Bitcoin Forum

Due to the recent discussion of the possible security issues with deepbit.net and other large pool miners controlling too much of the overall hashing power (http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=8653.0), I would like to open up a bounty thread for an open source pooled mining platform with an already-coded web interface.

The installation and configuration of this pool software should be extremely simple, to where anyone who is able to set up their own miner, buy webhosting with MySQL and a VPS/dedicated server for bitcoind, and has some basic knowledge of how to use said hosting package, should be able to set it up.

User-side setup actions should be limited to:
- Setting a configuration file for the server that miners connect to to get work
- Entering a username/password for future administrative access to the backend configuration of the web side of things
- Inputting database settings within an administrative backend of the web interface for MySQL data storage

MySQL tables should be automatically created without user intervention.  As long as the files are properly uploaded to the website, the pool server is running on said webhost's VPS or another server with proper port-forwarding, and the MySQL database information has been given, the pool should be up and running, and anyone can connect.  DNS address creation can, of course, be optionally executed by the user of the pool.

Does anyone want to start off the bounty for this project with a promised number of BTC if said project is seen to completion?

Do I get any cut of the bounty after writing two FOSS pool servers?  :)


A webhosting account probably would not permit you to run the requisite bitcoind.

You'd need at least a VPS, and even a VPS isn't strong enough to be a public pool server...

If it is contributory to the codebase for whatever comes out of the project, then yes, I'd say you should get a cut.  I have no idea the best way to determine the cut percentages though, so someone else should step in and give some ideas on that front.

Some minimum estimated system requirements from current pool owners would be nice, regarding VPS and miners.  I'd imagine that a VPS could run it ok up to a certain point of mining activity, then it would have to move to a dedicated host.  Something like:

Requirements for 100 connected miners
Requirements for 1000 connected miners
Requirements for 10000 connected miners
etc...

It isn't that easy.  Pretty much every single public pool created > 30 days ago has suffered from DDoS attacks.  A single, lone VPS would simply keel over, no matter how many connected miners.

Ok, so lets forget about the simplicity of running it into a webhost, and lets just make the web interface interacting with poolserver/bitcoind.

We are already able to make a poolserver (pushpool) and run it just fine, we're just missing some documentations (on pushpool) and the web interface/frontend.

Good point.

gkolt, agreed.  Let's focus on the programming that needs to be done for such a project.

No bounty? Is there a trustful btc website set up for pooled bounties? Like clearcoin, escrow or something?

I admire greatly that jgarzik has released so much of his code. The incentives to *not* release code ATM is greater than the incentives *to* release it. I don't know who's gonna donate much to this bounty, but I for one am amidst development of a complete stack, and given enough incentive could release it - eventually.

I've already got a tonne of scripts and such, and every time I go to push it to github I stop and go... wait, don't help the competition.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's thought along such lines  :o

Yes.  This is the primary reason why I started writing pool software.  The incentive to keep your stuff private is huge.

In turn, this leads to a fewer number of large pools.

I think bitcoin will be robust and healthy with a larger number of pools.  [Tycho] is a good guy, but it is not healthy for the bitcoin ecosystem that deepbit often exceeds 40% network power.

So we just need a bounty incentive to exceed the natural incentive to keep your stuff private.

Any donors?

I won't donate coins, but I'll definitely give time to code an open source web interface that manages a backend.
I'll also provide a fat server to test it.

If you're interested drop me a PM as I don't check the forum every day.

Really all we need is a front end for pushpool: http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=8707.0

VPS service insecure "by design".
virtual machine[esp EMC/VMWare-based] was better, but unsecure too, even on trusted provider.
you need host it only fully-secured[physically and electronically]/controlled environment.
IMO.
otherwise it had no point.

Where does one get started to create a pool?

What are the costs involved in buying the software to run the pool, and the hardware and servers to keep it afloat?

B

I will bounty 100 BTC. Must have at least same or more features than actual known pools.
On the other side, I think that any serious pool operator, must run his pool on a dedi server provider WITH ANTI-DDOS capabilities from the start. Any less will fail.

Something that I'm working on (that won't cover the web frontend bit) but that will significantly reduce the expense involved in running a pool: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ciKH3M8WYS49ywz08beXtvpCm2wVGdzU7waKwcn_uaU/edit?hl=en_US&authkey=CJTqyOMF#

I can donate my own dedi for testing and some miners too.

first post  8) .. loooooong time lurker.

please add 30btc to the bounty!

I can also offer a dedicated server for testing and a nice handful of workers to start.

Id really like to see this happen, the massive growth of deepbit and slush has taken a bit of my confidence away from bitcoin.  Lots of communities having the ability to form there own pools will change this.

