bitHopper: Python Pool Hopper Proxy

[teukon]

I stopped hopping until all the pools I hop give rewards for merged mining. Some pool is probably merged mining but not giving rewards, so anyone who's hopping instead of merged mining right now is the sucker.

(it also helps that I hop the three pools that are merged mining and mine SMPPS from simplecoin when they have too many shares)

Certainly, pool hopping normal bitcoin pools does not compare with plain merged mining in terms of profit (currently about 40%).  Hopping the merged mining pools seems to be best.

For the proportional pool, slush is a good bet for the low variance.  There is a 2% fee but this is small compared to the fact that not everyone has entered a Namecoin address yet and slush had decided to share the pool's namecoins between only those users who have (so a good but decreasing NMC boost).

As for a pool to hop to, simplecoin.us PPLNS is the other option at the moment.  It is a fair bit larger and does have a significant promotion bonus (BTC+2%, NMC+10%) but the variance is probably too high for most people's taste so the lower profit SMPPS pool seems like a good choice.

The question I have, (which I asked at the CherryPicking thread) is how to most effectively hop a merged mining pool at all?  Does one simply hop by the Namecoin blocks and ignore the Bitcoin blocks or does one take them both into account in a clever way?

[1714315604]

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[paraipan]

I stopped hopping until all the pools I hop give rewards for merged mining. Some pool is probably merged mining but not giving rewards, so anyone who's hopping instead of merged mining right now is the sucker.

(it also helps that I hop the three pools that are merged mining and mine SMPPS from simplecoin when they have too many shares)

Certainly, pool hopping normal bitcoin pools does not compare with plain merged mining in terms of profit (currently about 40%).  Hopping the merged mining pools seems to be best.

For the proportional pool, slush is a good bet for the low variance.  There is a 2% fee but this is small compared to the fact that not everyone has entered a Namecoin address yet and slush had decided to share the pool's namecoins between only those users who have (so a good but decreasing NMC boost).

As for a pool to hop to, simplecoin.us PPLNS is the other option at the moment.  It is a fair bit larger and does have a significant promotion bonus (BTC+2%, NMC+10%) but the variance is probably too high for most people's taste so the lower profit SMPPS pool seems like a good choice.

The question I have, (which I asked at the CherryPicking thread) is how to most effectively hop a merged mining pool at all?  Does one simply hop by the Namecoin blocks and ignore the Bitcoin blocks or does one take them both into account in a clever way?

i guess you take into account only the blockchain wich has the greater difficulty, the other chain reward will be as bonus

[teukon]

i guess you take into account only the blockchain wich has the greater difficulty, the other chain reward will be as bonus

Hmm... I think I agree that if one has to choose between considering only one blockchain or the other for hopping then one should choose the most profitable one.

However, further gains might be made by considering both together.  Consider for example the situation where you are hopping with the Bitcoin blocks as usual at a merged mining pool and you are about to hop away when suddenly a Namecoin block is found.  At this point the Bitcoin shares will be worth marginally less than average but the Namecoin shares will be worth a lot more.  Overall, staying with the proportional pool will be more profitable than mining with a PPLNS merged mining pool.  Indeed, it's possible that the Namecoin block shows up a short while after you hop away from the pool and it becomes profitable to rejoin the proportional pool for a short time.

[Shevek]

I'm testing it.

I don't know if I'm doing things right. bf.cfg is the default one. It guides my miner to the pools correctly (I can see the effect of mining in the pool page).

But:

1) The reported shares for pools are a bit crazy. For example, bitcoins.lc seems to solve blocks too quickly. In this moment I shutdown bh and restart it; then, bitcoins.lc is in a "normal" round.

2) I've got in console the following annoying message: "Couldn't connect to socket: [Errno 111] ECONNREFUSED"

I have a Debian box.

TIA

[johnj]

I'm testing it.

I don't know if I'm doing things right. bf.cfg is the default one. It guides my miner to the pools correctly (I can see the effect of mining in the pool page).

But:

1) The reported shares for pools are a bit crazy. For example, bitcoins.lc seems to solve blocks too quickly. In this moment I shutdown bh and restart it; then, bitcoins.lc is in a "normal" round.

2) I've got in console the following annoying message: "Couldn't connect to socket: [Errno 111] ECONNREFUSED"

I have a Debian box.

TIA

Some pools skew their API stats I believe, primarliy to discourage hopping.  I think bitcoins.lc is one of those.

mine_lp is the best choice for these types of pools.

Also, when you close/open BH, I beleive all pools are set back to '100%' of difficulty, due to BH not yet picking up their stats.  After it's initial pool scan, I think the stats are updated.

Edit: No idea about the annoying message

[Starlightbreaker]

disable p2pLP.

[martychubbs]

disable p2pLP.

Will resolve the error message?

[paraipan]

disable p2pLP.

Will resolve the error message?

yes

[Shevek]

disable p2pLP.

Where is it enabled? I've revised cfg files but I didn't see such an option.

If you mean p2pool, it is disabled.

[paraipan]

disable p2pLP.

Where is it enabled? I've revised cfg files but I didn't see such an option.

