1. Definitions

“BTC” means bitcoin on the SHA-256 Core network. “XBT” means the Blake2b asset settled on the Knots network operated for House Pool. “Rail” means the combination of ledger, node, payment provider, and destination type used for a given movement of value. “Marketplace Rental” means a paid hashrate lease created on RouteHash. “Miner” (formerly labeled Owner) means the party who lists one or more ASICs, sets idle routing, and is credited the Marketplace Rental share. “Node Runner” (formerly labeled Renter) means the party who deposits, books a Marketplace Rental, and whose saved destination receives leased hashrate. Internal account roles and URLs may still use the tokens owner and renter; those tokens mean Miner and Node Runner. “House Pool” means work hashed into RouteHash’s own DATUM gateways: Blake2b/XBT (RATUM + username_modifiers, group RouteHashXBT) and SHA-256/BTC (username_modifiers on the BTC gateway, group RouteHashBTC). Connecting here is joining RouteHash’s mining pool. “Community Pool” means a listed third-party miner listen a Miner may choose for idle work (for example OCEAN); public pages call this catalog Node Marketplace. “Miner node” means the Miner’s own DATUM listener (solo mining when Pool Host is blank). “Operator” means the persons administering this instance.

“DATUM” means the gateway that builds block templates from a local node and may speak to a coordinator. “Knots” means Bitcoin Knots. “RATUM” means the Blake2b coordinator software. “Prime” means that coordinator process (on this instance, pool.routehash.com:28915). “Coordinator” means Prime or another DATUM pool host that hands coinbase outputs to segments. “Segment” means a DATUM gateway with Pool Host set; that operator builds templates and submits blocks. Many ASICs on one gateway remain one Segment. “Hasher” means work sent to someone else’s DATUM miner listen: a dest in that pool’s split, not a new Segment. “Dest” means a payout address and the upstream the proxy sends work to. “Coinbase” means the generation transaction of a found block. “Template” means the candidate block a gateway builds. “TIDES” means a rolling-window coinbase split of the kind used by OCEAN. “Slice” means a dest’s share of one coinbase. “Modifier” means a DATUM username_modifiers payout line. “StartOS” means Start9’s node OS; this instance offers a RouteHash Gateway s9pk. “Umbrel” means another home-node OS; this instance publishes a beta RouteHash Gateway community store until a live Umbrel install is confirmed.

Bech32 addresses on both rails commonly begin with bc1q. There is no unique prefix that identifies BTC versus XBT. RouteHash therefore never infers the rail from the address string. The rail is the explicit destination type, deposit provider, ledger currency, and validating node.

Article 2. Dual custody; rails not mixed

RouteHash maintains two distinct value paths:

1. Custodial marketplace escrow. Node Runner balances and Marketplace Rental payments are recorded on RouteHash account ledgers. BTC deposits are received through BTCPay. XBT deposits are received on a watch-only Knots address derived for that deposit. Those ledgers are not interchangeable.
2. Non-custodial pool coinbase. House Pool finds are paid in the block via DATUM username_modifiers on that rail’s gateway (XBT: RouteHashXBT after RATUM’s fee; BTC: RouteHashBTC, no RATUM fee). Community Pool finds are paid by that pool’s own rules (OCEAN: TIDES). RouteHash does not sweep newly mined coinbase from a treasury wallet to pay rentals, and does not resend pool finds as marketplace payouts.

Mining or escrow on one rail does not settle the other coin. A Marketplace Rental is always priced and escrowed in BTC. The Miner may receive that BTC credit in BTC at the verified BTC destination, or receive spendable circulating XBT sent to the verified XBT destination. House Pool Blake2b coinbase is paid in XBT to the Miner’s verified XBT destination. House Pool SHA-256 coinbase is paid in BTC to dests in the RouteHashBTC modifier table. Community Pool idle (including OCEAN) is not House Pool coinbase. Who is paid for a given hour of hashing is Article 13: it depends on idle versus lease, not on which coin the Node Runner deposited.

Article 3. Addresses and validation

A Miner may save both a BTC destination and an XBT destination. Those fields are different jobs:

• The BTC destination is where BTC rental credits are sent if the Miner receives BTC, and the SHA-256 House Pool modifier slot (and the Stratum username forwarded to OCEAN if that dest hashes into the OCEAN Community Pool).
• The XBT destination is the DATUM modifier slot for Blake2b House Pool coinbase. If the Miner receives rental credits as XBT, spendable circulating XBT is sent to this same dest. That send is not newly mined coinbase.