That's a 130 BTC bounty then!

freeborn - 30 BTC
gusti - 100 BTC__
TOTAL - 130 BTC

push pool is the best base to start with right? http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=8707.0

all my testing will be done on debian.

things that I thought were important:
* ability for new users to sign up and log in (is this a separate db?)
* users must be able to create/delete new workers (this interacts with the pushpool database)
* calculate shares per round
* automatic pay outs?
* Also, graphing is a must.

I currently work on deploying OSS this includes lots of documentation etc.  So if someone begins working on this during my testing I will document everything having todo with usage and installation on a wiki somewhere.

This is really needed if we dont want to rely on deepbit and slush to keep our bitcoin standard.

Also my 30btc pledge is for the first implementation, I will definitely pool more btc towards continual dev.

This sounds like a very interesting project, I'll definitely do it.
I'll post my conditions, requirements and a brief RFC tomorrow before going to meet with gavin and some fellow bitcoiners in Paris.

I'll add a $100 USD pledge to this project.

Very interesting aim, thanks to everybody contributing, and primarly to Jeff for doing the first, big, step.

I'm interested in the details of DDOS that most of the pools got, are they available?

I would like to understand which kind of attack they had to face, and what a "anti ddos service" means exactly.

TIA

I might be up for the task of creating an open source web-frontend for pushpool.

Kind regards
Kris

I am keeping an eye on this.  I run my own co-located server and I would love to have a pool setup on it, just for my own rigs :) 
A good friend of mine is a damn good PHP web dev, and I dropped a few links to him to see if hes interested.

looking at the configuration file for pushpool and it seems as though one can specify many proxy addresses.  Something like this could be used to thwart ddos... to a certain extent.

so 100 / 7ish = 14ishBTC

so.. new bounty is

144ishBTC

I'll be paying in USD though so don't count it as BTC =)

After Building MtRed and the New Eu.MtRed (Which is like an anonymous pool design, and the test bed for my hacked up version of pushpool) I feel somewhat familir with the pushpool code base, and have been PHP certified for almost 10 years (next October) now.

I've started fixing pushpool in my github fork over here https://github.com/MtRed/pushpool

http://MtRed.com uses stock pushpool/ with mysql loging/ and bash scripts + php to manage it /
http://Eu.MtRed.com uses my pushpool tree / with sqlloging + memcached stats & scores system / + bash & php

I could wrap an installer around either of my pools and release it. In fact I would like too just for the fact I think we need more pools. And it should be easier than it is to setup.



I'm willing to split the bounty with any other developers, considering its to be an OS package.

If someone has a complete feature list, or if we could start one? Maybe I should start a thread?

Let me know, thanks

RR

That would certainly save me a lot of time I don't have. :)

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=8760.msg139588#msg139588   < I posted some initial ideas there.

Im very interested in your alternative pool as well as pushpool.  

Anonymous pools sound cool too.  How would miners receive payouts with this?  

thanks for the great work so far!


EDIT: WOW just checked out http://eu.mtred.com/  that looks really cool.  I am very interested in this.  it would be great if the pool operator could set a tax percentage of payouts in the config.

Question for the donors, re: clarification of pool type required for bounty

• Public pool with registration/signup automated payouts(i.e. deepbit, eligius, continuum)
• Private pool with administrative interface (with or without automated payouts)

Specifically, would a front end for pushpool which had share tracking per miner & miner management, or is there an expectation that automated payouts be part of the system. Is there an expectation also that users be able to manage their workers (would require user management, username/password, create/delete/forgotten password, email notification etc. etc. etc. etc.)

What I'm offering to create : A web interface to the stock pushpool implementation with the following

Features :
 * User account management e-mail confirmation, password reset etc., strong password encryption (bcrypt)
 * Worker management,
 * Admin user profile with access to a full fledged admin interface,
 * Optional automated payouts with payment threshold,
 * Optional fee,
 * Web app sitting on the same MySQL DB as pushpool,
 * Share or score based calculation (I'd vote for score)
 * Graphing (to be digged a bit more : what charts exactly? I'll include in the bounty anything that's easily pullable from the DB)
 * Out of the box internationalization (abillity to easily translate the app in another language),
 * Full localization in french and english,
 * API methods (public and private) if it's useful
 * Easily replacable stylesheet -> easily skinnable,
 * Open source MIT license
 * Strong automated test suite
 * 3 months bugfixing (shouldn't be necessary :D)

Extra :
 * Hosting on a strong dedicated server for testing and continuous feedback

My experience :
 * https://bitcoin-central.net
 * 10 years web developement

My conditions :
 * Bounty is to be pre-paid (or escrowed through clearcoin or some reputable bitcoiner)
 * If someone completes the feature list before I do he/she gets the bounty (I send it to the person, or clearcoin/reputable bitcoiner does)
 * First usable version in a week

If you feel I forgot features, feel free to comment. Work will start as soon as the bounty is sent/escrowed

The list looks good to me davout.  Does this mean you will accept the current bounty as being sufficient for the project?

