Sorry, but I deleted your post due to the size of the quote, and the fact that it is no longer accurate.  The pool is remaining open (and not being sold).  The same process outlined in that post would still apply should the pool ever get forced to close however [legal or profitability issues].

Nope, stupid is the correct word.  It's careless to click on a link that was actually disguised or slightly misspelled in a clever way (vv instead of w, l instead of I, etc.).  It's stupid to click on an attachment to an email with the subject "Invoice Payment Confirmation" from a company that doesn't even have invoices.

EDIT:  Actually, it's pretty stupid to be clicking any email attachment at all unless you were expecting it, even if the subject/company/attachment name make sense.  Also it's pretty stupid to not notice a '.jar' extension.  And if the excuse is your email client hides extensions...that's also quite stupid.

EDIT #2: TL;DR:  I'm a tech elitist who has no issue with blaming the victim for their own stupidity.

Yet another batch of phishing emails, now using support@btcguild.com instead of info@btcguild.com.  Once again, they are completely bogus, they aren't even targeted at users of BTC Guild (though I'm sure some BTC Guild users have received them as well).

So once again:  If you fall for something so painfully stupid, please destroy any and all of your electronics because you are a danger to the internet.  Anybody stupid enough to fall for a .jar attachment phishing email is obviously not running a functional computer, but some kind of virus breeding pit which is spewing out spam, worms, and UDP packets with reckless abandon.

Fixed a problem with entering a new address being reported as invalid.


There were no connectivity issues with the servers, so it sounds like the problems you were having aren't totally fixed.

Just going to go on record saying that if you actually fall for a phishing email claiming to be an INVOICE PAYMENT from BTC Guild, turn off your computer, and put it in a garbage bin.  You're not sophisticated enough to use the modern technology, let alone Bitcoin.

EDIT:  Posted this because I just got a copy of the email in my inbox for my old address used for Bitstamp.

BTC Guild does not send any unsolicited emails.  The only automated emails you will receive from the pool are confirmations for wallet/email address changes, or idle miner alerts.  If you get a wallet/email change email, you should  not click any links in that email unless you actually requested it (though you should check if its legit, because if it is it means somebody has your username+password).

There have been many phishing email scams over the years claiming to be from support@btcguild.com (and many other major BTC domains).  In all of them, the emails were spoofing the origination address.  There have been dozens of BTC based websites that have had database leaks over the years which is likely how your email address got on a list to receive the phony emails.  MtGox, Bitstamp, and Bitcointalk have all had complete leaks of all user email addresses over the years (and in some cases, passwords to match).

My inbox is generally filled with "invoices" and similar claims from about a dozen different sources (all spoofed headers).  KNC, BFL, MtGox, Bitstamp, BTC Guild itself [my favorite], and Bitmain.  In all cases, they have a Java (.jar) file attached with a filename like "Invoice 89324".  Obviously, it's stupid to ever open a .jar file from an email attachment.  You will probably never in your life receive a '.jar' file unless you're a Java developer passing application builds over email.

Correct, the pool was not sold/transferred/partnered with anybody.  As of this moment, absolutely nothing has changed.  In the future, the pool might be moved overseas and take on a partner who would establish a new corporation (or foreign equivalent) in their country.  I'll have more information on that front late this month.  That will not actually take place unless the legal/regulatory environment forces me to move the pool, but I'm going to be making preparations so it can happen seamlessly.

Look for yourself?  You can't merged mine in secret.  There are breadcrumbs present in the primary coinbase to show if you're merged mining at all.  While you can mine multiple and claim you only mine on one, it can be audited if somebody wants to dig into the merged minable coins to see if there are blocks with the parent chain coinbase as part of the auxpow.

Ah, good point.  They would be gambling on solving a block before the network does, and if they're going to make that gamble they might as well just mine an entire block for themselves.  Time change+a few late nights must be taking their toll on my early morning thinking skills.

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In the rest of this post, I will be making reference to "super shares".  This is a term for grouping up multiple share submissions at a lower difficulty into a single share that is "big enough" to be put into the list of payments in the next block.

Building off my earlier post, the "5000 super shares" list of users that would get paid on the next block solve is flexible in that it could be altered to be a specific multiple of difficulty, just like PPLNS allows N to be changed to either increase or decrease the window being used.  By lumping share credit into "super shares", you can define a super share as any "difficulty sum".  Miners would continue to work at smaller difficulties like they always have in pooled mining.  Upon reaching the "super share" threshold, they enter the list of addresses to be paid the next time the block updates, and push off the oldest address in that list.

My earlier example of 5000 super shares at 8m diff each would be equivalent to PPLNS where 'N' = network difficulty.  If it was modified to the current pool setting, it would be closer to 32m diff per "super share", which would be 'N' = 4x network difficulty.


EDIT:  Just to clarify, "5000" is just an example where the minimum payment a user would receive is 0.005.  This wouldn't actually create a huge coinbase tx (in terms of data size).  There would not actually be 5000 addresses being paid in the coinbase.  Very fast users would be have multiple super shares in the list.  The fastest user on BTC Guild at this time would be 450-500 of the 5000 super shares paid in each block.

Unfortunately, there is no real solution to p2pool's payment system.  You either need to require very high difficulty shares from miners so that any accepted share in the payment chain is a reasonably sized payout, or a very short 'N' factor, so that only the most recent shares get paid.  In either case, the problem is you can only split up the payment of a block so many ways before you end up with people receiving dust.

