[ANN][BLC] Blakecoin Blake-256 for GPU/FPGA With Merged Mined Pools Stable Net

[smolen]

The different algo is obviously a nice change from other alt coins, and the constant block reward is an interesting twist. But I am curious what effect these changes would make in the long term compared to litecoin for example.

Unlike Quark, Blakecoin offers long term reward for the miners. Soon we'll see how well will Quark do with almost zero block reward.
Unlike Litecoin, Blakecoin doesn't resist to FPGA or ASIC mining, but tries to make the transition as smooth as possible. Again, with upcoming scrypt FPGAs we'll see how Litecoin and clones will manage this transition.

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[kramble]

Unlike Quark, Blakecoin offers long term reward for the miners. Soon we'll see how well will Quark do with almost zero block reward.
Unlike Litecoin, Blakecoin doesn't resist to FPGA or ASIC mining, but tries to make the transition as smooth as possible. Again, with upcoming scrypt FPGAs we'll see how Litecoin and clones will manage this transition.

I don't see the scrypt FPGAs giving any real advantage over GPUs. Other than the obvious ASIC scams out there, the real FPGA products in the pipeline are coming in significantly more expensive than GPU with the only advantage being lower power consumption. Anyway since this is a little OT I'll just post my current progress in getting cgminer to work on fpga

Blakecoin mining on Lancelot with cgminer 3.1.1 on raspberry pi.

Code:

 cgminer version 3.1.1 - Started: [2013-11-01 18:20:17]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (5s):1.133G (avg):1.240Gh/s | A:0  R:0  HW:0  U:0.0/m  WU:9.8/m
 ST: 3  SS: 0  NB: 15  LW: 0  GF: 0  RF: 0
 Connected to localhost diff 5.47K without LP as user ********
 Block: 5138d825f864ed03...  Diff:5.47K  Started: [19:06:54]  Best share: 321
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [P]ool management [S]ettings [D]isplay options [Q]uit
 ICA 0:                | 1.357G/1.242Gh/s | A:0 R:0 HW:0 U:0.00/m
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 [2013-11-01 18:48:55] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 18:53:13] Icarus 0 Re-estimate: Hs=6.196739e-10 W=5.620994e-01 read
_count=31 fullnonce=3.224s
 [2013-11-01 18:54:01] Network diff set to 5.47K
 [2013-11-01 18:54:01] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 18:55:32] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 18:55:48] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 18:58:17] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 19:05:14] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 19:06:54] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 19:09:02] Icarus 0 Re-estimate: Hs=6.198375e-10 W=6.110790e-01 read
_count=31 fullnonce=3.273s

The speed estimates are a bit high (should be 780Mhash/sec) but the WU looks correct. I think the "holes" in the nonce range scanned by the FPGAS are confusing it. Seeing as this is such an old version of cgminer, I don't thinks its appropriate to fork the github so I'll just put the changed files up on mine. You still need to use blakeminer.py or testblakeminer.py to set the clock speed after loading the bitstream. Not yet found a block with it but it'll take most of the day at current diff.

[BlueDragon747]

Unlike Quark, Blakecoin offers long term reward for the miners. Soon we'll see how well will Quark do with almost zero block reward.
Unlike Litecoin, Blakecoin doesn't resist to FPGA or ASIC mining, but tries to make the transition as smooth as possible. Again, with upcoming scrypt FPGAs we'll see how Litecoin and clones will manage this transition.

I don't see the scrypt FPGAs giving any real advantage over GPUs. Other than the obvious ASIC scams out there, the real FPGA products in the pipeline are coming in significantly more expensive than GPU with the only advantage being lower power consumption. Anyway since this is a little OT I'll just post my current progress in getting cgminer to work on fpga

Blakecoin mining on Lancelot with cgminer 3.1.1 on raspberry pi.

Code:

 cgminer version 3.1.1 - Started: [2013-11-01 18:20:17]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (5s):1.133G (avg):1.240Gh/s | A:0  R:0  HW:0  U:0.0/m  WU:9.8/m
 ST: 3  SS: 0  NB: 15  LW: 0  GF: 0  RF: 0
 Connected to localhost diff 5.47K without LP as user ********
 Block: 5138d825f864ed03...  Diff:5.47K  Started: [19:06:54]  Best share: 321
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [P]ool management [S]ettings [D]isplay options [Q]uit
 ICA 0:                | 1.357G/1.242Gh/s | A:0 R:0 HW:0 U:0.00/m
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 [2013-11-01 18:48:55] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 18:53:13] Icarus 0 Re-estimate: Hs=6.196739e-10 W=5.620994e-01 read
_count=31 fullnonce=3.224s
 [2013-11-01 18:54:01] Network diff set to 5.47K
 [2013-11-01 18:54:01] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 18:55:32] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 18:55:48] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 18:58:17] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 19:05:14] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 19:06:54] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 19:09:02] Icarus 0 Re-estimate: Hs=6.198375e-10 W=6.110790e-01 read
_count=31 fullnonce=3.273s