Each address is validated against the node for that rail (Bitcoin Core/Knots SHA-256 for BTC; Knots Blake2b for XBT). Either node may report a well-formed bc1q string as syntactically valid. Syntactic validity is not proof that the user’s wallet watches that chain. If a Miner pastes a BTC-wallet receive address into the XBT field, XBT coinbase still pays that script on the XBT chain; a BTC-only wallet will not display those coins. RouteHash is not responsible for coins sent to an address the Miner does not control on the intended chain.

Standard mainnet bc1q single-sig addresses are 42 characters. Truncated pastes are rejected. Saving a BTC destination does not replace an XBT destination, or vice versa.

Article 4. Deposits

4.1 XBT deposits

A Node Runner who selects the XBT rail receives a single-use watch-only address derived from the configured XBT Blake2b account extended public key, encoded with the configured human-readable part (presently bc). The Knots XBT node is instructed to watch that address. After the required confirmations, RouteHash credits the Node Runner’s XBT sub-ledger. XBT on that ledger is not BTC and cannot, by itself, fund a Marketplace Rental.

4.2 BTC deposits

A Node Runner who selects BTC or Lightning receives a BTCPay invoice denominated in BTC on the BTC payment method. When BTCPay reports the invoice Settled, RouteHash credits the Node Runner’s BTC sub-ledger. Lightning, if offered, remains a BTCPay BTC rail, not XBT.

4.3 Test and manual deposits

Test or manual credits, if enabled by the Operator, are ledger entries only. They do not move coins on either chain unless a separate Operator process does so.

Article 5. Marketplace Rentals; currency

Every Marketplace Rental is a BTC contract. Price is BTC per terahash per day. There are two independent marketplace takes, both set by the Operator in basis points: a Node Runner take added on top of the listing, and a Miner take subtracted from the listing. Each party sees only their own take. Duration, those takes, and Miner net are recorded in BTC. The Miner may receive that credit as spendable circulating XBT; that is of the credit, not a second listing price. If the Miner receives XBT and the Node Runner pays XBT, checkout debits the XBT sub-ledger at the commencement spot with no exchange. Converted XBT receive (when the Node Runner paid BTC) applies an exchange fee, a fill buffer, and the Miner covers the XBT network fee. If spendable funds on the chosen path are insufficient, checkout fails unless a conversion in Article 6 has first credited BTC.

Article 6. XBT to BTC conversion

Optional conversion is a separate authorization from Rent Now. Upon authorization, RouteHash may reserve XBT and place a sell order for BTC on the configured exchange pair (BTCB2/BTC). Live exchange trading occurs only if the Operator has enabled it. Mock or disabled trading does not reserve XBT and does not create a rental.

When an order fills, RouteHash debits reserved XBT (including any disclosed exchange fee) and credits BTC to the Node Runner’s BTC sub-ledger, then may create or extend the Marketplace Rental by debiting that BTC into escrow. Conversion does not send XBT to the Miner. The Miner’s claim remains a BTC Payout Ledger credit.

Article 7. Escrow

On successful checkout, RouteHash:

1. Debits the Node Runner’s BTC sub-ledger for the listing plus the Node Runner platform take;
2. Records a Payment as confirmed from balance, with an escrow hold until lease end plus any configured hold minutes;
3. Records a Payout Ledger entry for the Miner equal to the listing minus any Miner platform take;
4. Records a platform fee ledger entry for the Operator’s take (Node Runner slice plus Miner slice).

The Operator sets both marketplace takes in basis points (super-user). They apply to new checkouts only. A lifetime waiver on a Node Runner reduces their take; a waiver on a Miner reduces the Miner take. House Pool coinbase take (Article 11) is a different fee.

Escrow is an internal ledger allocation. It is not a multisignature on-chain contract. Hashrate routing (House Pool, Miner node, Community Pool, or the Node Runner’s saved destination) does not change the escrow coin.

Article 8. Performance SLA; rules locked at checkout

At checkout, RouteHash copies the then-effective SLA (minimum uptime percentage, minimum hashrate percentage of advertised rate, and whether an open complaint holds payout) onto the rental. Later changes on the Operator fees page apply to new checkouts only. Existing leases keep the locked percentages for payout determination and historical reporting, including tax-period reconstruction of why a payout was held or released.

