[1500 TH] p2pool: Decentralized, DoS-resistant, Hop-Proof pool

[DeathAndTaxes]

Why such a difference in the statistics and the client at all times?

As kjj says it is because you are seeing it indirectly.

An example might help:
say I was flipping coins (and you could verify the coin flip was fair).  You couldn't see the actual coin flips you were only notified when a heads occurred.  Given that you could estimate my "flip rate" but it would be an estimate.  20 heads per minute ~= 40 flips per minute but I might actually be flipping at 42 flips per minute or 37 flips per minute.

With a coin flip since the measured outcome occurs 50% of the time (heads = 1 share) thus your estimate is going to be pretty accurate even over a short period of time.  Now imagine I rolled a pair of dice and notified you on snake eyes (2x ones).  Since that only occurs 1 in 36 times the "roll rate" would be 36x the snake eye rate but variance would be higher as you get less observations (snake eyes) relative to the event rate (rolling the dice).

With mining there is even less observations relative to the event.  Difficult 1 share = once every 2^32 ~= 4.2 billion hashes.  The pool only sees the shares thus it has less data to work with to approximate the rate.  p2pool uses shares higher than difficult 1 and that means even less observations.

The only software that knows your hashrate is the miner.  Everything else is estimating it by looking at shares.  Even your payment is an estimate using shares as a proxy for the hashrate (and thus actual work attempted).

[fehknt]

Just updated (0ad46ea0be3cae43184fef40d34469880d86f02e -> 5e04126742449ed026b2ea940f33a19656de6a6d), started getting a new error I haven't seen before:

Code:

2012-02-22 08:55:57.536599 > Traceback (most recent call last):
2012-02-22 08:55:57.536700 >   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 823, in _inlineCallbacks
2012-02-22 08:55:57.536739 >     result = g.send(result)
2012-02-22 08:55:57.536774 >   File "/home/.../p2pool/p2pool/util/jsonrpc.py", line 105, in render_POST
2012-02-22 08:55:57.536808 >     result = yield method_meth(request, *params)
2012-02-22 08:55:57.536842 >   File "/home/.../p2pool/p2pool/bitcoin/worker_interface.py", line 21, in rpc_getwork
2012-02-22 08:55:57.536877 >     return self.parent._getwork(request, data, long_poll=self.long_poll)
2012-02-22 08:55:57.536911 >   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 944, in unwindGenerator
2012-02-22 08:55:57.536960 >     return _inlineCallbacks(None, f(*args, **kwargs), Deferred())
2012-02-22 08:55:57.536994 > --- <exception caught here> ---
2012-02-22 08:55:57.537028 >   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 823, in _inlineCallbacks
2012-02-22 08:55:57.537062 >     result = g.send(result)
2012-02-22 08:55:57.537095 >   File "/home/.../p2pool/p2pool/bitcoin/worker_interface.py", line 63, in _getwork
2012-02-22 08:55:57.537129 >     defer.returnValue(self.merkle_root_to_handler[header['merkle_root']](header, request))
2012-02-22 08:55:57.537164 >   File "/home/.../p2pool/p2pool/main.py", line 652, in got_response
2012-02-22 08:55:57.537197 >     reactor.callLater(1, grapher.add_localrate_point, bitcoin_data.target_to_average_attempts(target), not on_time)
2012-02-22 08:55:57.537232 > exceptions.NameError: global name 'grapher' is not defined

I'm running python 2.6.5 (Ubuntu 10.04 LTS).  P2Pool continues to run but dumps a lot of these, and appears to be failing to receive work from the worker.  Not sure if it's failing to accept just the low-difficulty work or if shares will be missed too - haven't let it run long enough to "probably" have missed a share.  The data/rrd.poolrate and rrd.stalerate files seem to be udpated, but not the rrd.local*rate files.

[Proofer]

cgminer:

Code:

[2012-02-22 08:44:00] Accepted 00000000.1c5c9ad1.2ea00ae6 GPU 0 thread 0
[2012-02-22 08:44:06] Pool 0 not providing work fast enough
[2012-02-22 08:45:06] Pool 0 http://127.0.0.1:9332 not responding!

I stopped/restarted p2pool; this is the repeating state output:

Code:

2012-02-22 08:56:08.357215 P2Pool: 27608 shares in chain (24672 verified/27612 total) Peers: 0 (0 incoming)
2012-02-22 08:56:08.357297  Local: 0H/s in last 0.0 seconds Local dead on arrival: ??? Expected time to share: ???
2012-02-22 08:56:08.357320  Shares: 0 (0 orphan, 0 dead) Stale rate: ??? Efficiency: ??? Current payout: 0.4370 BTC
2012-02-22 08:56:08.357346  Pool: 270GH/s Stale rate: 7.9% Expected time to block: 6.1 hours

Times are USA PST (GMT -0800).