If you mean p2pool, it is disabled.

look in bh.cfg under [plugins] section and set   lpbot = False

[xzion]

since BTCG now has live stats, here is a new api to use with role: mine
http://pastebin.com/e7v3tr3r (try setting refresh_limit: 30 for faster updates)

here's a second API for Masterpool.eu that's sensitive to Namecoin:
http://pastebin.com/UTvZabmm

add those to pools-custom.cfg and modify user.cfg as needed.
EDIT: or just grab this - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27335519/pools-custom.cfg
EDIT2: submitted my first pull request ever on github with the changes!

AND I am offering 1 BTC for someone to do the maths on merged mining (since i don't fully understand it myself) and give an explanation on whether or not:

a) hopping to a prop MM pool until 43% of NMC shares are filled, where BTC shares for the pool are already >43% is more profitable than mining non-merged PPS (i expect btc diff, nmc diff and exchange rate will be variables in there somewhere?).
b) hopping to a prop MM pool with NMC and BTC rounds >43% is more profitable than mining non-merged PPS.

if someone has already explained this somewhere, please post a link for me.
cheers.

[enmaku]

Hi folks, long time no see.

I asked this question on the StackExchange site about pool hopping and statistical profit increases. Meni Rosenfeld came up with some really solid math, but it seems to be indicating (based on my personal experience) that we're operating rather inefficiently... Anyone have the math to say why? I've puzzled over it for a while now and I can't seem to come up with anything, but it's been a loooooong time since my last statistical math class (high school perhaps?) so I'm fairly lost.

[Transisto]

... to do the maths on merged mining

Look like a new chalenge for Organofcorti

What is wrong with github download page?
It stopped showing old version a few weeks ago.

Sorry, there aren't any downloads for this repository.

https://github.com/c00w/bitHopper/downloads

[martychubbs]

Wow, an easy way to find "c"

http://hoppersden.info/entries/26-How-to-hop-8-Determining-Slush-and-BTCMine-s-c

BTW, don't forget to carry the "1" or you'll be way off!

[HolodeckJizzmopper]

Anyone having luck mining at MTRed with 2.5.5 ?

I'm getting an API Error "hashrate" not found.

{"balance":"0.0","unconfirmed":"0.00000000","rsolved":"102","NMCbalance":"10.0","NMCunconfirmed":"0.00000000","NMCrsolved":"102","server":{"mhash":1145.3246122667,"rsolved":"102"},"workers":{"x":{"mhash":1145.3246122667,"rsolved":"102"}}}

EDIT: Trying MTred, instead of Eligius as my backup pool for a bit, fwiw. I can mine just fine as a backup, but not getting any share update info.

[GlenBot]

Anyone having luck mining at MTRed with 2.5.5 ?

I'm getting an API Error "hashrate" not found.

{"balance":"0.0","unconfirmed":"0.00000000","rsolved":"102","NMCbalance":"10.0","NMCunconfirmed":"0.00000000","NMCrsolved":"102","server":{"mhash":1145.3246122667,"rsolved":"102"},"workers":{"x":{"mhash":1145.3246122667,"rsolved":"102"}}}

EDIT: Trying MTred, instead of Eligius as my backup pool for a bit, fwiw. I can mine just fine as a backup, but not getting any share update info.

I just downloaded/installed bithopper for the first time, and I usually mine at mtred.com.  I'm also seeing the same thing as you;
[01:07:01] mtred api error:'hashrate'

[paraipan]

Anyone having luck mining at MTRed with 2.5.5 ?

I'm getting an API Error "hashrate" not found.

{"balance":"0.0","unconfirmed":"0.00000000","rsolved":"102","NMCbalance":"10.0","NMCunconfirmed":"0.00000000","NMCrsolved":"102","server":{"mhash":1145.3246122667,"rsolved":"102"},"workers":{"x":{"mhash":1145.3246122667,"rsolved":"102"}}}

EDIT: Trying MTred, instead of Eligius as my backup pool for a bit, fwiw. I can mine just fine as a backup, but not getting any share update info.

I just downloaded/installed bithopper for the first time, and I usually mine at mtred.com.  I'm also seeing the same thing as you;
[01:07:01] mtred api error:'hashrate'

they probably changed something on the page, they made lots of changes in there lately and i cannot see the share count anywhere 

[martychubbs]

Anyone having luck mining at MTRed with 2.5.5 ?

I'm getting an API Error "hashrate" not found.

{"balance":"0.0","unconfirmed":"0.00000000","rsolved":"102","NMCbalance":"10.0","NMCunconfirmed":"0.00000000","NMCrsolved":"102","server":{"mhash":1145.3246122667,"rsolved":"102"},"workers":{"x":{"mhash":1145.3246122667,"rsolved":"102"}}}

EDIT: Trying MTred, instead of Eligius as my backup pool for a bit, fwiw. I can mine just fine as a backup, but not getting any share update info.

I just downloaded/installed bithopper for the first time, and I usually mine at mtred.com.  I'm also seeing the same thing as you;
[01:07:01] mtred api error:'hashrate'

they probably changed something on the page, they made lots of changes in there lately and i cannot see the share count anywhere 

https://mtred.com/api/stats

[HolodeckJizzmopper]

https://mtred.com/api/stats

 Thanks. Submitted a quick fix to pools.cfg

[paraipan]

ack HolodeckJizzmopper & martychubbs and thanks for joining in
c00w will merge the changes when he gets online