[EXPERIMENTAL] poclbm-autohop: Yet Another Automatic Pool Hopper

[organofcorti]

...and I'll have that slush hop function for you ASAP, Aexoden, I just have to deal with this bcp brushfire first.

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[organofcorti]

New 'how to hop' blog post - How to hop 3: the 50-50 tax

This week I take a break from exponentially scored pools to look at how to hop this new type of scored pool. Then I  show you the best way to determine when to hop from one type of pool to another (and it's not always the pool with the least shares). Read it and reap!

Aexoden, I've also included the first round of utility functions. Hop point functions to follow

[Aexoden]

The API is currently not being updated due to a problem with my bitcoind. I will attempt to fix it as soon as I can, but it may be a few hours. Until then, miners will mine at fair pools most likely.

UPDATE: API was fixed a few hours later. Of course, remember once again that it will not update for approximately a week in late September.

[organofcorti]

New How to hop out now!

'How to hop' - now with even more chart porn.

[roos]

Looks like it stopped updating again...

[Aexoden]

Looks like it stopped updating again...

Looks like the update process froze again. Sometimes, the pident script that checks which pools have solved which blocks never finishes, and since I've implemented some locking, so two updates never run simultaneously, it gets jammed up. I should probably set up a watchdog at some point, or at least figure out why updatepools doesn't ever quit sometimes.

Anyway, the situation is fixed, and updates should be coming in the next few minutes as pident catches up with the block chain.

However, please note, once again, that there will be no updates for about 8-9 days starting in about 28 hours. I advise users to investigate other options like bithopper or cherrypicking for that duration. I thought about putting together some kind of limited update script, but collecting all the data from the pools might be more than I can churn out in the next 24 hours (especially since my time is limited).

At some point, I'm going to have to find a way to either modify pident or write a replacement that isn't so hard on disk I/O so I can put it on a VPS. Relying on my local machine is too hit or miss.

[Aexoden]

The API will cease updating sometime in the next hour or two. If you wish to continue hopping effectively, you should probably convert to an alternate solution such as bithopper or cherrypicking at this time. Otherwise, your miner will likely continue to mine at a fair pool such as mineco.in, eligius, or arsbitcoin (if you have one configured). This isn't a bad thing, but you won't be maximizing your reward.

I expect the API to begin updating again on either the 29th or 30th, or sometime before that if I manage to come up with an alternate solution (but I wouldn't count on it).

[DrHaribo]

BitMinter switched to a variation of PPLNS today, so if you were pool hopping us you may want to remove us from your setup.

We'll still be paying 5% extra for over 40 more blocks, so we can be a good default, though.

[Aexoden]

BitMinter switched to a variation of PPLNS today, so if you were pool hopping us you may want to remove us from your setup.

We'll still be paying 5% extra for over 40 more blocks, so we can be a good default, though.

I think BitMinter was hopped, so I'll make the change whenever I get a chance. Thanks for letting me know, because it can be hard to keep track of all the pools myself.

Congratulations on switching to a fair reward system. I'll make sure to leave bitminter in as an option for people to use as their fair backup.

[Aexoden]

The API is currently in the process of being updated. The scripts are currently catching up with the last week's worth of blocks, but it should be caught up shortly.

[organofcorti]

How to hop 5 out now! Ever wonder why pool hopping works? Wonder no longer. No math required.

[organofcorti]

I'm now posting update announcements about new 'how to hop' posts at here. Make a comment to subscribe!

Also, there's a new 'How to hop', and the last one has been rewritten with errors removed.

Enjoy!

[Aexoden]

At this point, I am neither using poclbm-autohop or poclbm at all, so this program is likely to slowly enter a state of bit rot. I will continue to update the API as long as it is feasible to do so, but since pident is seemingly no longer maintained, that may not be as long as we think.

I still find the current methodology interesting, and if proportional pools continue to propagate, I would like to reimagine the implementation. Most likely, I would write a custom (and open source) program to generate the API automatically without reliance on external software like pident, and design it to be non-resource intensive, to allow it to be deployed by multiple people if necessary. The biggest problem is determining what kind of resources are needed to store block information, and whether or not to implement some kind of scoring algorithm. (It's worth investigating, in any case.)

The second component would be a new miner. At this point, it's likely I would attempt to modify cgminer to access the API and use its data. I did a cursory look into what would be needed a couple of months ago, but I suspect cgminer has changed slightly since then. In any case, it's dubious that I'll have the time to get any of this done anytime soon.

[organofcorti]

PPS/variation and prop is the most fair reward system and pplns is the most dangerous reward system and you miners should run away from pplns, maybe just maybe you need a slap to learn a lesson

I can't think of any reason PPLNS would be more dangerous than any other system. Assuming you can trust the operator, it is both hopping-proof and much more resilient to long periods of bad luck than any of the PPS variants.

If you can't trust the pool operator, then all systems have potential for abuse.

Everyone should read this

I had avoided adding bitcoinpool completely because of its Draconian measures designed to fight pool hoppers (rather than changing reward systems). Of course, as hopping becomes more prevalent, you can expect more pools to go down this road. Hopefully, they'll have to become so awful that users won't want anything to do with them, but I don't have high hopes in that regard. Users seem willing to tolerate a lot of abuse.

I have a hop function for bcpool's 50-50 tax that you can use if that helps, Aexoden.