The speed estimates are a bit high (should be 780Mhash/sec) but the WU looks correct. I think the "holes" in the nonce range scanned by the FPGAS are confusing it. Seeing as this is such an old version of cgminer, I don't thinks its appropriate to fork the github so I'll just put the changed files up on mine. You still need to use blakeminer.py or testblakeminer.py to set the clock speed after loading the bitstream. Not yet found a block with it but it'll take most of the day at current diff.

with the lancelot on bitcoin, cgminer 3.1.1 was best as you could just use the com port switch but 3.2.x onwards changed the comms on the device to direct usb

the best other choice I found was bfgminer 3.2.1 which works well with the lancelot and the cairnsmore 1 with the hashvoodoo bitstream, hashvoodoo also uses a dynamic clock gen which has the code in verilog and in the driver code in bfgminer

[kramble]

with the lancelot on bitcoin, cgminer 3.1.1 was best as you could just use the com port switch but 3.2.x onwards changed the comms on the device to direct usb

the best other choice I found was bfgminer 3.2.1 which works well with the lancelot and the cairnsmore 1 with the hashvoodoo bitstream, hashvoodoo also uses a dynamic clock gen which has the code in verilog and in the driver code in bfgminer

Yep, I already had 3.1.1 compiled on raspi, so I decided to start with this version rather than the most recent one. The code changes to support blakecoin are actually quite trivial (just a few lines in cgminer.c to change the midstate and hash calculation). Its the driver code that's more awkward to debug (my fault for changing the data protocol I suppose). Not sure how it will go with x6500, ztex etc but I'll give it a try as and when willing guinea pigs volunteers turn up.

[BlueDragon747]

with the lancelot on bitcoin, cgminer 3.1.1 was best as you could just use the com port switch but 3.2.x onwards changed the comms on the device to direct usb

the best other choice I found was bfgminer 3.2.1 which works well with the lancelot and the cairnsmore 1 with the hashvoodoo bitstream, hashvoodoo also uses a dynamic clock gen which has the code in verilog and in the driver code in bfgminer

Yep, I already had 3.1.1 compiled on raspi, so I decided to start with this version rather than the most recent one. The code changes to support blakecoin are actually quite trivial (just a few lines in cgminer.c to change the midstate and hash calculation). Its the driver code that's more awkward to debug (my fault for changing the data protocol I suppose). Not sure how it will go with x6500, ztex etc but I'll give it a try as and when willing guinea pigs volunteers turn up.

I do have a ztex 1.15y and a cairnsmore 1 for testing but not had the time to play with them much 

[kramble]

I do have a ztex 1.15y and a cairnsmore 1 for testing but not had the time to play with them much 

You're probably best spending your time on the pool and block explorer software as those are the most needed. I've got a volunteer for ztex testing this weekend so we'll see how that goes. If it doesn't work out then perhaps we can come to a "loan" arrangement for the hardware so I can do some hands on debugging (says he cheekily ). I'll take a look at bfgminer, though as you know software is not my particular forte.

[kramble]

YOWZER !!

Code:

 cgminer version 3.1.1 - Started: [2013-11-01 18:20:17]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (5s):1.173G (avg):1.236Gh/s | A:1  R:0  HW:2  U:0.0/m  WU:9.8/m
 ST: 3  SS: 0  NB: 57  LW: 0  GF: 0  RF: 0
 Connected to localhost diff 7.42K without LP as user ********
 Block: b8e0b8cc427fa83f...  Diff:7.42K  Started: [20:59:45]  Best share: 8.04K
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [P]ool management [S]ettings [D]isplay options [Q]uit
 ICA 0:                | 1.088G/1.236Gh/s | A:1 R:0 HW:2 U:0.01/m
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 [2013-11-01 20:43:27] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 20:44:45] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 20:46:10] Icarus 0 Re-estimate: Hs=6.171545e-10 W=6.485800e-01 read
_count=31 fullnonce=3.299s
 [2013-11-01 20:48:13] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 20:52:18] Found block for pool 0!
 [2013-11-01 20:52:19] Accepted 00082789 Diff 8.04K/7420 BLOCK! ICA 0
 [2013-11-01 20:52:19] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 20:54:57] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 20:55:48] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 20:56:45] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 20:59:45] New block detected on network