If the people offering the bounties could chime in with what they would feel comfortable doing with the funds, that would be great.  The options are:
- Send it directly to davout
- Send it to a 3rd party escrow service.  I do not believe clearcoin would work, since they have a time limit on release of funds, but perhaps there is a similar site with no time limit or a very long time limit?
- I will volunteer to hold the funds, but understand if davout or the funders do not want that.

I like the idea of someone holding the bitcoins in escrow is a reputable bitcoiner. ;)

You sound like you know what your doing may be we can collaborate as I'm having troubles finishing my PHP front-end to Pushpool such as,
* How can you alert the system that a block has been found? (So the balance can be distributed).
* Every block solved needs 120 confirms before they can be sent out, how do you go about tracking how many confirmations there is for the reward.
-My front end is programmed in PHP-MySql-Apache2
I'm using bitcoin-php. Any ideas?

yep

I approve of this

This is fine too, just put an address up, once it reaches 130 BTC I'll publish the git repo.

Like me ? :D

I was asking myself the same question, but right now I only spent like an hour on it, I can manually register a worker and pushpool will correctly record shares.
You might want to ask jeff garzik and have a look at this : https://github.com/jgarzik/pushpool/blob/master/example-blkmon.cfg : looks like there is some sort of block monitoring mechanism.

If you get the block hash (see first question :D) then I'd poll the client, or have it notify me on each block so I can track the confirmation status of the one that was mined by the pool, I'd pay some extra care though to correctly account for blockchain forks.

If you want to throw in some funds then please use BTCs, if you don't have the 14 BTC then use your USD to buy yourself some, and if at this point your balance is 14 BTC then you should spend them in the economy or save them :)

Yes, do yourself a favor, switch to ruby on rails ;)

I guess we'll wait for freeborn, gusti, and darbsllim to chime in then.

Well if anyone is interested in a PHP pushpool admin, I will be working on that.

Also, Considering this is to be an FOOS project, maybe the feature least should have individual bounties.
So that more people can actively work in area, and state what they are working on.

Also as far as finding a confirmed block...
blkmon is used to send a signal to pp when a new block is in the entire BTC network, not when the pool finds a block.

I do something like this in my stats to check if A) we found a new block & B) its confirmation count.



makes output like such



just json_decode this, and update needed storage.

I don't have the time to invest in creating a mining pool front-end so I gladly bow out to those of you who do.

Yes, and at the end throw an extra 200 BTC bounty so all the features are integrated together :)

Makes sense

That makes sense but doesn't help you link found shares to the block they are relevant to, does it ?

No, but I don't think thats what he was asking.  You would use the sharelog for that.

Well, I might be missing something here, but ultimately the point is to track generated blocks, along with their shares in order to calculate payouts.

So monitoring solved blocks is pretty easy, it hardens a bit when you actually need to pay people based on their work.

Tell me boot it, I think I might have to ditch using a scoring method until the next version. Shares are so much less stressful way of calculating payout.
Thanks for the blkmond link too!

---

Just a preview. Please show your screen shots of your progress, for inspirational purposes :)
It's not written in OOP. I'll release version 2 with OOProgramming so people can create Modules easier to their liking.
http://fleshvirus.com/hotlinking/Screenshot.jpg

What is a FOOS project?

I'm not sure if I can offer the bounty in Ruby on Rails, my front end coders only know PHP - I'll have to talk to them about RoR and post back later.

Those features look good though.

I once tried to deploy a RoR app. I spent most of that weekend tearing out my hair. Finally had to give up.

Bitcoinplus.com does this I think, with java, not sure if its gpu capable, don't think it is.  I'm on my phone so I might be missing something in this thread

FOSS -> Free Open Source Software

The BTC part of the bounty will be enough for me.

I think it'd make an awesome reference platform for anyone to build upon :)

My deployments are avg. 15 seconds :) One command to type, asks you for the server password, boom! deployed
Rails being complicated to deploy was true a few years ago, now it's just a myth. You just need apache + mod_passenger (just like mod_php, just apt-get it) and a database.

Anyway, still waiting for the people who have advertised a BTC bounty to show up.

I propose that the first project who manages to fully complete the feature list I posted gets the bounty.

The person who escrows the bounty would be the judge.

I'll resume working once the bounty is secured, I trust Rails so I'll let all the PHP guys get a head start :D

I semi-disagree with the proposal.
 You have quite the list there such has French translations, and the ability for internationalisation for others to input there translations, again IMO I think that someone must know another language to effectively implement this. Everything else I agree with as it looks like the standard Pool admin page should look like :)

I will contact the three bounty-givers via PM and see what they would like to do.  Not sure if they are now withdrawing their bounty, or just haven't bothered to check this thread.

I do not see much interest in the project, I will freeze my offer until more bounty offers are made.

What do you mean "you don't see much interest in this project" ?

People seem to have started working on this, I have and I'm planning on delivering a result.

So either you honor your word, or you don't.

