As others have mentioned, go back and check the simple things. You will need to go onsite and hit that reset and work on this baby. You may have a cable which worked loose from vibration.
Personally, if I am 100% sure I've checked the simple things, I check them again, and again, but I am OCD about the simple things because I help people everyday and it is almost always something minor, but then you may need to swap control boards to see if you flipped off the firmware when updating. By the way, don't update firmware without a huge reason to do so, and be sure that reason is satisfied in your update package.
One final thought, if it is the control board, at least you can connect the down unit to another and run two off one board while you get a replacement.

Yes, this has been going on for far too long.

You have to ask yourself why it is hidden so well. It actually is not hidden at all, it is hidden in plain sight.

Our "coders" (and I say our because if you have a single satoshi then you have a stake), our "coders" of bitcoin core are scared of those pools. If they rock the boat they may have to deal with something sooner rather than much later. Look at the blocksize debate. Regardless of which side of the isle you are on it was a fixed match from the beginning with ALL of the core "coders" including Hearn and Gavin looking to what the 60% controlled by China's "elite" pools had to say.

I haven't been concerned about a 51% attack. That is too degenerative to our economy and would hurt "them". "Them" meaning the pools coordinating the control of bitcoin. They want far more than such. They want to tell us what the price will be, what coins we mine, when we mine them, and what percentage we receive. They want and are dictating the core code in front of our faces.

Bitcoin is mine, yours, and each person's individually. No different than a revolution in a country except this is the world financial revolution which has the opportunity to change the world's future for the better. We do not need this war on two fronts with internal fighting. Miners should unite by dissolving their presence into pools which adhere to appropriate mining protocols and pools who practice the ethics of what is good about bitcoin. Get away from the greed of centralization.

Surely anyone can see that those pools having the amount of hash they posses today cannot be good for the infrastructure.
If others see such and receive education from their peers many will care, and will act. Many will also ride greed and ignorance, but it is not something to take lightly.

At the rate they are growing we will see the China pool cartel dictate what bitcoin becomes through the decisions of a handful of people.
They already refuse to do things such as distribute the source of cgminer when they make changes which completely goes against the license to use it by the creator(s). How can anyone think that is anything but a conscious decision to give everyone the middle finger at any opportunity to continue protecting themselves?

macbook-air has openly stated and it is quoted here on the forum that there is no room for conversation regarding SPV mining. They will continue to do so regardless of what anyone thinks, regardless of the hard forks it has been PROVEN to cause.
This was literally stated by MANY community members AND if anyone cares to recall it was in giant red letters on the bitcoin.org front page which is when people were told they could not trust the normal amount of confirmations.

No, we cannot support them, it is that you must block them. The only way they will listen is if money leaves their pocket in a significant fashion.

We cannot assume action will be taken in the face of a rising dictatorship.
We must inform.
We must go on the offensive.
We must lead, work with, and follow great community leaders with the agenda of making bitcoin what it should be.
We cannot sit back and allow miners to be uneducated regarding the issues which are well past at hand.
These are problems today where those "elite" should have previously stepped in.

Are we going to wait for our governments to save us from financial destruction as well?
I have not been. I work everyday for my own personal independence with more than a fair amount of time of that involving cryptocurrency and 99% of my crypto involvement is pure bitcoin.

Do not wait for our beloved Bbitcoin to be saved by an "elite" who are only poised to lose some control, save it yourself by whatever means possible.

Jorge I appreciate your willingness to have a civil conversation regarding what F2pool (and other pools) have and are continuing to do.
I believe that is and will always be the first step on the road to solving any conflicts of opinion from something as earth shattering as the Middle East conflicts, specifically Israel and Palestine, or our beloved Bitcoin Ecosystem and how things should be addressed.
Being open-minded to another's opinion and not being so immature and stubborn to believe there is only one way to make something work, or being unwilling to consider the other person may have a better way to move forward.

That is one of, if not the most important consistent behavior by macbook-air (f2pool operator.)
It is not as though he has stated this is how I am going to do things at my pool and if you don't like it mine somewhere else AND those choices only impact the miners at F2pool. His statements, threats and continued choices DO impact every single miner no matter where they mine. Effectively, his actions say if you do not like it go mine another coin, or in other words, I am powerful enough to do whatever I want regardless of what anyone thinks and as I understood and agree with cypherdoc those same choices will cause an early demise for people continuing to follow that very same abstract way of handling business.