Hashrate for SLA is accepted share work over the full contract window. Time without accepted work counts as zero terahash. A short proxy flush is not treated as the advertised rate for the whole lease.

Article 9. End of lease; holds

When a lease ends, RouteHash marks the rental completed (unless already disputed) and evaluates clearance. Miner payout remains held if any of the following apply:

• the rental is disputed;
• escrow hold time has not elapsed, or the payment is not in a releasable state;
• an open support ticket (other than a live SLA warning) remains;
• a refund record is eligible or disputed;
• the locked SLA is not met, unless staff have released that payout.

The Node Runner, the Miner, and staff receive an in-app notification of a payout hold. Staff may release a held payout. Refunds, if granted, credit the Node Runner’s RouteHash account in the rental currency (BTC for Marketplace Rentals) and are not an automatic on-chain send.

If none of the hold conditions apply, the Payout Ledger is marked ready and the Payment may be marked released. Ready is not paid.

Article 10. Rental-credit send; receive asset

Ready marketplace credits are BTC ledger rows. Default receive is the Miner’s verified BTC destination. If the Miner receives XBT, staff send spendable circulating XBT to the verified XBT destination. When the renter paid BTC, that send is converted circulating XBT and applies an exchange fee, a fill buffer, and the Miner covers the XBT network fee (taken from the send). When the renter paid XBT, there is no exchange. Newly mined House Pool coinbase is never swept to pay rental credits.

A ready Miner balance sends at 0.00000700 BTC or more (Operator floor; never below dust). A Miner may ask staff to send a ready payout. RouteHash also sends ready payouts twice a day so escrow stays small.

Operator configuration decides when a ready BTC credit is queued for send. A clean lease may become ready before staff complete the on-chain send. Failed send attempts are recorded on the transfer; the payout may remain ready for retry. Idempotency keys are used to avoid duplicate provider payouts.

Newly mined XBT coinbase is subject to the Knots spend lock (on the order of 6,480 confirmations). That lock is a chain rule. Converted XBT rental credits use circulating XBT from Operator treasury, not that coinbase.

Article 11. House Pool coinbase

House Pool is RouteHash’s mining pool — our DATUM node. Connecting here is joining that pool. House Pool is not FPPS, PPS+, or PPLNS. RouteHash does not pay a fixed amount per share from a pool wallet. Contributors absorb luck: they are paid when this gateway finds a block, in that coinbase. Over a long window that converges toward hashrate share of found blocks; over a quiet period it does not. Marketplace Rentals are a separate BTC escrow and do not depend on House Pool luck.

11.1 Blake2b / XBT

This rail is RATUM. Limited-time free until we reach 500.00 TH/s. RATUM deducts its operator fee from the coinbase first (live Prime Fee in bps; 0 = FREE). That 500.00 TH/s figure is a public hash target; it does not rewrite the live fee. Remaining value is split by DATUM username_modifiers in group RouteHashXBT among live contributors with verified XBT destinations. Flask writes that group over the XBT DATUM JSON admin API. StartOS Username Modifiers stays empty by design. Unallocated remainder is Always Pay Self (rounding coverage — not an extra stacked fee). Newly mined XBT coinbase is subject to the Knots spend lock (6,480 confirmations after the configured height). Pool observation ledgers, if shown, are not spendable RouteHash balances.

11.2 SHA-256 / BTC

This rail is an independent DATUM gateway on Bitcoin Core. Flask writes username_modifiers in group RouteHashBTC to DATUM_API_URL_BTC only — never the XBT API. There is no RATUM fee on this rail. A super-user House Pool operator fee (set on Admin → Fees; presently 0.50% / 50 bps while this rail fills, configured default 2.00% / 200 bps) is a named modifier to the BTC treasury dest; live dests split the rest. Idle or rented SHA-256 work on House Pool is paid in BTC in that gateway’s coinbase to dests in the table. Unallocated remainder is Always Pay Self. Core coinbases require 100 confirmations before they spend. Empty modifier tables are not submitted. The ASIC’s Stratum username on this rail is the modifier group, not house_rig_N and not the issued Worker key (the proxy rewrites authorize/submit).