I would like to announce my completion of a LAMP based Front-end to Pushpool it contains the following features:


* ability for new users to sign up and log in (With email confirmations, password reset, strongly encrypted session cookies)
* users must be able to create/delete new workers (this interacts with the pushpool database)
* calculate shares per round
* automatic pay outs?
* Also, graphing is a must. (Not Implemented yet)
* Login is safe from brute force maximum allowed failed attempts is "5" (Not Changeable yet)
*Admin panel (Change edit the, Page title, the Browser title, Manage users, kick them)


Really no one is interested? Looks like I'll just have to sell it then like everybody else.

Nice job!
If I was you I'd expect people who made statements to stand by them :)

I would like to see more people offering their bounty, that is what I call "to have interest".
Anyway, if you or anyone come with an open source package with at least same features as deepbit or similar, I will gladly pay my 100 btc. Also, some online testing is needed.

What kind of features does Deepbit have that are of your interest?
I'll be getting a VPS soon to show working examples for users to play with and to get admin access very soon. As soon as Dwolla withdraw goes through(been 3 days) Thanks for everyones patience,

Yes, comments on the feature list are important if multiple projects are competing

All i hear is want, want, want from the community... but they don't know what they want :P

haha yrz, everything that can reasonably be approximated to the concept of "a client" induces this kind of frustration :)

I for one love your guys' work!  I will add to the bounty just not sure how much yet (probably $50 or so).

what gets my 30btc bounty(thanks davout this is mostly your list)
* user account management e-mail confirmation, password reset etc., strong password encryption
* worker management - ability to add, remove, change password of worker, bonus points for anonymous worker option
* Admin user profile with access to a full fledged admin interface(add remove users, email required for verification[true/false],public stats[true/false])
* Optional fee
* Share or score based calculation
* Web app sitting on the same MySQL DB as pushpool
* Graphing (total cluster hash rate, payout graphs)
* statistics - block statistics see http://www.btcguild.com/blocks.php
* Easily replacable stylesheet -> easily skinnable
* Out of the box internationalization
* API methods (public and private)- see http://www.btcguild.com/api_info.php
* Open source license (bsd, mit)
* 3 months bugfixing

was on daveouts list and sounds nice.. would this be done with selenium?
* Strong automated test suite


additional bounty
* as well as the optional fee, Ill add a 2btc bounty if you can add the option for users to donate a percentage of their mining profit to organization of choice (available organizations[icons,link-to-site(eff,fsf,etc),bitcoin-address] would be set in the admin interface)
* 1 btc extra for french localization


I also am from the fearing RoR camp, so while I prefer a php option any submissions that have working installation steps for ubuntu 10.04 and debian 6.0 that work with lighttpd or nginx will be accepted(sorry Im not a apache fan).  I can/will help trouble shoot these steps on my systems.


I can get a seasoned forums bitcoiner to vouch for me or can prove my involvment in other FOSS projects(feel free to ping me on irc).  I have placed 30btc in the following address, it will be sent from this address when conditions are met.
http://blockexplorer.com/address/13iqBq2vJ4oViduPFoTQpatpzpMdPSLiqX


also redditorrex I think your anonymous pool is a awesome idea, and will start(or send it right now) a 7.77btc bounty for you to opensource your efforts!

Now when internationalisation is mentioned is that mean like all the MySql database uses a native table that supports all languages?

After two days' mining, I only got 0.04 BTC. My ATI card works too slow. :(
Well, I'm very happy to give out all these coins. Your work is truly awesome.

I wish I can support more, but I don't have any USD either :(
Anyway, Good Luck!!

I like this project.  :)

or for php maybe something like this:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4169282/website-localization/4169506#4169506

Awesome that was very helpfull :)

yeah like buy... no... sell... no... adderall... (great name btw adder 'of' all)

solution: you are oversimplifying and trying to be the James Bond of business
there's like at least three contradictions: simplicity, obscurity, and business all at once. not gonna happen. pick one.

there is no competition when there are few
they will beg to play because they are all on Mars with few options, just like you

there is furious competition at the brink of success
some do well some not so much

there is no competition when there are many
the system is at message saturation and so there are always those who won't match your offering even if you are not in in the top 25

the critical part: the one, who helps the community evolve from few to many, and, who survives the valley of fire in the middle, wins.

or we could just call this thing off because others might leap ahead. so what? adapt. get back in the game. keep it alive.

besides: you can always beat them by adapting faster than they do even if they have your system.

My business partner and I are looking for not just a pool but someone to partner with us as our technical lead to run the pool.

So our bounty of $100 will go up a lot and also include a profitshare if we can find someone who is interested in being the technical lead on a pool project.

We can handle the frontend design, customer service, any costs that come up, marketing & advertising, etc.