Step away from the bitcoin code and how it is designed to influence decisions by miners and consider other social implications. They say hitler always arises at some point in any debate on the internet and I am far from comparing f2pool to being run by Hitler but it is run in a dictatorship fashion (along with antpool and BTCnuggets) whose choices impact every pool and every miner.
I see Slush and many other pool owners who will do what they can to remain neutral for the simple reason they do not want to risk a penny of income. I see Kano, CK, and eleuthria much more willing to discuss what they believe in, and in my opinion pushing for an overall better Bitcoin. Eleuthria has openly stated he feels much more open to discuss these things since the closure of the Guild. Why do we think that is? Because of the backlash he may have seen from these other, much larger pools, and I think he felt a responsibility and a need to protect his miners not that Kano and CK do not feel that same pressure, but choose to handle it a bit differently.

When CK or Kano say this is the way my pool is ran and if you do not like it go mine somewhere else. Which by the way, I have only seen Kano, CK, and Eleuthria spend considerable hours and hours patiently explaining many of the same items to miners over and over regardless if they mine at their pool or not. IT is very rare any of those three have said this is the way it is if you don't like it F off.
The scenarios where it could even be construed in that manner have outcomes which do not impact the network. They are their pool, their miners.
 
I think you must agree there is a much higher standard set by the aforementioned gentlemen to educate the individual miner AND do what they think is right to empower the bitcoin network as a whole. Their attitudes and choices do not cause harm and they are always willing to have a dialog. I do not agree with Kano or CK regarding every choice they make and every rule they have in place at their respective pools but they are my number one choice for where my hashpower has been since I began mining.

Their is a social aspect of mining and bitcoin in general which is not controlled by code. Simply, it is the act of good and bad, the intentions of creating a pool structure which promotes a healthy network even when costing them in other ways.

I followed the fork earlier this year with great intensity as I try to do with everything impacting all of us. I feel I have the right to form an opinion based on what I learn, and not only how I am treated, but more importantly how my peers are treated and how the choices made by pool operators who have the ability to use all of our hashing power to make decisions. I am certainly open-minded enough to admit when I am wrong, and even if I think I am right I want to hear what the other person has to say.
I am confident you have seen the quotes from macbook-air stating they were never wrong for SPV mining, the fork happened, and their involvement meant nothing, and other than making a code change so that particular style of fork would not happen they have no intention of changing.

Setting aside the threats and other obvious character flaws they have a mindset that they will do whatever they want in concert with the other two pools not to contribute to OUR network, but control it, and dammed be anyone who even offers an opinion on their choices. To my knowledge Bitmain (Antpool) and BTCnuggets have not made public statements to that effect regardless of their actions speaking loudly. This shows they are better at handling PR and do not provide an opportunity for the people who disagree to quote their statements. In so, they are smarter at handling the situation and are not ruled by emotion. Obviously the long-term health of the network is not priority one for those two, and they are not vocally touting the fact that collectively they can cause a massive problem at any time. This is why macbook-air is seeing the brunt of the replies. The greed and control has been vocalized as priority one.

I believe you will find  this social aspect or better yet, the court of public opinion can have a significant impact on these pools in the coming months and years. The court of public opinion has destroyed the reputations of companies, and sometimes those companies are so big they can withstand that assault and with changes can maintain and even grow beyond those terrible choices.

Personally I think mining zero transaction blocks and SPV mining are just as if not more important than the block size debate but referencing that particular debate look at how those pools control the blocksize. If they do not want the blocksize to increase, it will not happen.
You must consider the ramifications of the centralization aspect, AND the fact that what isn't good for these pools regardless of why they do not consider it to be good, just the fact that if something is not considered to be beneficial to them, it is unacceptable.
The bitcoin network is already controlled by the coercion of these pools. Set aside the reasons why they have such control and ask can this be good for anyone but them? Do you see them wanting to help all of us involved in bitcoin?

We can debate the validity of SPV mining and while I still do not agree I certainly consider the points you have made.

MY biggest point is we have empowered, or better yet, given up a scenario of controlled by code to people like macbook-air who control by threats, are running in a manner exactly the way a third world country dictator would do, and have openly stated there is no intention of doing anything other than more of the same.

