This is off-topic here, so I answered on the other thread.

The question wasn't "how GBT is better", it was "how GBT is easier to implement", which I answered. "How GBT is better" should be answered more or less in the GBT thread.

Question off-topic in another thread, pertaining to bitcoind GBT support:The GBT patch for bitcoind was originally fully backward compatible, but was changed to replaced GMP instead per the request of the rest of the bitcoind development team.

A getwork implementation can trivially be converted to GBT merely by changing the data sent/accepted. Don't need to rewrite the whole protocol layer.

I agree the documentation could be improved a bit - hopefully someone will do a quick writeup similar to slush's sometime soon. libblkmaker does include a simple example source file to demonstrate it, though.

The BIP provides full technical details, not "how much better"; there is no need to reverse-engineer anything to implement it.

GBT was designed in such a way that it is okay if it is only "half-supported". Miner don't have to be able to interpret all of it, nor does anyone expect them to.

Too bad Slush didn't put that effort into documenting and implementing GBT, instead of creating useless division.

I don't plan to implement StratumMP for BFGMiner, though I might merge a pullreq if someone else writes it. BFGMiner 2.8.0 already supports the open standard getblocktemplate (GBT) protocol, which does everything StratumMP does, plus more, and was developed openly by the community. Encourage your pools to support that instead.

From what I hear, Phoenix is also dead/unmaintained at this point, and Diablo-D3 insists getwork is fine. Additionally, as StratumMP is significantly more difficult to implement in existing miners compared to GBT, so I would expect it to be a while in any case.

BFGMiner 2.8.0 should work with Cairnsmore1 now. I don't really have one to develop/test with, however, so if anyone wants to confirm... donations to get me one are also welcome

BFGMiner 2.8.0 released with integrated getblocktemplate support.

NEW VERSION 2.8.0, SEPTEMBER 15 2012

Some pretty major improvements here, including support for Cairnsmore FPGAs and the new ASIC-ready getblocktemplate mining protocol.

I don't expect this is entirely stable yet, and it's had (at least/only) tens of hours of testing so far. If you upgrade, be sure you can monitor and restart your rigs if needed. Please report all bugs to the Issue tracker on GitHub so I can fix them

Note that starting with this version, Jansson (JSON library) is no longer bundled with the source code and must be installed independently (binaries are unaffected). Additionally, version 2.0+ is now required. Let me know if this causes trouble for anyone.

Human readable changelog:

• Basic getblocktemplate decentralized mining protocol support, including rolling extranonce (based on libblkmaker 0.1).
• New Cairnsmore driver, including autodetection (based in part on Kano's Icarus "timing" feature).
• Support for per-pool proxies, based in part on Kano's similar work (but cleaned up and not compatible).
• Numerous minor fixups to Ztex driver.
• Minor improvements to Icarus driver, including the ability to disable the reopen quirk and detection when the default hash speed is wrong.
• Updated RPC API from Kano to include debug and setconfig methods.
• Updated miner.php from Kano to hide IP addresses for security (configurable).