I released the first version of my front-end, It isn't up to standards with the bounties around here so I will take no credit in the bounty pool but if you use my software and find it useful you can donate to my address in my signature. Otherwise if you are having trouble with my software I will accept donation BTC to help troubleshoot getting it started although it only takes about 15-25 minutes to get it running.

Click here to download Mining Pool #2 (http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=10617.0)

Nice job !
Do you plan on implementing the missing features so you can claim the bounty ?

I plan on making a great open source front end, I hope on claiming a bounty that would be nice for getting a vps or maybe even a dedicated server to give a better demonsration and possibly start a pool, if someone else beats me too it great!

Please install it on VPS for demoing, I will cover the hosting costs.
This provider accepts btc : https://www.kalyhost.com

nice work!!  I couldnt figure it out just by looking at the source, it would be great if you could take gusti up on his/her offer and get this on the VPS.  As I cant test any miners it at the momment(many errors).

Also can you get a github or gitorious account?  I think that will make for easier project development.

Anyone else still in this race, or are you now scared of xenlands' quick responce?

davout, you still gonna go after the RoRpool?

I shall signup with git hub sounds like a good idea! Gusti has kindly payed for the hosting, unfortunatly kalyhost is being unresponsive at moment I sent a couple of emails regarding the issues that im having trying to connect to ssh or vnc. For somereason they only suppiled the ip address and passwords but no username, I attempted to try my web login username but that didnt work and i pinged and port scanned it said server not found. I also requested that they give me a refund to the sending address if they cant get it back up in 3 days

I do have something in the works, I'll put something online today.
Maybe the bounty can be split if we release something in the same couple of days, maybe his feature list isn't complete yet
We'll see :)

I know this is probably silly of me, but incase your not familiar with *nix have you tried the username "root"?

Not silly, you are correct. I dont think this person has ever setup a server.

You guys think your funny but that was the first thing i tried. Like i said the server dosent respond to even type in a password. Normally when you SSH youll aeast get a passwird box to type in to. Vnc is the same way the instant i press connect, it says disconnected. No waiting for connections or nothing i just get dropped. When i login to my KalyHosting my VPS server only shows up in the billing section. There's no way to reboot my server or options to re-install my linux version, and the "Choose Product" selection doesn't say anything, it just says "Choose Product" KalyHost really messed up and I hope they fix it soon.

You're saying the server doesn't even ping ?

Exactly, and I have a confirm online to verify that the server isn't responded. Just timedout

*Update: its been over 36+ hours, still no response from KalyHost and they claim they have 24/7 email support? WT-EFF?

*Update: well i mined 1BTC over the course of 2 days and leetnet.net has been very responsive and I believe my server is running, I'll post back when I have time to install peace mates.
(Still working on contacting KalyHost, thinking about call'em from their whois number almost 2 days)

I will add 10 btc to the bounty provided the list that was posted is met and the developer is willing add custom features that fit my needs for btc

I won't be checking this thread much so pm me if the bounty needs collecting

Sidenote: LeetNet.net is really Burst.net, and have been having connection issues over the last week.

What kind of connection issues? Ive been expericing my miner dropping out every so often my self with leetnet, and kalyhost for the record still havent replied

I think all I need is score support for reward payout and internationalization and I have fullfilled the bounty correct me if im wrong plz :)
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=10617.msg152161#msg152161 (http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=10617.msg152161#msg152161)

I do not have time to test this release myself, but does anyone else want to verify/refute his software as fulfilling the bounty?

Why wasn't 'pooling' in concept implemented in the original bitcoin client?  Then, there'd be only one 'pool' and it'd be the entire network dishing out proportional rewards to nodes.  Seems pretty simple to me.

This is just my theory but If you had just even 10,000 miners over a whole bitcoin network evenly distributing 50BTC everyone would get 0.005 per ten minutes average. I don't think it would be much better for proportional maybe possibly 0.05 being optimistic. about .3 every hour 7.2 a day.

I will do that same for 1,000,000 (I don't know the actual miners but this might happen someday if it goes mainstream)

50BTC divided by 1,000,000 = 0.00005 every ten minutes
thats 0.0003 every hour
0.0072 everyday
0.216BTC every month

Conclusion there is no gain beyond this point, half the network stops mining but more then 1,000,000 million people are using bitcoins so it takes for ever for your transaction to go through

again just a theory somebody correct me im wrong or add and dooms day thoughts on the matter below......

I'd suggest to wait a little bit, I'll submit my contribution pretty soon

Go for it :)

I've gotten all my servers the hell out of Scranton and I suggest everyone else do the same.

That's terribly disappointing.  Their VPS worked great for me, and I was thinking about getting a rack...