So while the specifics of SPV mining and consistent zero transaction blocks are debatable, there is no debate regarding their intentions or motivation of domination through the same continued practices. They do not care if the network is healthy as long as they are controlling it, continuing to make the most profits imaginable, continuing to march towards total control, and be damned anyone or anything which counters such.

I knew you were a lowlife, but you have redefined the word lowlife. You threatening Kano is a threat to many people who will stand with Kano.
You have threatened too many people.

You think you are above the rest of us because you are involved with the group who run F2pool / discus fish.
You are not above anyone. You are equal to a scammer in my opinion and not only because you continue to put the bitcoin network in a precarious position with the decisions you make, because of your self-righteous attitude acting like a spoiled child.

It is easy for you to hide behind your keyboard and make threats now, but it will not always be so easy.
Your immaturity rules you, your temper has defined your way of thinking, and greed has completely muddled your sense of self-worth.

Greed will only be the motivation for mining at your pool for so much longer. When you begin to wonder why so many bad things begin to happen in your pool, your life, and your demented mind you only need to refresh this page for a reminder of why.

Kano exposed more of the evil actions and choices you make. Even though you are not alone in these choices you have squarely planted the X to your face. There is a core in this community who hold themselves and their peers to a higher standard of life choices. You should evaluate who your peers are and seek help from the core I speak of beginning with an apology for threatening Kano, the people who mine at his pool, and everyone who mines in the bitcoin network.  

Companies have been brought down for much less than what you have done and people for far less yet.

Edit:
Your threats are a shakedown aka extortion. It is the same as making someone pay you, or you attack them. This is akin to a mafia style way of doing business and that is not the way bitcoin should be represented. You, and anyone who continuously associates or mines with F2pool should be ashamed. You have no honor.

Edit #2:
None of us fear your threats.

Get a compac from sidehack and novak the Gekko fellas before getting a U3. My opinion is it is a much better product, you cnanot beat the price of $25.00 and the support here on the forum is fantastic. I have 5 and at the moment my best 3 shares showing are 17.9m, 27.1m, and 11.3.77m which I hope is 11 billion and just happens to be the way it is displayed in cgminer, but not sure.
I just enjoy tinkering with anything fun, and almost anything with power running through it and a flashing light is killa fun. It doesn't beat sex, but it is a great way to spend time while you recharge

Oh no, do not put a hamper on this discussion.

To me there are a few points being made which are being made by both.

Also "to me" there is one extremely important point, which is who mines empty blocks.
There is no doubt in any sane persons mind that mining empty blocks is a tremendously negative action towards the entire bitcoin ecosystem which harms every user, miner, and anyone who wants bitcoin to succeed. You may as well yell that you cannot compete on a level playing field and must resort to underhanded tactics, which then must make people with common sense ask what other choices are being made?
Mining 0 transaction blocks is a clear statement that you are willing to do whatever it takes to attempt to have an upperhand whether you do or not, whether it is good for all of us or not, or even if it causes longterm harm. It is a direct claim to selfishness over the good of the network and yells loud and clear you do not care about the network as much as you care about yourself.

Picking about because Kano shows us the shares which were as close to blocks as anything but are not even included in the pool's overall solved block calculations which do not even show up on the pool's luck statistics for actual blocks solved and "luck" versus someone pointing every miner on their pool to work on empty blocks as a PRIORITY, well, even if there were other reasons to say good things I haven't found, that single thing should make people pay attention. It has made several as there are many more people talking about it now than were 6 months ago. I wish I could blame it all on Luke JR as I see his influence there and know what kind of morals he has, but I sincerely had hope that others could listen to reason when it is laid out with coherent conversation.

It isn't like arguing over religion which only idiots want to do in this forum, zero transaction blocks is something negatively impacting what all of us do and come to this forum to learn more about everyday. It is a slap in the face of any respectable person in this scene.   

If people think KANO.IS will always be at 2, 3,4 or so PH they are crazy. More people are seeing the payouts, the correct stats, the customer service which no other pool can touch, and you will continue to see growth 1 gh at a time. Some people do not get why it takes longer to get the payout here at KANO.IS, but as more people understand and see the fat checks roll in more will get it and stick.

