Where does all the "Unknown" miners come from?

[hZti]

I recently checked the hash rate distribution here https://blockchain.info/de/pools and it seems like most of the older pools like ghash.io have lost their power to "unknown", does anybody know what all these unknown pools are? I mean is there a single big one, or are there multiple small ones etc.

[TheRealSteve]

I recommend checking out http://organofcorti.blogspot.com/

Latest statistics: http://organofcorti.blogspot.com/2015/06/june-14th-2015-block-maker-statistics.html

The ones he's got labeled unknown are in the 'Unknown recurring generation address' table.

1CdJi2xRTXJF6CEJqNHYyQDNEcM3X7fUhD is possibly 21, Inc.  Several services have begun labeling as such, and organofcorti mention of that at the top of this week's statistics.  There's no hard evidence that it is 21, Inc. and he welcomes input on that.

A comment points out:
1BwZeHJo7b7M2op7VDfYnsmcpXsUYEcVHm is BTC Nuggets, as correlated to their block stats page.

1NY15MK947MLzmPUa2gL7UgyR8prLh2xfu and 1Ar2gRkt1u6k4PToeeTKm1KGmtR2GRA1wL may be related, but unknown.

1GcF7j3YH8Qs8hvNEe7zbrQZftMU6sRLfu seems to have some transaction connections to F2Pool, but that's a weak link.

1Fdpys8g2Dsnk2vyLARdDidAebCafrH2Wb and 1qtKetXKgqa7j1KrB19HbvfRiNUncmakk - no idea, but then they have 1 block each in a week, so that's not very many.

There's several more not listed there that would be under 'Unknown' in his main table, but it's a sub-1% remainder.

[hZti]

Thanks for the post, it's very helpful as I'm not up to date at the moment.

[zebedee]

If anyone who knew would furnish evidence, they wouldn't be unknown right?  They're flagged "unknown" for a reason...

[Amph]

one can only guess, it could be for example, many displaced little china farms, around the world, hidden with a proxy

what worries is that before it was only 20%, then 33 and now 37, how can it grow so fast

[TheRealSteve]

what worries is that before it was only 20%, then 33 and now 37, how can it grow so fast

If this is still in reference to blockchain's pie chart - I wouldn't use it right now.  For some reason their own pool detection code is broken.  Their detection metrics should work (see github), but.. it doesn't.

Specifically, they're currently missing (and thus including in 'Unknown') BitFury and BTC China.  Those are currently the #3 and #4 pools.  So for blockchain.info's pie chart, it makes perfect sense why 'Unknown' would grow so fast

[jonnybravo0311]

what worries is that before it was only 20%, then 33 and now 37, how can it grow so fast

If this is still in reference to blockchain's pie chart - I wouldn't use it right now.  For some reason their own pool detection code is broken.  Their detection metrics should work (see github), but.. it doesn't.

Specifically, they're currently missing (and thus including in 'Unknown') BitFury and BTC China.  Those are currently the #3 and #4 pools.  So for blockchain.info's pie chart, it makes perfect sense why 'Unknown' would grow so fast

They're missing BTC China because the string they look for in the coinbase script is wrong.  I found that out when I did my own empty block analysis.  BTC China now puts "BTCChina.com" in the coinbase.  blockchain.info looks for "BTCChina Pool" and "btcchina.com".  They also look for a specific payout address in the coinbase transaction, "152f1muMCNa7goXYhYAQC61hxEgGacmncB".  Apparently that part of their identifying code is broken, since BTCChina still pays out to that address.  For example, I correctly find that block 360755 is mined by BTC China, but blockchain.info does not.

[TheRealSteve]

It's just broken in multiple areas.  BitFury's blocks, for example, should be detected;

Block 361321: https://blockchain.info/block/000000000000000002fcabab4e1851c176a5fbe69fba36ac220455031635de59
Coinbase TX: https://blockchain.info/tx/69edee4e804c26c0569c1189da06065a7ec3e28a8bc3f6d3301452a96281065a
decoded scriptSig: i�/P2SH/p~�U �@�   /BitFury/

pools json: https://github.com/blockchain/Blockchain-Known-Pools/blob/master/pools.json
scriptSig detection:

Code:

"/BitFury/" : {
            "name" : "BitFury",
            "link" : "http://bitfury.com/"
        },

But not actually recognized.  I'm sure they'll get around to fixing it.

[MarketNeutral]

"Unknown" you say? Unknown to most but not all. Perhaps someone is testing a new type of miner, one that uses a new mining method? 

[TheRealSteve]

Bit late to the party there - doesn't matter anyway, blockchain.info fixed whatever was broken and both BitFury and BTC China are present once more.

[mavericklm]

https://blockchain.info/pools

the unknown part of the pie is down to ~10%

[Amph]

https://blockchain.info/pools

the unknown part of the pie is down to ~10%

yeah they were 21 inc telko and bitfury, still it is 1% up than yesterday, it was 8% now it is 9

maybe some chinese miner that is adding other machines

[TheRealSteve]

it was 8% now it is 9

maybe some chinese miner that is adding other machines

I'd just wait for organofcorti's June 21st update.