OCEAN is not House Pool. A DATUM Config Pool Host of datum-beta1.mine.ocean.xyz would forward House Pool work into OCEAN TIDES; that is not this Policy’s House Pool BTC path. Independent House Pool requires that host blank (solo).

11.3 Same-algorithm rule

Hashrate is paid on the algorithm the ASIC hashed. Blake2b work does not pay BTC. SHA-256 work does not pay XBT. RouteHash does not convert House Pool coinbase across chains to fund the other rail or to pay Marketplace Rentals.

Article 12. Community Pools and listed nodes

A Miner may idle a rig on a listed node (Node Marketplace) instead of House Pool. That work is sent to that operator’s miner listen (dialed by RouteHash from 165.245.235.36; operators allow-list that IP and do not world-open Stratum). The Miner is a hasher on that operator’s one DATUM, not a new DATUM segment. A segment is a gateway with DATUM Config Pool Host set. Payout follows that node’s rules, not Articles 11.1–11.2, unless a paid idle fill applies. Many listed Knots pools keep hash spread.

• OCEAN (SHA-256). Listed Community Pool. Stratum mine.ocean.xyz:3334. Username is the Miner’s verified BTC destination. Payout is OCEAN TIDES (an 8×difficulty window, coinbase-direct). OCEAN’s DATUM fee is about 1% when hashing through DATUM; the public stratum is about 2%. RouteHash does not take that coinbase. TIDES percent, if shown on RouteHash, is read from OCEAN’s public API for that dest and is not 100% of a Core block and not House Pool split. The Miner need not create an OCEAN account; the dest is the identity.
• Other listed nodes (a DATUM miner port published by another Miner). Segment = Pool Host set. Solo = Pool Host blank and listed (paid fill and/or list-solo). The idle guest is a hasher on that operator’s one DATUM, not a new segment — add their payout address to that pool (named dest), the same way a DATUM pool names a miner. Do not add a second DATUM gateway for them or change Pool Host. Coinbase follows that operator (including a disclosed ask and optional 25-character terms). A Fill node lists a sat/TH/day sticker. The Miner sends an offer; the parties negotiate share and BTC on a RouteHash ticket; the Miner pays the agreed BTC to the Node Runner; the Node Runner adds the guest dest to their pool; the Miner activates when hashing starts. RouteHash holds that BTC until both parties confirm settlement, then releases it to the Node Runner (marketplace bps apply). Fill is not a Marketplace Rental and has no staff dispute. FREE / Ask idle is luck only.

Listed-node workers do not appear in House Pool coinbase lines, except while that rig is on House Pool holding (Article 13). Switching idle route does not change Marketplace Rental escrow currency.

Article 13. Routing options and who is paid

Every ASIC stays on stratum.routehash.com:23335. RouteHash is a Stratum proxy: the proxy chooses the upstream dest. Templates on House Pool come from RouteHash’s Knots or Bitcoin Core node via DATUM — that is RouteHash’s DATUM segment, even when username_modifiers pay another party’s address. A Node Runner or Miner who runs their own DATUM and points it at RouteHash RATUM (pool.routehash.com:28915) is a separate segment in the coordinator; they find their own blocks and coinbase as a group. Templates on a Miner node or a listed DATUM Community Pool come from that gateway’s node. RouteHash does not publish a skip-DATUM public Stratum pool as House Pool identity.

Who is paid for the work depends on whether the rig is idle or leased:

1. When not rented · House Pool. Work is sent to RouteHash DATUM. Coinbase pays the Miner’s verified dest on that rail (XBT dest for Blake2b; BTC dest for SHA-256) per Article 11. The Node Runner is not a party. Operator fee is RATUM (Blake2b) or the House Pool BTC modifier fee (SHA-256).
2. When not rented · Miner node (solo). Work is sent to the Miner’s public DATUM node. Coinbase is that node’s (Pool Host blank). RouteHash does not take that coinbase. Marketplace listing may still be live; a lease overrides idle, then solo resumes.
3. When not rented · listed node. Work is sent to that miner port after the idle route is live (Ask: when saved; Fill: when the Miner activates the agreed contract). Coinbase follows that operator (Article 12). On Fill, the Miner pays the agreed BTC to the Node Runner (held in escrow until both confirm settlement); separately, the Node Runner adds the guest dest to their pool. A block that node finds follows that pool’s dest table, not the Fill escrow. RouteHash’s marketplace bps apply to the escrow. RouteHash does not write that operator’s DATUM and does not track share inventory.
4. Marketplace Rental (active lease). Work is sent to the Node Runner’s saved destination (House Pool, the Node Runner’s DATUM node, or another allowed dest). Hashrate is for the Node Runner. Money for the Miner is still the BTC Payout Ledger from escrow (Articles 5–10), not the dest’s coinbase; the Miner may receive that credit in BTC or spendable circulating XBT. If the Node Runner chose House Pool as dest, they need no ASIC and no node: their verified dest on that rail is credited live TH in the House Pool modifier table, same rate as idle hash. Extra dests on the rail change variance, not expected value. If the dest is the Node Runner’s own DATUM, that node’s coinbase pays the Node Runner; the Miner is still paid from BTC escrow.