Opinions and talk are one thing. It is the actions which speak the loudest from all pool operators.
IF you make more money from doing shady things it is temporary. You will eventually be stabbed in the back by the very people who helped you because all they want is the quick buck and they will jump for the next thing they think is better. That is a fact of life.

... as I mentioned the S7 units shipping with that same board I also have an original S5+ unit with that same board and while I had some minor complaints outside of shipping times with the batch 1 S7 units, both my S7s and the S5+ are all using that same board.

Did you have any issues with any of your S7 units notlist3d or did you pickup any of the S7s? I don't recall reading where you did or not.

Either way, the control boards being good on the S5+ for us doesn't mean you don't have an issue by far as others have, but as notlist3d stated you should get your warranty handled ASAP. The sooner you do, the sooner you are back mining witht he least amount of difficulty because that shit isn't slowing down until the spring. We are going to see bombastic incredible difficulty rise. So what you have mining now is what is important.

If I was in your shoes at the moment I would do one of two things.
1. If you have a buddy with multiple S7s ask him to sell you an S7 control board and double two of his up. IT has been shown too many times this works without issues, and he could get you one fast (if so inclined) while you process the warranty on yours, and that would allow you to prove it is 100% that board.
2. If no buddy on the scene then buy one from bitmain. It isn't like you couldn't sell it, and probably for a profit. But you would be running regardless.

Before doing anything though, I would speak with bitmain support, get that ticket going and perform the steps they want so you are setup for warranty.

The absolute most important thing at this point is do not waste time with decisions. Lay out all of your options, make a choice, and move on it quickly.

After 3 more months of the difficulty increases we are about to have it isn't going to be pretty and the people who make ROI will be selling units AND maintaining up-time. Spare parts can make a huge difference.

DO NOT let bitmain or anything keep your unit down for a month. If you are looking at 4 weeks down, sell it now and order another.
I'll bet you can sell it for at least what you paid even with issues, unless we are talking VAT on top or something similar, but you could get 1600 easy on ebay even with what you have described. IF you have to go to ebay, I prefer the forum here for sales.

Best of luck man!

The batch 7 units I received yesterday have the same control board.
However I think your issue is the control board, or as the previous person mentioned, the temp sensors but give us some screen shots of the unit's status display from a fresh boot.

Wire size is so important. You can get 24 and 36" 16 ga PCI cables for about the same price that other people charge for 18.
I'd recommend going with the guys who get great cables. Do not skimp!

I absolutely refuse to use 18 gauge for anything you or I are working with these days. You are not saving that much money. Pennies in the grand scheme of an overall mini-farm. 

People also need to look at the direction bitmain has taken mining gear. 10 pci cables per miner. I don't care what others say, the safest is to connect all three cables per hash board and use 16 ga cables. There are some forum members who will say it is OK to use two. My question is why? You know it can cause warranty issues, you have already spent a small fortune on miners and power supplys and these are items which do not even begin to discuss miner performance.

I refuse to provide an opportunity for failure and so should you.

Look, I know an S7 would probably be OK running on two 16 ga cables per blade as the numbers look fine, but probably isn't good enough for me, and no one should settle. Consider the price of 3 more cables. We are literally talking about $12 dollars in cable price difference per miner to have the other three 16 gauge cables. If someone cannot break open the wallet for those additional pieces of insurance then they should rethink what they are doing here.
I understand that sometimes connecting those other 3 cables may mean another power supply and if so, that person should consider the why. If it adds up to another power source for one blade where you can use some for another blade then that is the correct choice. Performance comes from the right setup. It doesn't matter what you are doing, that is a simple life fact. That is especially true with what we are doing.

There is not a reason to take risks in that manner and anyone who makes the choice to do so does not understand that just because it can line up with voltage requirements does not make it good advice.

People should really run the numbers on being safe and being confident. It is a small price difference to be safe and sleep well. If using the smaller stuff, or not following the manufacturers recommendations doesn't impact someone's thought process they are not who you want to make plans with. 

Give yourself room for error, it is not that expensive when compared to losing your miners, your home, or your family, much less yourself.

 

Good points Brob, but this isn't the first time or the worst. As you know it is a matter of numbers for some people and others it is the love of what we are doing here.

People are still profiting and some are doing so magnificently by buying 20 units and selling 5 for 20% more than what they paid. People also sell them after using them for 90 days or so.

