Definition
Getwork was one of the earliest protocols for communication between miners and pools. It used HTTP and required the miner to repeatedly poll the pool for new work units. This polling approach was inefficient and created unnecessary network traffic.
Stratum replaced Getwork by using a persistent TCP connection and push-based work distribution, dramatically reducing latency and network overhead. Getwork is now essentially obsolete, though understanding it provides historical context for mining protocol evolution.
In Simple Terms
An older, less efficient mining protocol replaced by Stratum. Required frequent polling for new work.
An older mining protocol that preceded Stratum. Getwork was simpler but less efficient, requiring frequent polling for new work.