 pi@tvpi ~/.blakecoin $ ./gettx c09ddb06eac5b712db69e66269a0e587e90c1dea1002f0509df6aeb8a7a5722a
{
    "amount" : 0.00000000,
    "confirmations" : 5,
    "generated" : true,
    "blockhash" : "0000000000082789e24f129f905bbb28ed726b4745d6666dbd967f153e6fa96b",
    "blockindex" : 0,
    "blocktime" : 1383339126,
    "txid" : "c09ddb06eac5b712db69e66269a0e587e90c1dea1002f0509df6aeb8a7a5722a",
    "time" : 1383339126,
    "timereceived" : 1383339138,
    "details" : [
        {
            "account" : "",
            "address" : "BUnUwPTbuCmoTvh6MkAHRfLkCfqJRxmLAd",
            "category" : "immature",
            "amount" : 25.00155699
        }
    ]
}

[mogrith]

Not yet found a block with it but it'll take most of the day at current diff.

Started: [2013-11-01 18:20:17]
 [2013-11-01 20:48:13] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 20:52:18] Found block for pool 0!
 [2013-11-01 20:52:19] Accepted 00082789 Diff 8.04K/7420 BLOCK! ICA 0

Just a little luck eh?

[kramble]

Not yet found a block with it but it'll take most of the day at current diff.

Started: [2013-11-01 18:20:17]
 [2013-11-01 20:48:13] New block detected on network
 [2013-11-01 20:52:18] Found block for pool 0!
 [2013-11-01 20:52:19] Accepted 00082789 Diff 8.04K/7420 BLOCK! ICA 0

Just a little luck eh?

Not my best though ...

1.6 billion diff share (on a pool), mined with a 12MHash/sec homebrew fpga, and within the first few thousand shares mined too ...



Yowzer indeed (though it only made me a few satoshi). Now if I could only have some useful luck ... 

[atavacron]

Uh oh.  All of a sudden the Diff dropped to almost zero 

[BlueDragon747]

Uh oh.  All of a sudden the Diff dropped to almost zero  

 

not sure why it is doing this I am looking at it now  

edit:
I might need to do a checkpoint but the chain length is getting large

this is not what I want to be working on  

edit2:
I am not going to be able to fix this fast enough for the growth of the network at the current rate so my best bet is to make a network rule to stop this happening again in the future once I find and identify the problem expect 0.8.7 to be out this weekend.

best checkpoint I have is back at block 12249 and we are at 16752 so I dont think it is fair to cut the blocks from the chain and fork it  

edit3:
I see no reason to stop mining the length of the chain is too long to just cut with a old checkpoint and you might miss out on some easy blocks due to this bug/attack and I dont see it going low again  

[cinnamon_carter]

To bluedragon747 / fyi sent you personal mesg. No hurry i understand you are busy now. No reply necessary :-)

[BlueDragon747]

Ok I think I now understand why this is happening  

This is a bug and will be patched for 0.8.7

1. this time of year we have many people all over the world adjusting the clocks for daylight saving
2. fast re-target of 1 hour and the small interval of 20 blocks
3. the wallet does allow the mining of a diff 1 block under special circumstances

so what has happened is that the wallet has mistaken the the clocks changing and thought that the 2* retarget time has passed without a block and allowed the mining of a diff 1 block  

normally if an attacker tried this it would get rejected but on a small network like Blakecoin and with many people including myself having daylight saving set to automatic it has resulted in low difficulty because a lot of nodes all changed at once, problem found and I will patch it for 0.8.7 but it is not such a large issue so just enjoy the low difficulty  

Thanks to everyone who let me know about the problem quickly

[bzyzny]