What's wrong?

Edit:  "fixed" by rebooting (Ubuntu 11.04)

[fehknt]

9f55b0458c8064ca899b0992500802e52dee37eb fixed things for me, thanks!

[fehknt]

cgminer:

Code:

[2012-02-22 08:44:00] Accepted 00000000.1c5c9ad1.2ea00ae6 GPU 0 thread 0
[2012-02-22 08:44:06] Pool 0 not providing work fast enough
[2012-02-22 08:45:06] Pool 0 http://127.0.0.1:9332 not responding!

I used to get that on older versions of cgminer - what version are you using / try updating to 2.2.7?

[Proofer]

cgminer:

Code:

[2012-02-22 08:44:00] Accepted 00000000.1c5c9ad1.2ea00ae6 GPU 0 thread 0
[2012-02-22 08:44:06] Pool 0 not providing work fast enough
[2012-02-22 08:45:06] Pool 0 http://127.0.0.1:9332 not responding!

I used to get that on older versions of cgminer - what version are you using / try updating to 2.2.7?

I am running 2.2.7.   (Note: the problem was "fixed" by rebooting Ubuntu 11.04.)

[forrestv]

Finally created a "share explorer"! Play with it here: http://forre.st:9332/web/explorer (or on your local P2Pool installation)

[marcus_of_augustus]

Garr:

Bitcoind not up to date? What's the output from "bitcoind getinfo"?

This:

{
    "version" : 50200,
    "balance" : 44520.93652163,
    "blocks" : 197724,
    "connections" : 8,
    "proxy" : "",
    "generate" : false,
    "genproclimit" : 1,
    "difficulty" : 1376302.26788638,
    "hashespersec" : 0,
    "testnet" : false,
    "keypoololdest" : 1307423814,
    "keypoolsize" : 153,
    "paytxfee" : 0.00000000,
    "errors" : "See bitcoin.org/feb20 if you have trouble connecting after 20 February"
}

That is without p2pool and cgminer running.

Assuming your output for the "balance" is genuine ... wow! p2pool rocks that much?

Also, word of warning, for security reasons you probably do not want to have a live instance of bitcoind used for mining pointing at a wallet containing upwards of U$200K ... unless you are supremely confident and good at network security. Best to read up on how to create storage safe, off-line wallets, etc for large amounts .... can provide links if you need them.

[O_Shovah]

Hello

Im currently Trying to implement a p2pool plattfrom on my ARM board.
P2pool itself seems to run just fine.
The catch seems to bitcoin client.
I have not succeded in recompiling it for ARM so far,so in tried using Electrum wich itself works just fine.

The problem is it does not the job of the original client am i correct ?
Or is it possible to make p2pool run with it ?

Or has anybody compiled a original bitcoin client version that is likely to run on a ubuntu ARM plattform ?

Many thanks in advance

[kjj]

I'm getting this using p2pool 0.9 (1bdeed1) and bitcoind 0.6rc1:

Code:

2012-02-23 01:01:45.821401 New work for worker! Difficulty: 0.999985 Share difficulty: 515.666135 Total block value: 50.048000 BTC including 82 transactions
2012-02-23 01:01:45.825691
2012-02-23 01:01:45.825773 Error when requesting noncached value:
2012-02-23 01:01:45.825843 > Traceback (most recent call last):
2012-02-23 01:01:45.825909 >   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 388, in errback
2012-02-23 01:01:45.825979 >     self._startRunCallbacks(fail)
2012-02-23 01:01:45.826044 >   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 455, in _startRunCallbacks
2012-02-23 01:01:45.826107 >     self._runCallbacks()
2012-02-23 01:01:45.826164 >   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 542, in _runCallbacks
2012-02-23 01:01:45.826227 >     current.result = callback(current.result, *args, **kw)
2012-02-23 01:01:45.826286 >   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 1076, in gotResult
2012-02-23 01:01:45.826347 >     _inlineCallbacks(r, g, deferred)
2012-02-23 01:01:45.826406 > --- <exception caught here> ---
2012-02-23 01:01:45.826465 >   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 1018, in _inlineCallbacks
2012-02-23 01:01:45.826527 >     result = result.throwExceptionIntoGenerator(g)
2012-02-23 01:01:45.826586 >   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/twisted/python/failure.py", line 350, in throwExceptionIntoGenerator
2012-02-23 01:01:45.826648 >     return g.throw(self.type, self.value, self.tb)
2012-02-23 01:01:45.826706 >   File "/opt/p2pool/p2pool/main.py", line 178, in <lambda>
2012-02-23 01:01:45.826768 >     height_cacher = deferral.DeferredCacher(defer.inlineCallbacks(lambda block_hash: defer.returnValue((yield bitcoind.rpc_getblock('%x' % (block_hash,)))['blockcount'])))
2012-02-23 01:01:45.826829 >   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 1018, in _inlineCallbacks
2012-02-23 01:01:45.826891 >     result = result.throwExceptionIntoGenerator(g)
2012-02-23 01:01:45.826950 >   File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/twisted/python/failure.py", line 350, in throwExceptionIntoGenerator
2012-02-23 01:01:45.827010 >     return g.throw(self.type, self.value, self.tb)
2012-02-23 01:01:45.827069 >   File "/opt/p2pool/p2pool/util/jsonrpc.py", line 67, in callRemote
2012-02-23 01:01:45.827128 >     raise Error(**resp['error'])
2012-02-23 01:01:45.827203 > p2pool.util.jsonrpc.Error: -5 Block not found
2012-02-23 01:01:45.827252
2012-02-23 01:01:47.954886 P2Pool: 17388 shares in chain (10647 verified/17392 total) Peers: 10 (0 incoming)