I agree due to the fact that there are many bugs in my v2.0 software and I'd like to see what he has to offer

The whole datacenter has had ongoing network issues for years, with no sign of improvement. :(

My code was getting too hard to edit, add, & update features and fixes so I decided to rewrite it in OOP style programming for a better structure to build upon (http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=10617.msg152161#msg152161) Check it out :D

Do yourself a favor, do the switch to rails :)

LAWL, Do me a favour and prove to me that rails is more better... that's right I said it...
http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2011/4/28/5616647e-ec4a-4186-8f71-224881b77ab0.jpg

*On a serious note when do you think you'll be releasing a preview?

^^ lol

I'll release the fully functional app by tomorrow evening for a 24h test session against testnet and then it goes live.
The app is ready, I'm busy on heavy automated testing right now.

Hopefully results will speak for themselves :)

What is the point of an API for a pool system?

Since the network is designed to pay 50 BTC to whomever solves a given block; we are stuck with the current collection of competing pools implementation.  Any change to this would require forking the blockchain and creating a new currency.

Hey all,

have a poke at http://pool.bitcoin-central.net/

Comments and megahashes welcome

Checking it out...what port do you use for the miner's?  And what's your pay-per-share rate?

Pay per share rate is zero for now, I switched your worker back to normal mode :)
(yes, that means I also coded a sweet admin interface :D)

This is for testing purposes right now, no pay per share yet.

The pool is plugged on main net (seems like my testnet instance isn't getting any connections for some reason)

If a block is found, the rewards *will* get split properly though and will obviously be paid in actual bitcoins since we're on main net.

Cool no worries.  I have connected on port 8337.  All of my shares are stale though...

using poclbm with switches -v -w128 on a 5870.

EDIT - Removed the switches, same dice.  Increased askrate to 4 and I managed to get 2 solved shares but the rest are still stale :(

Port should be 9337.
I have to activate long polling, I have a fair bit of stales too :/

Yeah same deal on 9337.  LP is a must :)  Let me know when you have it enabled.

Will be tomorrow.

Is this the software you plan on releasing? looks pretty solid at the moment

yes, that's because is *is* pretty solid ;)

Lol but really is is.... Is solid

dammit ><

ok, do you have a live instance of your code running somewhere ?

Yes he does, http://www.bitcoinage.com.au/

I've been mucking around with the style-sheet tonight so excuse the mess.

When will you be releasing your code for people to test?

The app is already released for people to test, there's just two minor things I need to do :
 - Activate long polling
 - Plug it on testnet instead of main-net

Should be done in an hour

Yeah I mean for one to download and setup on their own server, like Xenland has provided.

When the bounty is paid.

If some people want to review the code I'll give them access though.
I gave access to Xenland so he can see how I've managed my stuff.

The pool now mines on testnet, blocks should arrive very soon so the block management, and payment splitting mechanism can be tested in the wild after having been successfully validated against my own mined blocks on testnet.

Accounts have been wiped, please register again, you will need to provide a valid testnet address, if you don't have one go here  (http://blockexplorer.com/testnet) and pick one randomly.

Pay-per-share is not supposed to work as of yet, I still have to code the part that calculates the timestamp-bound share reward according to block difficulty and pool operator configured pay per share fee.

Port : 8337
Long polling : enabled

This and slush's pool is very close to what I imagine for towncoins. I just wish an angel miner wasn't required.

You guys are awesome. Also bounty or no bounty I'm converting community-exchange.org to python and plugging in bitcoin, ripple, metals, and fiat.

What are towncoins ?

Use Ruby on Rails, I can't talk about Python/Django, but I know for a hard fact that Rails is to web frameworks what bitcoin is to fiat currency.

Bitcoin-Central.net is also written in Rails and is already open sourced

Bitcoins that are hard to consolidate with blocks that are easy to produce, but not difficulty 1. An analogy would be a series of locks allowing ships to cross bodies of water at different surface levels.

CPU mining for disaster devastated towns. Only for the moment it will be share based. The algorithm though will bend over backwards to be effectively higher difficulty than mainline so that in the future the angel miners won't be needed.
[/quote]

Use Ruby on Rails, I can't talk about Python/Django, but I know for a hard fact that Rails is to web frameworks what bitcoin is to fiat currency.

Bitcoin-Central.net is also written in Rails and is already open sourced.
[/quote]

One language at a time. I plan to break the community-exchange.org network into deployable nodes. So best to go with something better than request nazi (PHP) but not so rare it's on a milk carton (Rails). I will eventually make the nodes work in Rails and PHP as well.

makes sense, just note that rails has this awesome capistrano tool that everyone uses and that makes deploying on tons of server as easy as typing a command and inputting a password (litterally!)

Also I've added you to the bitcoin-pool repo if you feel like looking at the source, just don't publish it please

Sweet :)

Davout could you please explain to me what test-net and main net is? And how do I access these rights to viewing your setup?

Aww, that's cute :)

Ok, so testnet is pretty much another blockchain.

As its name states it's a blockchain that is used for testing purposes, it works exactly like normal bitcoin mainnet, except for the coins that circulate on testnet have pretty much no value and are used to perform whatever tests you may want.