BlueDragon747 thanks for the info, i think its important to have some data like that on the forum so new people reading the thread can get a better idea of why blakecoin exists. to me it sounds like a great idea and i plan to continue mining it for now, since i can see how it will have worth. I like the idea of using it in a game, i had a similar idea but do not have the programming skills to implement it. Perhaps think bigger than just using blakecoin in your game, make an api so that it can be integrated into any game. this way a whole ecosystem can develop and it would be easy to transfer value between games. also would be able to have a whole economy of digital goods like game weapons and armor that people could buy/sell in the games auction house.  This would be a great niche for blakecoin to fill because even if it doesnt become a mainstream coin, it would still have value within the gaming community. just imagine if it became a standard platform for a lot of games within a few years

anyways, i also wanted to say that i was having trouble compiling cgminer on 64 bit linux, is it not ported yet or do i have to use a certain ./configure option flag? when i run make it stops with an error saying

cgminer-cgminer.o: In function `set_target':
/home/miner/blakecoin/cgminer-blake256-src/cgminer.c:5602: undefined reference to `wlogprint'
cgminer-cgminer.o: In function `submit_nonce':
/home/miner/blakecoin/cgminer-blake256-src/cgminer.c:5811: undefined reference to `wlogprint'
cgminer-cgminer.o: In function `rebuild_hash':
/home/miner/blakecoin/cgminer-blake256-src/cgminer.c:3391: undefined reference to `blake256_regenhash'
cgminer-util.o: In function `fulltest':
/home/miner/blakecoin/cgminer-blake256-src/util.c:674: undefined reference to `wlogprint'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

[Vorksholk]

Oh man, wish I had been watching the network about 9 hours ago xD

Looks like difficulty is back on target, climbing....

[atavacron]

Oh man, wish I had been watching the network about 9 hours ago xD

Looks like difficulty is back on target, climbing....

It was crazy.

I was testing Krambles latest bitstream on 2 x6500 FPGAs.  All a sudden I started getting blocks every 20 seconds.  My display was filling with found blocks so fast that it took up half the screen (I wish I had taken a snapshot).

[boymok]

Oh man, wish I had been watching the network about 9 hours ago xD

Looks like difficulty is back on target, climbing....

It was crazy.

I was testing Krambles latest bitstream on 2 x6500 FPGAs.  All a sudden I started getting blocks every 20 seconds.  My display was filling with found blocks so fast that it took up half the screen (I wish I had taken a snapshot).

Me too but they were all orphan!

[mogrith]

Oh man, wish I had been watching the network about 9 hours ago xD

Looks like difficulty is back on target, climbing....

It was crazy.

I was testing Krambles latest bitstream on 2 x6500 FPGAs.  All a sudden I started getting blocks every 20 seconds.  My display was filling with found blocks so fast that it took up half the screen (I wish I had taken a snapshot).

Me too but they were all orphan!

I have 129 unconfirmed blocks. cgminer then lost connection. I have reset both and we will see but my guess is orphans

An export from the blakecoin-qt

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoaBQCn_-M5CdDByVHExTVhZLTBxY2piYy1PY1BzM3c&usp=sharing

[Ruzka]

I managed to mine 17 mature blocks last night

[kramble]

Oh man, wish I had been watching the network about 9 hours ago xD

Looks like difficulty is back on target, climbing....

It was crazy.

I was testing Krambles latest bitstream on 2 x6500 FPGAs.  All a sudden I started getting blocks every 20 seconds.  My display was filling with found blocks so fast that it took up half the screen (I wish I had taken a snapshot).

Got another two bitstreams for you ...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g7iqzfl4yzmsnk2/X6500-StaticClock-v01-2core-125MHz.bit

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q1f0a1xdmt1olll/X6500-StaticClock-v01-2core-150MHz-bad.bit

The 150Mhz one failed timing so will probably not work. I'll need to do some redesign to get a faster speed as this seems to be the limit with the current configuration.

This morning was something of a shock, as I woke up to my first overnight cgminer run with this ...

Code:

 [2013-11-02 07:58:22] Started at [2013-11-01 23:55:12]
 [2013-11-02 07:58:22] Pool: http://localhost:8772
 [2013-11-02 07:58:22] Runtime: 8 hrs : 3 mins : 10 secs
 [2013-11-02 07:58:22] Average hashrate: 410.4 Megahash/s
 [2013-11-02 07:58:22] Solved blocks: 28
 [2013-11-02 07:58:22] Best share difficulty: 2.92K
 [2013-11-02 07:58:22] Share submissions: 65
 [2013-11-02 07:58:22] Accepted shares: 19
 [2013-11-02 07:58:22] Rejected shares: 46
 [2013-11-02 07:58:22] Accepted difficulty shares: 220
 [2013-11-02 07:58:22] Rejected difficulty shares: 94
 [2013-11-02 07:58:22] Reject ratio: 70.8%
 [2013-11-02 07:58:22] Hardware errors: 2

Unfortunately only six of them actually survived to maturity. Seems blakecoind on raspi just couldn't process the blocks fast enough and I kept getting reorgs for my newly mined blocks But we're back to normal now, 10k diff !!