[ANN] Stratum mining protocol - ASIC ready

[beekeeper]

python on win7 64 bits have the same issue with redirections.

[antirack]

I am on Ubuntu.

It works now, for some reason it only works directly in a bash shell but not in a GNU Screen session.

[slush]

I just changed "official" documentation of Stratum protocol at https://mining.bitcoin.cz/stratum-mining to reflect recent discussion about changing the difficulty.

Specifically I added following sentence to chapter "Server can occasionally ask miner to change share difficulty":

This means that difficulty 2 will be applied to every next job received from the server.

Although I understand this is not breath-taking and verbose explanation, it is basically enough to fix recently discussed issues about difficulty changes.

Reasoning for this change is described here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=108533.msg1344456#msg1344456 and this change is backward compatible with all existing mining software (cgminer, proxy, poclbm). It should be also compatible with existing pool implementations (at least with BtcGuild implementation, and I'm not aware of any reason why it should break other implementations), so it is up to poolops if their Stratum pools will gain from this change.

[DrHaribo]

Thanks, Slush. Just in time for my server implementation

[DrHaribo]

Is the X-Stratum HTTP header documented somewhere?

What should be the contents?

How should it be interpreted by miners? As "stratum is there, if you want it" or "stratum is there, switch to that"

[slush]

Is the X-Stratum HTTP header documented somewhere?

I don't think so. It should be "getwork extension", but I'm not aware of any process how to "standardize it". Maybe just edit wiki? :-)

What should be the contents?

stratum+tcp://url:port

How should it be interpreted by miners? As "stratum is there, if you want it" or "stratum is there, switch to that"

Existing miners (cgminer, poclbm) implement it as "Stratum is there, switch to that". Thanks to this, users (who don't understand difference between getwork/stratum) don't need to change anything in their config, just update miner.

[slush]

I edited bitcoin.it wiki: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Getwork

[DrHaribo]

I edited bitcoin.it wiki: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Getwork

Thanks

So current miners try GBT first, and if it has a Stratum HTTP header they switch to Stratum. If GBT fails completely they switch to getwork, which could also have a Stratum header, but that is never looked at if GBT is supported.

If you implement both GBT and Stratum, the server will decide the default by including a Stratum HTTP header in GBT responses or not.

[DrHaribo]

Currently testing Stratum at BitMinter: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=27062.msg1372864#msg1372864

[slush]

So current miners try GBT first, and if it has a Stratum HTTP header they switch to Stratum.

I have no idea how it works with GBT in miners. That X-Stratum is for getwork protocol...

[-ck]

So current miners try GBT first, and if it has a Stratum HTTP header they switch to Stratum.

I have no idea how it works with GBT in miners. That X-Stratum is for getwork protocol...

GBT is all done in http so the headers can just as easily contain x-stratum as getwork does, and cgminer will still switch to stratum if it finds the header in gbt comms.

[slush]

Thanks ckolivas, good to know.

[slush]

Stratum proxy 1.2.0 has been released. Changelog:

* Fixes major bug in C extension for calculating midstate (thanks verement for bug report & pull request).
* Fixes network issues - proxy now actively reconnects after two minutes of pool inactivity (also disconnect miners to indicate connection issues).
* Fixes get_version message.

[DrHaribo]

What would be recommended server behavior in the case that, after authentication, a worker's credentials are no longer valid. For instance due to the password changing, the worker being deleted, the user being banned or the user account deleted.

And does it make sense to implement more commands than the ones in the docs at bitcoin.cz?

[-ck]

What would be recommended server behavior in the case that, after authentication, a worker's credentials are no longer valid. For instance due to the password changing, the worker being deleted, the user being banned or the user account deleted.

And does it make sense to implement more commands than the ones in the docs at bitcoin.cz?

I'd say just drop the connection since that would mandate they try to reauthorise.

[DrHaribo]

I'd say just drop the connection since that would mandate they try to reauthorise.

Yeah, will do that.

Didn't see this until now: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Stratum

Are all those RPC methods documented somewhere?

[slush]

https://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer/issues/186

Do we have any nice solution how to provide enough information for miners to inspect block templates, but prevent pool from overloading? As I see now, these two requirements are going against each other.

[slush]

Didn't see this until now: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Stratum
Are all those RPC methods documented somewhere?

AFAIK docs is only there:
https://docs.google.com/a/palatinus.cz/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Al5UmiyYRxBudENwV2pVVmJsOEJMM1VnSDdHM0JhZlE#gid=0

There's reference implementation of some of them:
https://github.com/slush0/stratum-mining-proxy/blob/master/mining_libs/client_service.py

[-ck]

https://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer/issues/186

Do we have any nice solution how to provide enough information for miners to inspect block templates, but prevent pool from overloading? As I see now, these two requirements are going against each other.

luke-jr's code is intentionally checking far too often, trying to make stratum look worse than GBT. Enough of his crap, don't let his influence ruin stratum too.

[Graet]

https://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer/issues/186

Do we have any nice solution how to provide enough information for miners to inspect block templates, but prevent pool from overloading? As I see now, these two requirements are going against each other.

luke-jr's code is intentionally checking far too often, trying to make stratum look worse than GBT. Enough of his crap, don't let his influence ruin stratum too.

+1