Consider the meta game with mining and you can see what folks are doing with miners like the S5 and even still the SP20. They are holding their value well. There is a 2nd and 3rd owner market who can make magnifiecient profits when most of us cannot. For example the Venezuela guys have amazing power prices and will buy S3s even along with S5s and SP20s.

You can do it, and you can make money as the BTC price increases.

Factor in the fact that some people are able to eliminate $300 per month heating bills and you can begin to see numbers which make more sense. Personally I didn't run heat almost the complete last winter season and have prepared things so I will not need to do so this season unless I lose electricity.

Besides, for some of us it is more fun than almost anything else at the moment and seeing the ecosystem grow is a huge driving force. 

I received my batch 7's today. Fortunately they all arrived in great shape along with my PDU and I am expecting the rest of my shipments tomorrow from Finsky and Bitmain. BTW the PDU from Finsky is a nice product and everyone knows the 2880 power supplies and b/o boards built by Jabber are amazing. Thanks Finsky and Jabber, I have almost the entire mini-farm running on 2880s now.
I am keeping several 2000BBs for backups along with the b/o boards from sidehack. His boards have the options I enjoy toying with. Load balancing anything is fun. I plan on picking up a couple of the ones Jabber built just because I like the options he threw on it with the LED displays since most of my setup uses whips over PDUs with remote capabilities. Nice wire is free through work scraps and I have a boatload of 10 ga sitting around. I cannot beat that. I also like making my own connectors. I guess it is a pride thing, knowing they are made the way I want them to be.

So, this is an S7 thread, and my S7s all batch 7s on this shipment are performing well. Hitting 5.02 ish on 3 and 5.07 ish on two others. All stock, and the same FW as previously mentioned from Sept 15.
Temps and loads are higher across the board versus the batch 1 units. Temperatures are averaging 7 degrees higher on batch 7. Sitting right next to a batch 1 unit so no difference in ambient.

Loads are interesting with the batch 7 units at or all close to 1.10, 0.94, 0.91
Batch 1 I have clocked at 606 btw and average load 10ish lower.

Just throwing those out as the batch 7s have only been online 3 hours or so.

I have a 2880 for an S7 which is also running an S5+ single "module" with another 2880 running the other two of the S5+ modules.

I did upgrade the FW on the batch 1s, but I will wait on the Batch 7s.

I do not plan to purchase anymore S7s unless I am unable to find another miner. I would prefer to wait another month and see what else may hit the shelves, but I am also on a plan to replace everything higher than .44 efficiency (S5+).

The Avalon pricing did not float my boat once I learned the under-clocks were not comparable to the 4.1s, so I am in a holding pattern as of now but would still enjoy picking up a couple or three.

Bitmain's aggressive batches are setting the pace for the market. We desperately need some competition to make Bitmain work and not coast.
If anyone wants me to check anything particular I am happy to do so. It seems many people received their batch 7s today.

I am jumping around several topics but one last item to mention is if you are using miners for heat consider a couple of fan types I am using. Inline fans can be used to push heat several ways but be safe pushing back in your hvac ductwork. Make sure you do not over-pressure anything and cause yourself leaks later on and also consider inwall fans for pushing heat from one room to another. Both can be had for very reasonable prices and if you set things up correctly you shouldn't even need to run your furnace / heat systems if you have just a few miners. I have zero noise complaints and keep the entire house warm. Any questions feel free to pop me a PM.

Do not support anyone or any company who isn't supporting the bitcoin ecosystem in a positive way. Pools who mine zero transaction blocks, or SPV mining taking a chance with forks to damage us all.

Final thoughts are keep on keeping on! It doesn't matter how big some company is, or how much they control, but for the simple reason we are what Bitcoin is about! That will not change until the last one of us little guys is gone and it is worth being in it!

Yes, this is a great idea in theory, but it is not practical for the reasons Finsky mentioned.
Kogan, once you have been around a good while you will see this community has been burned so many times it requires people with great reputations to step up and start a project such as this, and it isn't easy.
There are a couple of different people who have offered fantastic deals on hosting in different places the community would not touch because of the location, the person did not have credibility, etc.

Say you do have that credible person on board, such as Finsky, sidehack, or other people who have done several things in working with many of us home miners, well they already have a business, have projects in the oven, and sidehack has been trying to get some chips from a manufacturer.