Currently there are approx. ~30000 blocks on testnet and difficulty is below 100, makes it very easy to generate blocks, that's why I use it to test my pool. I can generate loads of testcoins and see how my pool reacts to an OK block, an orphan block, if payments to testnet addresses are handled correctly etc.

To start your client in test mode simply close it and restart it with the -testnet switch, it'll then start to download the testnet blockchain up to its current latest block, and then you're good to go.

Bitcoin block explorer and the bitcoin faucet both have a testnet mode that is very useful to view your generated blocks, or to get 50 testcoins sent to you.

Follow up question: When do I get access if everyone has been wiped and why did you announce that you gave me access with out notifying me, or was the above the announcement?

You got access to the source code on github, the post served as announcement, everyone has access to the pool.bitcoin-central.net instance.
Everyone had to be wiped out because I needed everyone to have a valid testnet address after switching to testnet.

Cool I see the announcment email. So what's the verdict on the bounty, do you want to go 50/50 since both our programs are basicly the same in terms of functionality & features the only difference is the programming language they are built on, what do you think? and of course what do those that put in a bounty think?

Sorry I have been busy with my clustered setup I'm leaning out of ror for a more php based environment what are the options I would like to get this private pool running asap please pm me and shall pay out my portion of the bounty

Thou my portion of the bounty will go to the person willing to do custom development an add on and provide support for btc As I have a set idea that I want

warweed, What ideas do you want on your custom mining pool you speak of? My Mining Pool software will have support for modules that can be easily uploaded. Although I have no modules at the moment, I plan on opening an official website that would be like a market place for people to create and upload there own modules and those developers can set the price of BTC of for free. Is this what you had in mind?

Oh various things from just checking worker status to custom graphs to taxation features invite only options ect..

I want to run at a base 2% tax with a option to the user to set a "donation" tax in there user CP none drop down just web forum

custom skinning or various security features sanity checking import export db stuff admin statistics instant payout functions ect.

I wish to make this a small private local pool as i have gotten alot of people in my area into mining and combined we make up about 50 ghs and would like them to run on my pool vs deepbit or slush

Cool Ideas I'm working on worker status and graphs beside each worker right meow. I've already hired a web designer to make a great original template that will be really customizable so your good on flexibility if you want to upload your own stylesheet(that will be after the web design update in version 4). As for the invite only option that sounds like a quick fix I'll have allot of these features done in the next couple of days so check up on Mining Pool #2

I'm ok with that, I think it's fair since we both put lots of effort and loving into our respective contributions to the bitcoin community :)
My version now has graphing too btw

Source is now available : https://github.com/davout/bitcoin-pool

Awesome, I'm going to have to try setting up a pool something I have been thinking about for a while.  I have a spectacular connection that I can play with so I might go for it.

Just a question is your pool at bitcoin-central.net going to continue to operate or was it just a test base?

It will continue to operate, I just need to take thirty minutes, wipe the DB of testnet blocks and shares, and plug it on main net :)

Cool let me know when you get it running on main net.  I am interested in joining a new pool.  Slush has gotten huge and I like the small pools for some reason.

Great Job Daveout,

I started working on my own Rails front end yesterday for pushpool.

I've had a brief look and I like your implementation, you have loads more knowledge than me about Bitcoin and reading over your code is helping a lot.

I'm hoping to get a test pool for my implementation up next week, I am interested to see how well rails copes with it.

xenland/davout great work!  it looks like my bounty will be split between the two of you.

How far are you both from completing the internationalization support and api?

I think I would really like a create worker API as well, can someone make this happen?

something like
http://mypool.com/userapi?uidKey=0016d331ccb8;createWorker=myNewWorkerName

Also Davout can you please supply instructions for deployment of your rails app? I would like to test on debian/ubuntu preferably with lighttpd.

I'd like to get my implementation of "towncoin" with Angel GPU miners put together; such a guide would be great.

I was going to wait till friday but what the heck I'll just get it out of the way.
Version 3.5 will be released sometime today with API and internationalization support

Well heck, I'm glad I started this thread!  Two new open-source pools with front-ends = mission accomplished!

I'd start a pool myself, but I don't have the guts to go up against the DDOSers that seem to run rampant across the pools.

I've been thinking about DDOS attacks myself, Once I get enough BTC I will be able to get a good server and try this idea out I have with firewall permissions. You know deny everyone from the pool accept those that have authenticated their IP address before connecting, That way the server just will not respond to those IP address unauthenticated.
This would probubly deffinalty slow down attackers as they'd have to authenticate every single netbot and if they have 1000000 netbots coming from 1 ip address it will shut them out. Simple as that .
This will be in a couple of months from now after my pooling software is perfect but still a dream i have for the future of pooling services :D
tell me what you guys think in terms of flaws, and maybe how annoying it might be to authenticate your ip address everytime

Even if you reject packets at your router the DDoS still clogs your incoming bandwidth. It's Denial Of Service - an easy way to deny service is to overload your proposed authentication server, just pass tens of thousands of spurious requests from spoofed IPs and it bogs down, denying service to your users who actually CAN authenticate. One of the only ways to mitigate DDoS today is to have the ISP kill the connections from their gateway - and you have to be a decent size to manage that.

