[4+ EH] Slush Pool (slushpool.com); Overt AsicBoost; World First Mining Pool

[slush]

Although I'm physically located in Prague, I'm thinking and living in UTC .

[DeathAndTaxes]

Although I'm physically located in Prague, I'm thinking and living in UTC .

Awesome.  You know you are a dedicated international operation when you think in terms of UTC.

[slush]

I'm sorry for 3minute outage on api2.bitcoin.cz and website, it is again working now.

[digital]

All the banter is kinda useless at this point.

Slush owns the pool.  It's not a democracy.  Technically, he didn't even have to let us know that he was doing merged mining until it was completely ready to go.  Then he could have rolled it all out at once.  And even though the situation with the nmc buildup would have been the same, this back and forth would never have happened.  There would have been no issues because everyone would have gotten their nmc at the same time they found out about the merged mining on the pool.

Instead Slush choose to tell us about the change before it was finalized, and now everyone is panicking because they felt like they won the lottery and now their winnings seem to be drying up...

[theGECK]

Slush, I like the new "Key Features" on the homepage. Just a few grammatical suggestions similar to the ones I've made before to help the section read better. Take whatever you'd like from here. Words I have changed or added are in red. Comments are in code.

Key features

Service lifetime & operator trust - Users have to trust pool operators, because pools aren't cheat-proof from the side of the operator. mining.bitcoin.cz was the first Bitcoin mining poolever, has been operating consistently since December 2010,(operating since Dec/2010) and has a long history of stable and accurate payouts.

Namecoin Merged Mining - The pool is mining Bitcoins and Namecoins together since October 2011. Thanks to this, users have a much higher mining income than mining on another Bitcoin-only pool.

Code:

If you want to keep the October 2011 date, change "is mining BTC and NMC" to "has been mining BTC and NMC". It keeps the tense consistent.

Score-based rewarding system - Pool uses a fair distribution of rewards between members, making the pool hopping-proof. This has been which was mathematicaly proven.

Code:

 The word "fair" implies a moral choice where I don't think one exists. I think the score system is better, but not everybody likes it or thinks that it is 
actually fair. I would replace this point with, "The pool uses a mathematically proven reward system that benefits long-term connections while protecting
everybody from pool-hopping.", with a link to the proof and a description of what pool-hopping is and does. You can make that page as biased as you want :-)
This opinion extends to other uses of the word "fair" on the homepage.

X-Long-Polling* - This miner extension improves overall mining efficiency of connected miners by lowering stale share ratio below 1%.
X-Roll-NTime* - Another miner extension, which improves network efficiency, especially for fast mining rigs.
* You need to use miner software supportingthat supports those features. I recommend you use poclbm miner or GUI miner

Hope this is helpful. Also on the homepage, "Why do I need bitcoin pool" should be "why do I need a bitcoin pool", and at the bottom of the page it should read, "ask the miner's community instead

[DeathAndTaxes]

Slush owns the pool.  It's not a democracy. 

Who claimed it was a democracy.... other than you of course.

Making a suggestion isn't the same thing as demanding a vote.

Still it probably is a good thing you clarified it isn't a democracy just in case someone was planning to run for office.

[slush]

Slush, I like the new "Key Features" on the homepage. Just a few grammatical suggestions similar to the ones I've made before to help the section read better. Take whatever you'd like from here. Words I have changed or added are in red. Comments are in code.

Thank you a lot! :-) I know that my grammar is crazy, but sometimes I need to update website texts . I'll add those fixes soon.

[theGECK]

Slush, I like the new "Key Features" on the homepage. Just a few grammatical suggestions similar to the ones I've made before to help the section read better. Take whatever you'd like from here. Words I have changed or added are in red. Comments are in code.

Thank you a lot! :-) I know that my grammar is crazy, but sometimes I need to update website texts . I'll add those fixes soon.

You do a good job, I just like proofreading text. Call me crazy, I guess! I like the new logo too - I wish I had a good GPU again to put into the pool, but until then I'll just keep mining my .01 BTC each day with my backup GPU.

[slush]

As it happens the news of slush doing the merged mining only came after everyone started wondering just WTF was going on, on the pools that had announced they were doing the merged mining when they suddenly found that there was an extremely large numbers of blocks being mined that could not be accounted for. People then started asking just what pool was up to no good scheming up all the blocks with massive hash power only then was it revealed that unlike the others who gave people a choice to mine NMC merged Slush had taken it upon himself to do it in secret hiding the fact it was happening so no one could mine them other than was already there at the time.