You'd need to show you have something or someone to have a foothold. A way to get chips, a building, what is your plan? Then, maybe then you would generate some interest. Obviously money is not the biggest issue here. It is contacts and reputation.
This community has pulled together mountains of millions. It is all written in the forum threads.

Less people will even look at anything which doesn't involve a reputable member.

Good Luck!

I pulled this from the post above from wizkid.

Please point me to the proof this is being done by ckpool.

Keep poppin those bad boys cannaan 171,058,172,156
 

Full disclosure:
I read all of the pool posts pretty regularly.
I read wizkids comment regarding something up with the mining scene. Hardware, something smells bad, etc
Tonight I read eleuthria's comments.

I'm not going to get into too many specifics regarding my mining situation. It is nothing much at all.
 However I will be straight up with a few folks if any questions are posed via PM.

Anyway, I had an S3+ and an S7 both submit block finds to kano.is in 23 days and I will say what I have is a small amount of hash. I am not mentioning kano.is to discuss the differences between the pools in any fashion.

I am stating this to say these are both old and new miners, supposedly I should be running exactly what the manufacturer is in their own halls, at least for a time period long ago and now.

MY question would be...
 are you saying one of those miners should have previously or current day receive a higher number of block finds / payouts?
Or the S7 will score more than the S3+ hash for hash?
Is this observation made from both of your experience with your own pools and observing across the entire network?

I have had the S3+ mining since approximately January 15 of this year.
The S7 is a batch 1 which came in a week or so after the Holiday in China
Which we are still waiting on some word regarding compensation.

I think I hear you saying the S7's solve more blocks than an S3 at the same cost for both?

I am asking you to spell it out for me heh.

Edit for clarity of my opinion:
I think it was luck given opportunity.
But I am very interested in the discussion.

Congrats Capn and BTCWoman it is nice hitting multiple blocks per day with the smaller hash we have, and I think it is like a nice family reunion on thanksgiving.
If thanksgiving were more about us making money and patting each other on the back for it
Thinking a bit more it does indeed sound like a pretty funky great Turkey Day. Maybe the new Chicken is Turkey, Bock Bock 

Load up the Frozen Turkey blaster and lets start blowin more blocks away. GG

The estimated diff increase is looking blasted bad, so may as well do it up now.

Lets see what we can get going with some playing around with hash tonight 

Thank you, you are kind.

I know most people will say it is too long, too much to read, and many or most will skip on by, but if maybe a few people will read and contemplate some of these things we can have an impact. Even one miner is better than none, and I know there are many great people mining at those pools who just haven't been exposed to an opportunity where the facts have been presented as they are in this thread.

I think one of the best things is that people could make fantastic amounts of money using their hashpower if they used it wisely. Making those pools compete more for your hashpower is what will drive bitcoin into the future.

Every single miner should consider the power they have, and the possibilities are huge by simply changing the pool you mine at for a short amount of time, IE a couple of months just to see,  as it is a vote to say no, you want bitcoin to be the best it can be and it will be controlled by no one and everyone but never the small few.

I do appreciate the kind words, and please help pass the word so more people consider their choice in where they mine. That single choice has the power to make this one of the most fantastic times to ever be alive. Lets make sure we do not give up our right to mine where we want and see bitcoin evolve into the infrastructure of the most beautiful financial system this universe will ever see.

This is where your morals as a miner and ultimately a human being who has an impact on the Bitcoin Ecosystem and by proxy the world and you must make a decision to support pools who mine empty blocks when there are plenty of transactions waiting to be handled.

These pools who choose to spv mine and mine 0 transaction blocks do not deserve anyone's loyalty because of the choices they make. The people who make the decisions for these pools do not care about the future of bitcoin outside of what it makes for them tomorrow. They do not care if in 10, 20, or 50 years bitcoin is worthless, they do not use their profits to help the miners, they do not give their time to help the ecosystem, they only care about them, and supporting such is complete greed and a lack of a moral compass.

Now when I say morals I am not talking about something as complicated as a religious discussion. I do not mean a philosophical expression which one could contemplate for weeks, I am talking about the difference between black and white, good and bad,  dirty or clean, being a thief, or doing the best someone can to treat others as they want to be treated.

This is about as simple as any conversation or debate could be and anyone denying that mining an empty block when there are valid transactions waiting to be processed does not have reality in their sights.

