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

[in2tactics]

1) Most Antminers (including the S4, S5, and S7, and possibly the S3) have problems with p2pool, and will lose hashrate and become unstable unless you use a special firmware. These problems were fixed with the S9, but during the earlier generations, p2pool lost a lot of hashrate.

I've used a dozen S1's and one S7 with P2Pool and haven't noticed any lost hashrate.  Is this an accepted thing?  Should I be looking into that special firmware?

I use Kano's firmware with the S3 and have observed no problems. I never tried mining on p2pool without Kano's firmware installed. I have not noticed any issues with the S7-LN losing any hashrate on p2pool.

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Has anybody been successful running P2Pool on a pruned node?
It throws an error: Block xxxx not found, pruned data.. and P2Pool refuses to start.

Running fine on a full node however. The blockchain size is getting quite big these days and it may be convemient to run it on a pruned node sometimes. For example for backup nodes.

[tubexc]

What this means pool luck 2000% or
pool luck 73% ?
Why when i pause mining for some hours (12 hours for example) i do not have the same expected payout
when i resume mining?

[kano]

p2pool luck isn't calculated correctly, so there's not much point paying much attention to it.

[in2tactics]

Why when i pause mining for some hours (12 hours for example) i do not have the same expected payout when i resume mining?

Is that a real question?

[tubexc]

 Well i think that's due to bitcoin difficulty
but i'm not sure since there's the 3 days and
the 24h teory that the shares stay in the
payout list!!!   

[.m.]

It is nice to see p2pool is still around.
Well done !

[in2tactics]

It is nice to see p2pool is still around.
Well done !

We are still solving the occasional block.

[.m.]

I see, glad to hear that !
Are there any issues / bottlenecks - apart from lack of miners ?

[in2tactics]

I see, glad to hear that !
Are there any issues / bottlenecks - apart from lack of miners ?

Nope

[tubexc]

 Why the expected time to block info
if the block appears suddenly?   

[jonnybravo0311]

Pools provide the expected time to block information as a guideline.  There is no guarantee that a block will be found during that timeframe.  As you stated, one can appear at any time.  However, if you know the hash rate and the current network difficulty you can easily calculate the expected time for a block.  Online calculators use the same formula to determine your expected earnings over time as well.

[tubexc]

Pools provide the expected time to block information as a guideline.  There is no guarantee that a block will be found during that timeframe.  As you stated, one can appear at any time.  However, if you know the hash rate and the current network difficulty you can easily calculate the expected time for a block.  Online calculators use the same formula to determine your expected earnings over time as well.

Ok, thanks Johnny! 
Are you the pool owner or Ceo?

[jonnybravo0311]

I own and operate my own pool (http://bravo-mining.com).  I mined on p2pool for a few years prior to opening mine.  I don't own p2pool, nor am I its CEO.  P2Pool nodes are owned and operated individually.  The source code is owned by forrestv.

[KorbinDallas]

P2Pool has consistently been above a 1 PH average as of recent (about a month or so).  This slight surge is higher than the relative growth of total Bitcoin network Hashrate over the same period. P2pool is currently less than 1% of total network Hashrate. If we can continue to grow just a little bit more, this variance should improve dramatically.

I understand the variance is mathematically calculated the same in either case, but I believe there's a psychological element to it for P2Pool miners (especially new ones).  Hitting a block every couple of days is dramatically different then hitting every couple of weeks.  Feels like a precipice to me...just need to grow a little bit more 😉

[in2tactics]

P2Pool has consistently been above a 1 PH average as of recent (about a month or so).  This slight surge is higher than the relative growth of total Bitcoin network Hashrate over the same period. P2pool is currently less than 1% of total network Hashrate. If we can continue to grow just a little bit more, this variance should improve dramatically.

I understand the variance is mathematically calculated the same in either case, but I believe there's a psychological element to it for P2Pool miners (especially new ones).  Hitting a block every couple of days is dramatically different then hitting every couple of weeks.  Feels like a precipice to me...just need to grow a little bit more 😉

If p2pool could push into the >2PH range, I believe we could improve the psychological element significantly. Honestly, I would be a lot happier if we were in the 3 to 5 PH range, but unfortunately we are not there.

[rav3n_pl]

P2Pool protocol need major change.
Standard pool role is to make miner variance LOWER. At the moment, when P2Pool power raise miner variance raise as well.
Also, when power raise smaller miners are unable to get share and payout.

To keep decentralized structure of pool, I see that P2Pool protocol can adopt few share chains on different share power (diff).
This way, we will have "payout" chain, that store share information ready to pay and few (2? 3?) chains storing lower diff share information.

[in2tactics]

P2Pool protocol need major change.
Standard pool role is to make miner variance LOWER. At the moment, when P2Pool power raise miner variance raise as well.
Also, when power raise smaller miners are unable to get share and payout.

You have to have a really low hashrate to not get a share within the payout window. The S5 at 1.155 TH should on average get a share at least once an hour which should yield ~75 shares within the payout window.

To keep decentralized structure of pool, I see that P2Pool protocol can adopt few share chains on different share power (diff).
This way, we will have "payout" chain, that store share information ready to pay and few (2? 3?) chains storing lower diff share information.

Having additional share chains to store low difficulty shares only creates more problems for miners with really low hashrates. Specifically, it will enable payouts that are essentially dust.

[rav3n_pl]

You have to have a really low hashrate to not get a share within the payout window. The S5 at 1.155 TH should on average get a share at least once an hour which should yield ~75 shares within the payout window.

Yes, on CURRENT hashrate.
Take step back, when P2Pool was 3rd-5th biggest mining pool.
What HR you will need when pool is @200TH or 500TH not 1TH?

[in2tactics]

You have to have a really low hashrate to not get a share within the payout window. The S5 at 1.155 TH should on average get a share at least once an hour which should yield ~75 shares within the payout window.

Yes, on CURRENT hashrate.
Take step back, when P2Pool was 3rd-5th biggest mining pool.
What HR you will need when pool is @200TH or 500TH not 1TH?

Under the current solution, individual miners, within reason, need to scale with the pool. In my opinion, working through the effort of created multiple share chains to accommodate dust payments is irresponsible and is a complete disservice to both the miners getting paid dust payments and the folks working on development.

However, if there was a way to accumulate dust payments and/or have the ability to opt-in to carryover payments from block find to block find within the share chain until a certain threshold was met, then I would say that was a reasonable solution.