What Are the Main Differences between the Original GetWork Protocol and the Stratum Protocol?
GetWork was the original Bitcoin mining protocol, which was inefficient because it required the pool to send a new, large block header to the miner for every single hash attempt. Stratum is a much more efficient, low-overhead protocol.
It sends a single block template and allows miners to iterate on the nonce and timestamp, only requiring a new template when a new block is found. Stratum also supports variable difficulty (vardiff).
Glossar
Getwork Protocol
Architecture ⎊ The Getwork Protocol represents an early, foundational communication standard used between a cryptocurrency miner and a mining pool or node, operating on a simple request-response model.
Bitcoin Mining
Validation ⎊ The computational process where specialized hardware solves complex mathematical problems to validate new transaction blocks and secure the network, requiring significant energy expenditure.