[forrestv]

I'm getting this using p2pool 0.9 (1bdeed1) and bitcoind 0.6rc1:

Constantly or just occasionally? Maybe you were on a Bitcoin block fork..

[kjj]

I'm getting this using p2pool 0.9 (1bdeed1) and bitcoind 0.6rc1:

Constantly or just occasionally? Maybe you were on a Bitcoin block fork..

It stopped after a while, but it popped up every dozen seconds or so for several minutes while it was happening.

But, if bitcoind and p2pool had different ideas about which block they should be building on, that is a pretty big problem, is it not?

[forrestv]

It stopped after a while, but it popped up every dozen seconds or so for several minutes while it was happening.

But, if bitcoind and p2pool had different ideas about which block they should be building on, that is a pretty big problem, is it not?

The problem was other users building on blocks that you didn't think were the right ones to build on, not any disagreement between your local daemons. There is no problem, except that the error shouldn't be displayed, or at least should be smaller with an explanation.

[Icoin]

Hi
Is a p2pool merged mining howto avalable ?

[forrestv]

Hi
Is a p2pool merged mining howto avalable ?

It's pretty easy - start namecoind, then run P2Pool with --merged http://NAMECOIN_USER:NAMECOIN_PASSWORD@127.0.0.1:NAMECOIN_RPC_PORT/

[Icoin]

Hi
Is a p2pool merged mining howto avalable ?

It's pretty easy - start namecoind, then run P2Pool with --merged http://NAMECOIN_USER:NAMECOIN_PASSWORD@127.0.0.1:NAMECOIN_RPC_PORT/

thanks a lot forrestv!

[randomguy7]

Does someone know how this can happen?

The recently found block gave me a reward of about 0.004 BTC, but my p2pool instance says I should have gotten about 0.22 BTC. How's that possible? Total hashing power shows up as about 294 GH/s, so I shouldn't be on a fork. I'm running p2pool v0.9 btw.

Edit: Is it possible that someone else who's on a fork found the block?

Edit2: Mystery solved. The payout came from elligius, I mined a few shares there.

[xxaudioxx]

Thanks to Holiday tutorial i'm now mining (700mh/s) for p2pool... cheers

[Garr255]

I see the same error when running p2pool and bitcoind on the same (fairly underpowered) system, an asus eeebox with intel atom cpu.
There are load spikes every now and then where bitcoind and p2pool together peg the cpu at 100% and then these errors appear.

It seemed to cause more than average orphans and dead shares in my case so I now run p2pool and bitcoind on a faster system, and I've never seen the error there.

I'm getting the same error with an i7 cpu, there must be another cause...

[spiccioli]

I see the same error when running p2pool and bitcoind on the same (fairly underpowered) system, an asus eeebox with intel atom cpu.
There are load spikes every now and then where bitcoind and p2pool together peg the cpu at 100% and then these errors appear.

It seemed to cause more than average orphans and dead shares in my case so I now run p2pool and bitcoind on a faster system, and I've never seen the error there.

I'm getting the same error with an i7 cpu, there must be another cause...

Garr255,

I've found out that using bitcoind 0.6.0 RC1 with latest p2pool.py lowers CPU usage _a lot_.

spiccioli