F2pool will tell you they are just a bunch of geeks trying to get by but what they will not tell you is that they collude with a couple of other of the largest pools which exist to provide each other with block confirmations in China before the rest of the world has an opportunity.

What you should ask yourself is have you shown yourself you cannot make just as much if not more coin by mining at a pool which does not mine zero transaction blocks. People could make just as much money and help the network grow while securing it for the future by mining at pools who do not spv mine and mine zero transaction blocks.

There are many things allowed by code. Just because the code doesn't stop you from doing something doesn't mean it is something you should do. We all know the people contributing to bitcoin core have immense amounts of things to address and they should do so with the interest of the network security and longevity at heart.

We have already had forks because of the spv mining and we see transactions skipped by the largest pools every single day. Does anyone think this will translate to helping the network grow? If so, please explain how not processing transactions will help bitcoin? The more people who sit waiting for a transaction to process then the more people we have thinking that bitcoin isn't all good and well. The more miners who grow frustrated seeing those same pools grow larger begin to question bitcoin as well. Eventually things like this can be a breaking point and this is where morals can come into play.

Imagine you have provided all of the miners on the bitcoin network a fantastic sum of money to do nothing but continue mining wherever they choose, as long as it helps the network grow and provides the security to do so. Removing the economic reason for mining and place all decision making on the individual miner to choose the pool they mine at not based on how much coin they make, but how much they think that particular pool will help bitcoin grow and trust the pool owners / operators to make the best decisions for the bitcoin network.
What do you think the hashrate charts would look like then? Anything similar to today's distribution?

Again, consider these things yourself, consider the choices you have made and continue to make regarding a variety of things in life. Isn't it always better in the long run to do the right thing?
If it wasn't right no one would care. If I hadn't seen these things first-hand, if I hadn't been exposed to the pure greed which drives one of the biggest pools I wouldn't care. If I hadn't been shown the empty blocks and began to do my own research, began to ask my own questions and also have a natural curiosity to question the status quo I literally would never post about it because it wouldn't matter.

Please don't take my word for it. Look at these things on your own and if you care that bitcoin puts its best foot forward to the world then start by showing them that bitcoin is based on people who make decisions to better the bitcoin community for the long haul. Allowing F2pool and Antpool to continue mining with these tactics shows the corporate world this is a simple extension of their banking system for the taking, and that is exactly what is happening. As more control flows to these central locations even if the power was never used (imagine a company having power over bitcoin and not abusing it), even if those companies didn't choose to perform further acts which harm the community while filling their pockets they have the opportunity to do so.

Maybe a different viewpoint will help some people, and if you are driven by pure greed then at least be a person who stands up for what they believe in and sincerely open your eyes to long term growth. Where do we go at this pace? More new miners join those pools because they are the largest and those pools continue to get larger. You may get daily payouts (albeit much smaller payouts than other pools), but that is short sighted, you can still make just as much if not much more mining at a pool which is not setup to spit out zero transaction blocks.

Someone mining for the act of purely making more coin can even see that as those pools grow larger and gather more power they position themselves to control the network. Consider BIP101. It doesn't matter if you supported it or not, but the fact that F2pool and Antpool could push the network to BIP101 if they choose to do so is not at all what any true supporter of bitcoin would ever choose, much less someone mining for pure profit. Because they originally were quoted as saying they would support a revision of BIP101 but then did not do so, and regardless of the exact semantics why on earth would anyone want to see such an immense amount of control over the complete bitcoin universe in the hands of a small group of people who have shown consistently they only care about themselves.

What choices do we always see greedy corporations make once they become a monopoly? They make choices that make them more money. ...And who supplies the additional income for them above what they are making now? The very customers who provided them with the ability to become that monopoly. We do not live in a fair world and I think most miners know this. Regardless of the fact that some of us (myself included) may enjoy the occasional immature joke, or even act immature when calling out someone on the forum, we know right from wrong and when removing ourselves mentally from the situation enough to think clearly can see what is happening.
Those of us old enough to remember other monopolies, or the people who see the ones standing today as the local cable company and AT&T work together to make sure you pay out the wazoo every month for less than half or worse of the internet speeds and caps of the rest of the world, well, I know that if I'd understood this twenty five years ago I would not have continued to give those companies my money. The majority of miners are doing the same thing today. Do we need governments telling us where to mine? Do we need the governments who have proven repeatedly not to have our best interests at heart telling us where to point our hash. Because if / when the government gets involved the only monopoly is theirs. They may let F2pool keep the name, but they certainly will no longer have control. But we are a long way from anything like that. We have many years of the monopoly of the few before we get to that extreme, and we have the opportunity to make a choice.