I can actually think of a few ways that cost a bit of money per hour to run that could nearly completely remove DDoS attacks from the pools and front ends specifically, but i'll keep those to myself until someone offers a BTC bounty, since i'm technically in the business of selling such novel solutions.

Xenland - you ever need some quick security advice you know where to find me.

--

Alright guys, Tons of new features, Internationalisation, API for workers and pool check it out
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=10617.0

Version 4 the public release, evertying is tested, the Internationalisation dosen't have an interface yet so you must change manually in the functions.php page
Translations Welcome :)
PM me the attachment translations thanks a bunch!

Did everyone that bountyd ditch this thread, just like the bitcoin explaination video bounty all over again. :P

Yet again, I put all my time and effort to full fill a bounty then everyone leaves no one was awarded the bounty or what?... this community is really starting to get re-dickulas!

I hear ya.  I'm sorry, I should have held the btc in escrow for you guys...  :(

Nah definably not your fault I should have expected the same out of the rest of the community which is get ripped off.
Time-Greedy bastards :P

I gave freeborn info on how to setup bitcoin-pool, waiting for feedback to add what they think is missing

Good luck with that, I messaged him showing a good working example of my pool, he replied I'll have to check it out! I haven't heard from him scince, I think its been a week now. Like i said guys there no need to be helpful to the community. Too many scammers out thurr I suppose... people want free stuff with out wasting time. I think we got played out of our own niceness. I'm not just using this one situation for my gloom view of the bitcoin community, This would be the third time I got ripped, and the 2nd time every bailed on a bounty of high interest. This might be my last post on these forums I'm just that nauseated with this community in genereal such an empty feeling of giving and never getting.

So neither of you have heard anything from any of the three bounty-givers?

I'm going to make one final contact via PM.  If they don't do anything about it, I'm leaving them negative feedback at my website.  It's just absurd that people say they are willing to give bounties, then don't back their word up with action.

Xenland, it sounds like you are in contact with gusti, and he says that the pool isn't yet polished enough/doesn't meet all of the requirements.  Are you still working on it, and do you plan to fix the things that he has issue with?

Maybe he should make a public statement about what he expects

Status updates:

gusti would like to see an example pool for each of your pools up and running with miners connected to show that it is working well.  I think this is a reasonable expectation.  If you know of someone using your pool code, post a link to their website.

darbsllim mentioned that one of his requirements was PHP, so only Xenland's solution fits that requirement.  Last he heard, Xenland's code was a big resource-hog, but I pointed out someone who is running his pool successfully with what appears to be very little resource usage.  (http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=10617.msg303237#msg303237)

No reply from freeborn yet.

Yes, absolutely, I will provide a pool running on testnet so it's easy to see that the payment handling code works as it should, and that the block handling and everything else is also ok.

I'll post here in less than 24h.

hello gentlemen, sorry for delay, coming back to deliver bounty
did not read the entire thread, but I was told we currently have 2 bounty winners, xenland and davout

xenland : more testing is needed, your pool has no traffic, anyway I will deliver 25 btc, and seek for further testing, pls confirm your address

davout : can you pls point me to any live install of your pool ?

Not to butt in too much, but since I have the answer to the question you had for xenland, here's a working pool running his code:  http://mine.tenobis.com/

As far as working examples of xenlands pool software there are two examples I know of that are running on the real block chain.  First off there is http://mine.tenobis.com/ and Also my test pool which also runs on the real block chain which can be found at http://d3c0n.net   Tenobis runs at 5ghs, d3c0n runs at 2.5 and has been running for a week or so now...  The color schemes for both are not default but the layout and features are.   

If it's any consolation. My pool software was based off of Xenland's v1 setup. It is being used by several of the top10 pools now ;) Several of them in the 50+Ghash range.

While it's not the same, it wouldn't have become what it is without his initial base.

:D
My test pools are the ones that were posted above which were(http://mine.tenobis.com/) (http://d3c0n.net/)
I've checked them both out and they look both update to date with my software.
Further testing is scheduled this week(before sun) and the update release for any reported bugs to GitHub will be fixed before sun.
Thanks for the support guys

Any bounties can be sent to the following address: 12QY5HYbiT5Nx6fek8ss5pAywPsV3kqdu3

hola, Im actively testing xenlands and davouts code..  will deliver bounty when I have a test server up and running.

Hey there freeborn, Glad your back! :D All bug reports can be sent to my Mining Farm  thread over at http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=10617.0 I happen to be doing testing and development today. Have fun mate

Where can I check updates about this?