If an idle dest (Miner node or listed node) is unreachable at authorize, RouteHash refuses the session so idle hash is not taken onto House Pool. A Miner may opt a rig into House Pool holding. Holding leaves the saved idle dest in place and still tries that dest first on each authorize. While the dest is down, work is sent to House Pool and the Miner’s verified dest on that rail is named in House Pool coinbase (Article 11). Holding dests as a class share up to 10% of the miner pool, split by live TH. The rest stays with idle House Pool dests, House Pool rentals, and Always Pay Self. Holding continues until the saved dest answers, idle routing changes, or a lease overrides. Holding requires a verified dest on that rail. RouteHash does not write the operator’s DATUM.

If a leased dest refuses TCP at authorize, the proxy may fall over to House Pool so the ASIC keeps hashing. That failover does not retarget the BTC escrow: the Miner’s rental credit remains the lease. House Pool coinbase for those hours follows Article 11, not the Node Runner’s down node. Missed delivery against advertised terahash is Article 8 (SLA), not a second coinbase cut. Same-protocol House Pool Fallbacks (if the Operator has configured them) apply when the House Pool Primary is down; they are DATUM miner listens on that rail, not a public skip-DATUM Stratum. A dead ASIC cannot be replaced by RouteHash-owned hash; SLA credit is the remedy.

An active lease always overrides idle routing. When the lease ends, idle returns.

Article 14. Stratum identity

ASICs point at stratum.routehash.com:23335, password x, Worker equal to the issued proxy key (optional .worker suffix). They must not use :28915 (DATUM Prime) or :25600 (BTC DATUM miner listen) as the ASIC pool URL. The proxy rewrites mining.authorize and mining.submit to the upstream username for that idle or rental destination (House Pool modifier group, verified dest on OCEAN, or the Community Pool’s user). Existing TCP sessions may continue until the ASIC reconnects after a route change.

Article 15. Withdrawals of unused Node Runner XBT

A Node Runner may request withdrawal of unused XBT ledger balance to an XBT address. Operator approval and Knots send, if performed, are XBT on the XBT rail. BTC and Lightning withdrawals of Node Runner balances are not offered as working features unless and until the Operator enables them. The interface shall not present a disabled rail as if it pays.

Article 16. Beta; no warranties; limitation

The platform is operated in a testing and limited-production posture. Hashrate, uptime, and pool luck are not guaranteed. RouteHash does not warrant that a miner will retarget at the instant a lease starts; existing TCP sessions may continue until the miner reconnects. RouteHash is not a bank, broker, or licensed money transmitter by virtue of these ledgers. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Operator liability for ledger, routing, or payout errors is limited to correction of the affected ledger entry or the amount of the specific rental credit in dispute, and excludes indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, including tax consequences. Users are responsible for their own tax reporting.

Article 17. Changes

Operator may amend this Policy. Amendments apply prospectively: new SLA and fee versions bind new checkouts; in-flight Marketplace Rentals keep the SLA and price locked at checkout as recorded on that rental. Material rail changes (for example, how rental credits are queued for send) are Operator configuration. Listing price stays BTC; Miner receive-asset choice is recorded on the Miner account.

Article 18. Contact

Questions about a specific deposit, conversion, lease, or payout should be raised in the support thread on that rental or through the Operator’s published support channel. This Policy is the controlling description of rails for this instance as of the effective date above.

See also FAQ / Glossary and How coins move. This Policy is the controlling description of rails.