Bullshits. If you followed namecoin movement (forum, irc) then you definitely had to found my interest in merged mining. I was in contact with namecoin developers and fans. It wasn't *so* big secret at all. But it was everything so new for me, so I didn't want to make public announcement until I was sure it will work somehow. And even after merged mining started, there were some problems and I turned off MM for more than a day. That was a real reason why "official" announcement come so late. Please stop finding conspiracy theories. Also "hidden merged mining" is not possible. Fact that pool is using merged mining can be found in every pool's BTC block.

[sadpandatech]

Slush, I like the new "Key Features" on the homepage. Just a few grammatical suggestions similar to the ones I've made before to help the section read better. Take whatever you'd like from here. Words I have changed or added are in red. Comments are in code.

Key features

Service lifetime & operator trust - Users have to trust pool operators, because pools aren't cheat-proof from the side of the operator. mining.bitcoin.cz was the first Bitcoin mining poolever, has been operating consistently since December 2010,(operating since Dec/2010) and has a long history of stable and accurate payouts.

Service lifetime & operator trust - Users have to trust pool operators, because pools aren't cheat-proof from the side of the operator. mining.bitcoin.cz was the first Bitcoin mining poolever, has been operating consistently since December 2010,(operating since Dec/2010) and has a long history of stable and accurate payouts.
 or;

mining.bitcoin.cz was the first Bitcoin mining pool and has been operating consistently since December 2010, with a long history of stable and accurate payouts.

 or;

Operating consistently since December 2010, mining.bitcoin.cz has a long history of accurate and stable payouts.


The rest of it looks great. ;p

[cosurgi]

Also "hidden merged mining" is not possible. Fact that pool is using merged mining can be found in every pool's BTC block.

true, just look at coinbase of BTC block. If it's longer than usual, then it's from MM. It's impossible to hide it.

compare this coinbase here:

http://blockexplorer.com/rawblock/00000000000000dc81de0c50831392a5c9ad41c3c46a6b607b5f46ec19ce8600

with non-MM coinbase.

[m3ta]

You do a good job, I just like proofreading text. Call me crazy, I guess! I like the new logo too - I wish I had a good GPU again to put into the pool, but until then I'll just keep mining my .01 BTC each day with my backup GPU.

Many people (most, actually) do not have the required modesty to welcome a correction. Oh poor Darwin, if only he could see how some people react to comments about their flaws (which all humans have) - instead of constant learning and trying to evolve, his Theory of Evolution would probably have to be changed a bit.

Slush did, kudos for that. (and kudos for your proofreading too, of course)

[m3ta]

Slush owns the pool.  It's not a democracy.  Technically, he didn't even have to let us know that he was doing merged mining until it was completely ready to go. 

Which, IMHO, would be better than advertising it, only to let users read a "soon" on the place they would find it.

[Iyeman]

As it happens the news of slush doing the merged mining only came after everyone started wondering just WTF was going on, on the pools that had announced they were doing the merged mining when they suddenly found that there was an extremely large numbers of blocks being mined that could not be accounted for. People then started asking just what pool was up to no good scheming up all the blocks with massive hash power only then was it revealed that unlike the others who gave people a choice to mine NMC merged Slush had taken it upon himself to do it in secret hiding the fact it was happening so no one could mine them other than was already there at the time.

Bullshits. If you followed namecoin movement (forum, irc) then you definitely had to found my interest in merged mining. I was in contact with namecoin developers and fans. It wasn't *so* big secret at all. But it was everything so new for me, so I didn't want to make public announcement until I was sure it will work somehow. And even after merged mining started, there were some problems and I turned off MM for more than a day. That was a real reason why "official" announcement come so late. Please stop finding conspiracy theories. Also "hidden merged mining" is not possible. Fact that pool is using merged mining can be found in every pool's BTC block.

You can stick to that story if you want but we all know how it went so don't try to play the innocent here I'm not buying it you could have done like the others but choose not to and did it the scummy way. And again BTW still no answer to the payout question but that don't seem to be a priority at the moment so carry on I'm done with you weasel.

The Story is true, Slush's pool is the TB+ that was going to be used back during the bitcoinexpress threat to attack the pool to try and protect the NMC network.

