[BT3] 5,000 Testnet Bitcoin bounty for Bitcoin Testnet Pool

[crazy_rabbit]

I'm offereing a 5,000BT3 Testnet coin bounty for the first person to set up a Bitcoin testnet Pool so people can mine testnet coins without needed to solo mine. Now that the difficulty is really ramping up fast- pools will become more and more important for people to mine Bitcoin Testnet Coins.

When I say BT3 I am referring to Bitcoin Testnet (Version 3). This is the standard testnet built into every Bitcoin client.

[TheSwede75]

Why would anyone want to mine on testnet if they are not bitcoin devs? It can be reset at will, carries no value and isn't intended as anything but a sandbox..

[barwizi]

apparently they are being considered to become the next steady alt-coin.

[crazy_rabbit]

Why would anyone want to mine on testnet if they are not bitcoin devs? It can be reset at will, carries no value and isn't intended as anything but a sandbox..

That opinion is changing. Many are starting to realize the value of a bitcoin testing ground for bitcoin that goes beyond the simple mechanical basics of the blockchain. Things like Scripting and OP_EVAL codes which are disabled in Bitcoin but enabled on testnet need to tested in a social economy where individuals have a monetary incentive to try and break things or steal things or develop things. As testnet-in-a-box allows developers to have a stable low difficulty testnet- so the main testnet is no longer needed for that sort of controlled testing.

It can also not be entirely 'reset at will'. What you mean by "reset" is that the genesis block would be changed and would require an update to the client that everyone in the bitcoin universe (or at least a majority) would need to upgrade to. The reason why I proposed calling this BT3 is that it is the third version of Bitcoin testnet. Even with a client upgrade, we can still stay on BT3, we can't be forced off of it, and any other upgrades to the bitcoin client can be included.

The brilliance of using Bitcoin Testnet as an alt-chain is that non of the intelectual energy that goes into alt-chains needs to be wasted on reinventing the wheel: difficulty algo's, 51% protection, basic things that Bitcoin has already solved. Developers on Bitcoin testnet can plunge right into a secure and stable chain.

[sor.rge]

51% protection

What do you mean by that?

[crazy_rabbit]

51% protection

What do you mean by that?

I was generalising the difficulties experienced by start up alt-coins and the problems that they needed to deal with. I didn't mean to imply that you couldn't 51% the testnet. I meant to refer to the problem with terracoin where someone came with far more then 51% of the hash power of the network and brought confirmations to a standstill. I believe Bitcoin Testnet will reset the difficulty if no blocks have been discovered for more then 20 minutes.

[procrypto]

I've put a p2pool pool up, happy to leave it running on BT3 for some time. Will be a good opportunity to tune the p2pool server if I can get a few people using it!  

Server: mine.procrypto.com
Port: 19332
Stats: http://mine.procrypto.com:19332/static/
Username: <your testnet bitcoin address>
Password: (doesn't matter)

Coins will end up at your address as if you'd solo mined them.

[crazy_rabbit]

I've put a p2pool pool up, happy to leave it running on BT3 for some time. Will be a good opportunity to tune the p2pool server if I can get a few people using it!  

Server: mine.procrypto.com
Port: 19332
Stats: http://mine.procrypto.com:19332/static/

I'll try it out for sure! How do we get the coins we mine?

EDIT: I get it, I'm using my testnet address as username. :-)

[procrypto]

Sorry, should have clarified (edit: updated my first post). Standard p2pool procedure, i.e. use your bitcoin address as username, password doesn't matter. Your share of each block ends up at the address like it would if you had solo mined.

[crazy_rabbit]

Running great! Sure beats solo mining!

EDIT: Send me your testnet address and I'll send you the bounty!

[procrypto]

Running great! Sure beats solo mining!

EDIT: Send me your testnet address and I'll send you the bounty!

We'll see how it goes, I'll keep an eye on it. If it disconnects for a moment it will only be because I've tweaked something and restarted the p2pool instance. The miner should reconnect itself if that occurs.

[Chrisoldinho]

Could this become an alt-coin in it's own right then, and have an associated trading value?

[crazy_rabbit]

Could this become an alt-coin in it's own right then, and have an associated trading value?

Sure, and there was talk about this at the Conference and even on the bitcoin development email list. Think of it as a chance to have a coin that performs like bitcoin where we can test out more exotic ideas without worrying about screweing something up with bitcoin. Exchanges could have bitcoin exchanges and testnet exchanges- where the testnet exchanges could experiment with cutting edge ideas like colored coins or OP-EVAL codes and scripting.

[mr_random]

Sure, and there was talk about this at the Conference and even on the bitcoin development email list.

Post your source for this?

[jackjack]

Yay, testnet will be even more difficult to use, congratulations guys! 

[mc_lovin]

and then they reset testnet and it's all gone? 

[GIANNAT]

Remember that last testnet was restored because people started assigning these "test bitcoin" a value

"Testnet2 was just the first testnet reset with a different genesis block, because people were starting to trade testnet coins for real money."

[procrypto]

I'm not trying to make things difficult, or wind up with a bunch of coins I hope might have tradable value (I appreciate that defeats the object of testnet). I'd just like a small stash for future app development.

I had problems getting testnet coins solo mining a few days ago, so when crazy_rabbit asked, I was able to oblige with a pool quite quickly as I had already played with p2pool on testnet in my attempts to generate some.

I'm also pleased for the opportunity to tweak the p2pool server under some kind of load (YAC mining isn't really putting it through its paces).

If it proves to be a huge problem I'm happy to turn things off. Alternatively, we could encourage anyone who needs some testnet coins to join the pool.

edit: had to restart it, timestamps of blocks were off. Deleted the p2pool testnet data directory, and it seems to be working fine now.

[procrypto]

Had a little think about this.

Would it make sense to have a Bitcoin Testnet pool, with the donation set at 50-75% going funding a faucet located on the same page as the pool?

If a user wants some Testnet coins, they can either use the faucet (25 tBTC a hit), or mine and at the same time replenish the faucet for others. We could also have encourage faucet users to return unused tBTC to the balance, like this Testnet faucet. Thoughts?

[crazy_rabbit]

Yay, testnet will be even more difficult to use, congratulations guys! 

Actually that's not true. Thanks to https://github.com/freewil/bitcoin-testnet-box anyone can build a testnet as they wish. So by encouraging miners on testnet we don't harm any projects. Anyone can have their stable difficulty testnet.

If you were are the conference this past weekend you would have seen that the view of testnet is changing. That it should be a staging ground for more exotic bitcoin features that are too cutting edge to risk on the main network. There is a growin concensous that testnet bitcoins need to have some nominal value so as to incentivize people to try more exotic applications- be it trying to steal through OP-EVAL codes, scripting or hacking projects. Now that testnet in a box is out there, people can have a stable testnet whenever they want, but to really test bitcoins 'final frontier' features, we need to assign coins some sort of value so as that people are incentivized to try harder to build, steal, develop, conquer.