For example, if you want the minimum payment amount to be 0.005, that means you can only have 5,000 shares in your "to be paid" shares list, give or take a little due to tx fees in the block.  At the next difficulty, we'll round it to 40 billion just for easy math, that would mean the minimum share difficulty allowed would be 8,000,000.

One advantage a centralized pool has is that you can still use this type of system, but you could make it so instead of having to solve a single 8m diff share, you can solve a million diff-8 shares, at which point the pool pushes your account into the list shares that will get paid in the next block.  That list would function as a PPLNS chain, where every time a new share is put onto the list, the oldest one is pushed off, and a block solve would pay the current list.

There are a few issues with this system though, specifically as it comes to "stale" work.  If somebody has a share being paid in the current coinbase, and a new piece of work comes out where their work has been pushed off the payment list, they could purposely remain mining the old work (as long as the block itself isn't stale).  While this can be prevented by making it so their new submissions are considered stale as far as the pool is concerned, they would still get their reward if they solved a block.


EDIT:  Now that I think about it...that flaw should work on p2pool as well... I'm going to bet the math probably works out that somebody attempting to do that doesn't actually gain anything since they're losing out on any credit that would put them back at the front of the payment list again.  Will look into that when I'm a bit more awake.

BTC Guild email support has been moved to a ticketing system to allow for better tracking of support requests, and likely bringing in somebody to assist with handling support requests which do not require access to the user's account.  I will still be the only one capable of accessing any user account history/information when a support request requires it.  Support will still be handled via email, but it requests should be answered more quickly and not left unanswered for more than 12-24 hours, depending on the time it was sent and whether or not I need to answer it myself.

The response to the intent to close the pool were definitely weighing heavily on me.  That was originally why I began to consider selling the pool to keep it running.  After responding to the first wave of inquiries about buying the pool, I started to realize that selling the pool would likely not be possible.  I could not separate myself from the pool, and the only thing going through my head over the last two days was the concern that if I sold it and somebody ruined it, opened it up to vulnerabilities, or wronged the users, it would be my fault even if it happened years after I was gone.

Plans changed after a long weekend of discussions with both potential buyers, long time users, and even other pool owners.  The pool is no longer closing, it is not being outright sold.  What is being considered is moving the pool out of the country, and possibly taking on an overseas partner in order to help the pool survive whatever regulation is applied in the US.  At the very least it will open more opportunities on that front.  Other changes are being made internally to lower the funds-at-risk in the event of a successful compromise.

A brief update on the weekend's events:  BTC Guild is not closing down in the near future.  BTC Guild is not being sold in the near future.  I am beginning to go over options with some colleagues in other countries and lawyers to consider moving BTC Guild to another country.  This may involve taking on a partner, but I would maintain the primary role in the management and operations of the pool itself.  More on this will be made available as it develops.

That process will be the answer to the concern over regulation.  The second part, the concern about the cost of a successful compromise of the pool, is something I am working on addressing.  I have already made some changes to the pool hot wallet to significantly decrease the amount of funds kept online.  It will mean failed withdrawals may happen more frequently (we haven't had that happen in many months), though it is preferable to have a few withdrawals delayed for 12-24 hours than have the site shut down due to a compromise.

I am also exploring ways that the pool could make a transition to coinbase payments to further reduce the amount of funds at risk at any given time.  This probably won't happen for a few months, if it happens at all.

Sorry about the confusion last night.  Daylight Savings Time took effect in the US, and many of the scripts used to estimate speeds are based on hourly data.  I thought this was fixed, but apparently certain parts were still using local timestamps.

As for yesterday:  We had 2x 11 hour blocks, but GHash.io orphaned one of our blocks.  Ours was found much earlier than theirs, but they found another block to build off of their own, orphaning ours even when it shouldn't have been.  It was bad luck either way, but it was compounded by GHash orphaning a block that shouldn't have been orphaned, turning 2x11 hour blocks into effectively a single 22-hour block.

Yes.  If negotiations aren't successful, you would get the same type of notice that was posted yesterday.  1 full month of warning before mining servers stop working, and 2 additional months (3 months total) to withdraw your balance, beginning on the date of the new notice.  It would likely be slightly more time than that, since I prefer to use end-of-month cutoff dates.

If that happens, it will be a firm closure at that time.  I will not keep the pool users in a state of uncertainty by bouncing back and forth between closing and selling.

At least for now, the site will remain fully operational.  It will likely be sold and transferred to a new owner.  I will likely continue to be involved in some capacity after the acquisition.

If negotiations fall through, there will be a new closure notice which will reset the 3-months notice [the previous notice is void].

No certainties on any dates at this time.  As for what user information would be transferred over to the new owners, it would basically be what you see on your settings page.

Eventually, yes.  Part of negotiations (regardless of who ends up buying the pool) will almost certainly revolve around how much time I remain involved with the pool.  Depending on the final terms, it is possible you continue to see me around for years to come in some capacity.

BTC Guild Shutting Down Likely Being Sold

Earlier today, a news post was made identifying that BTC Guild would be shutting down on January 31, 2015. This post is still available in its entirety on the Bitcointalk forum (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=49417.msg9395478#msg9395478).

Just hours after making this post, multiple parties have expressed strong interest in purchasing BTC Guild and keeping it running. As a result, the previously announced timeline for closure of operations has been cancelled, and the site will likely continue without interruption.

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This was just updated on the BTC Guild website after it was clear that it is almost certain that BTC Guild will not be shutting its doors.  While I may be ending my watch over the pool in the coming months, it will continue.