You may quietly continue pointing your hash at a pool where you think you make more money for whatever reason regardless of how it impacts the network and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Actually, you are part of the majority by continuing to do so. You may quietly kick back and only care about today, and you may even have yourself convinced that your hashrate doesn't matter. Hell they already have so many PH of the network it doesn't matter what you choose, you may be heading out the door to go out on Friday night and spend some of your coin and you don't have time for what you see is a trivial thing that has no bearing on you.
... Just like casting a vote, it matters more than you will understand until you no longer have a choice.

Take a few minutes, say 20 minutes and read some of the opinions of the people on this forum who are posting about these scenarios. JohnyBravo doesn't have a dog in this fight in the manner of pool versus pool, but look at his opinions. I've followed JB's posts on a couple of different forums and firmly believe he has a good handle on the bitcoin landscape from the home miner perspective. He has nothing to lose or gain by making the statements he does regarding zero transaction mining. Why would he display his research and opinion, or spend his time delving into things such as this if it weren't fact.
I would not care what any pool did if it didn't harm the future of this gorgeous creation called bitcoin. I know I am pretty much small potatoes as miners go but through everything I've learned about bitcoin is to some people it is their personal money making machine and nothing more. They care about today and into tomorrow. They care about keeping the cash train rolling, but they do not have the goal of changing the financial world forever and leveling the playing field, they do not care about the people paying hundreds of millions of dollars in remittance fees, the people who have to spend 5, 7, or even 10 to 20 % of their minimum wage paycheck just to send money back home so their family can eat while they try to save up enough money to move their family to their new country.

There will only be a few people who make real money with bitcoin and it will not be the miners. I hate to break it to the people who think they will be millionaires from mining coin but unfortunately those of us who weren't around a few years ago are catching the tail end of what could be a beautiful thing.  This is because the more control those pools gain, the less people will be convinced this is a secure system. See, it doesn't matter if the actual miners are decentralized if all of the hashrate is going to 2 or 3 pools who work in collusion with each other. They have the ability to do all sorts of evil deeds with it, and you haven't began to understand the mindsets involved if you do not think they will use that power to gain even more power. It is as obvious as the sky being blue and if miners do not wake up and begin making choices to turn this car around none of the other small stuff is hardly worth consideration. It doesn't matter what BIPs are implemented, it doesn't matter if the core programmers make any changes, and it doesn't matter what the price of bitcoin does because the same small group of people will control it.

You and I both are watching them murder bitcoin in broad daylight. They have the power and are given more everyday, so they will make the rules. Back doors into back rooms where the deals are truly made by people who will soon if not already control what used to be the network belonging to the people of the world. Are you going to continue sitting idly by while they control you? You are being manipulated. When kids read about bitcoin in history books will they read about how it was destroyed by greed, or will they read about how the miners made the right choice and changed the way the world works forever? I know one thing they will read, and that is that there were groups of miners who were not on the payroll of the monopoly. I hope to see your name next to mine along with thousands of others who finally said, enough is enough and took a stand.

If driven by pure greed then calculate your earnings and compare them to what you could have earned at kano.is over the past year.
It isn't that I agree with every choice made by that particular pool, but I know the operator has bitcoin survival and proliferation as his top priority. I do not believe he is driven by corporate investors, and I know he is smart, and has good morals.
You will be surprised at the earnings you are missing. There are other good pools as well. There are certainly other pools who do not subscribe to a quick buck above anything else mentality.

If you are driven by your conscience and involved for a variety of reasons you already know the right choice to make, you just need to execute it and show the world where your heart and mind were during the bitcoin revolution.

Either way, wake up and wipe the sleep from your eyes, it is time for you to make a move.

I have to drop my sticks off for a few.
Both the standard and donate are coming down, but it will not be a long time as in days or anything.

I am upgrading the PC they are all running with.
If anything goes wrong I have another PC I can throw them on, but I think a few hours will get me back in without any issues.

See ya soon... I hope