Full changelog

• Be specific about jansson version requirement
• Replace "Alive" in pool status with protocol in use (GBT or GWork)
• Remove copy of old jansson from source repository
• Honour block template expiry (BIP 23 Basic Pool Extensions "expires")
• Add --no-gbt option so getblocktemplate can be disabled if it causes problems
• BIP 22 long polling
• Properly detect pool protocol
• Bugfix: Sort out work template refcounting by properly using work_free and new workcpy
• Support for rolling extranonce in templates
• Initial libblkmaker integration, using a git submodule
• cairnsmore: There's no set hashrate like Icarus, so always use short timing mode by default
• Bugfix: Include unistd.h needed for ssize_t type
• fpgautils: Don't try to scan serial at all anymore, if a device is claimed
• fpgautils: serial_claim function to politely ask other drivers not to try to use device
• RPC: Update to work with Cairnsmore
• cairnsmore: Windows autodetect using FTDI library
• cairnsmore: Beginnings of new driver, with automatic upgrade from Icarus detection
• icarus: Support disabling reopen quirk via --icarus-options
• proxy: Replace mess of encoding proxy into pool URI with a --pool-proxy option, and use cURL's builtin proxy URI support
• save individual pool proxy settings to config
• API-README update for pools proxy info
• CURL support for individual proxy per pool and all proxy types
• Bugfix: Update current_block_id for fixed set_curblock
• miner.php by default don't display IP/Port numbers in error messages
• api.c all STATUS messages automatically escaped
• API add display of and setting queue,scantime,expiry
• README - FPGA device FAQ
• API add device diff1 work
• count device diff1 shares
• API-README update
• api.c Correct diff1 field name
• Bugfix: Sanitize block hash handling (including fixing on big endian)
• Bugfix: Print the (full) correct block hash when warning about work issued against old blocks
• Bugfix: When comparing current block, only pay attention to the prevblock header
• Allow mixing user+pass and userpass, so long as user+pass are balanced before userpass options
• ztex: Include device serial number and FPGA number in cgpu name field
• ztex: Abstract common cgpu_info creation code
• ztex: Do thread initialization in thread_init rather than thread_prepare
• Bugfix: Tolerate working on old blocks when there is only one pool enabled
• Bugfix: ztex: Detect through fpgautils so -S noauto correctly inhibits autodetection
• ztex: Workaround duplicate share submissions by doubling "backlog" size
• ztex: Use consistent device ids for logging
• Bugfix: ztex: Increment global hw_errors too
• Bugfix: free adhoc string elist element when removing it from list
• Bugfix: icarus: Initialize lret variable after work restart reentry
• Bugfix: ztex: Free lastnonce heap memory if backlog allocation fails
• icarus: Initialize epoll event structure in a way Valgrind is happier with
• Bugfix: Use strtok_r for parse_config since some options use strtok themselves
• Import strtok_r from gnulib for Windows portability
• Bugfix: ztex: Don't try to destroy a mutex that was never created (single FPGA Ztex devices)
• ztex: Clean up redundant dereferencing in ztex_shutdown
• API-README more debug parameter information
• API allow full debug settings control
• Sort the blocks database in reverse order, allowing us to remove the first block without iterating over them. Output the block number to debug.
• Adjust opencl intensity when adjusting thread count to prevent it getting pegged at a value below the minimum threads possible.
• miner.h max_hashes -> int64_t
• Keep the local block number in the blocks structs stored and sort them by number to guarantee we delete the oldest when ageing the block struct entries.
• Use correct sdk version detection for SDK 2.7
• Bugfix: Align Ztex statline properly by removing redundant frequency
• make-release: Convert text files to DOS format for Windows ZIP

BFGMiner should work with any libc, so I'm guessing the problem you hit is just an ABI thing.

Those are Ubuntu, not Debian... probably can build Debian packages from the same packaging though! If you don't know how to do that, I'd recommend just building from the source code and running out of the build directory.

Citation needed. I don't know why they wouldn't, the chips certainly need burn-in to eliminate the bad ones.

I'm not sure this has been a problem for anything but bitcoind.

R-pi's USB troubles are a hardware design flaw, not a problem with the specs. If it weren't for that flaw, I expect it'd work fine. So you're probably good with something that's got better specs

There's no reason to expect ASICs would require X, and I highly doubt any ASIC vendor would make that mistake.

BFGMiner should support SC before they're delivered.

My netbook works great.

2 days is nowhere near long enough for that amount of precision.

Yeah, I think you just scared anyone away considering how much cgminer's Icarus support sucks since you forked it... Of course, the BFGMiner modminer driver updates (as well as the rest of BFGMiner for that matter) are all right there for merging if cgminer really cared about quality.

No, the block rewards can't be changed after mining the block.

He can, that's an added optimization. However, that only works for full blocks, not shares.

No, the benefit of pooled mining is mostly cooperation/economics: you're saying "if you guys split the block with me if you find it, I'll split it with you if I do". Centralized control over transaction acceptance is one of the flaws of the original pool design, as it compromises Bitcoin's security if any one person has too much influence. On the other hand, one benefit of pools is that there is an entity to arrange a bulk fee contract with for transactions; GBT preserves this ability by allowing pools to flag those transactions as "required", while not weakening the control of the individual miner who can still make an informed decision not to mine for the pool (with centralized mining, the miner is in the dark about what exactly he is working on).

I don't understand this question.

Can't speak for EasyMiner's timeline, but BFGMiner should be ready for the ASIC launch. It may not have the prettiest interface, but it is pretty much turn-key.