Its mentioned in this thread around this post.  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=33612.msg531392#msg531392

[digital]

I'm done with you

{waves goodbye}

[theGECK]

You do a good job, I just like proofreading text. Call me crazy, I guess! I like the new logo too - I wish I had a good GPU again to put into the pool, but until then I'll just keep mining my .01 BTC each day with my backup GPU.

Many people (most, actually) do not have the required modesty to welcome a correction. Oh poor Darwin, if only he could see how some people react to comments about their flaws (which all humans have) - instead of constant learning and trying to evolve, his Theory of Evolution would probably have to be changed a bit.

Slush did, kudos for that. (and kudos for your proofreading too, of course)

Slush has always been great, which is why I've stuck with him for almost a year now. He's the one pool operator on here I've learned to trust, who answers questions, and who doesn't seem to take it personally when people don't like how he does something. In the past I emailed Slush with a grammatical issue, but since there were so many changes I figured it would be better to post here so that others could check my work and add their own take on it, which they did! Kudos to those who did so.

[kohlersc]

You can stick to that story if you want but we all know how it went so don't try to play the innocent here I'm not buying it you could have done like the others but choose not to and did it the scummy way. And again BTW still no answer to the payout question but that don't seem to be a priority at the moment so carry on I'm done with you weasel.

I am trying to read your posts with charity, but I am just not understanding what your problem with this is?  If we mine BTC with slush, we get a share.  If we are still mining BTC with slush now we will also be getting Namecoins with our share.  Maybe I am missing something, but all of the namecoins currently mined by our combined pool's power will be distributed based on our inputs.  I don't believe Slush is keeping all of them that were mined before he opened it up to us for himself.  Again unless I am misunderstanding something he didn't use the pool's collective processing power to make namecoins for himself.  So I don't really understand what you are pointing to Slush and calling him a weasel for having done.

[Iyeman]

You can stick to that story if you want but we all know how it went so don't try to play the innocent here I'm not buying it you could have done like the others but choose not to and did it the scummy way. And again BTW still no answer to the payout question but that don't seem to be a priority at the moment so carry on I'm done with you weasel.

I am trying to read your posts with charity, but I am just not understanding what your problem with this is?  If we mine BTC with slush, we get a share.  If we are still mining BTC with slush now we will also be getting Namecoins with our share.  Maybe I am missing something, but all of the namecoins currently mined by our combined pool's power will be distributed based on our inputs.  I don't believe Slush is keeping all of them that were mined before he opened it up to us for himself.  Again unless I am misunderstanding something he didn't use the pool's collective processing power to make namecoins for himself.  So I don't really understand what you are pointing to Slush and calling him a weasel for having done.

I believe his problem is because he hasn't gotten any NMC yet and the price keeps dropping so in his shortsightedness he is "omg losing money"

[kohlersc]

I think I may understand.  He wasn't part of Slush's pool when Slush started merged mining, so is mad because he wasn't told so he could switch to this pool and be part of the first in.  In that respect, tough.  I don't believe anyone is owed foreknowledge as to how to be on top at all times.  If you were here, you were here; if you weren't, you weren't; and if you didn't know what was going on, welcome to the world.

I can understand the confusion when all of a sudden blocks are being found at a much accelerated rate.  I can understand the potential feeling of watching an opportunity slip as obviously someone/pool/whatever is now boosting the processing power and you don't know which team to switch to.  But this isn't underhanded, nor is it something that needs to be publicised.

I understand I am in a position to "luck out" as I joined with Slush as my first pool and have never left.  But it could just as easily been any other pool.  And it wouldn't have been my right to know that DeepBit or any other pool, did or was going to do it so I could be there from the start.  If you feel cheated because Slush didn't announce when this was going to happen (though he has mentioned much in the forums that he was working on it and would make it happen when he could) don't.  There was no cheat.  This wasn't underhanded.  This didn't undermine anything or anyone except prices...but that is what you get for speculating and it happens to everyone in the market.

If I am getting it correct, I understand your disappointment and frustration, but it is misdirected.  Slush didn't do you wrong...he was just the first to begin the transition just like when CPU mining got usurped by GPU mining.  Those mining with GPU's weren't doing anything wrong or underhanded, just mining more efficiently in a manner that went previously undiscovered.  CPU miners I am sure were bummed watching their mining methods turn to worthless almost overnight, but they weren't owed anything.  It was progress, plain and simple.

[slush]

Pool is under attack, I'm working on it. Sorry for downtime .