Benchmark [P2Pool vs btcGuild vs Eligius]

[semaster]

As I have a number of different mining hardware I decided to make some practical comparison of mining pools.

So I get two antMiners 180Gh each and pointed one of them to BTCGuild and other to p2pool node. Initial results of mining (180Gh) for period:
from 1 January till 14 January 2014: p2pool - BTC0.952269785 VS btcguild (PPS) - BTC0.77025336

Now is running continuous benchmark  6 antminers total 1080Gh on each pool:
14-31 Jan 2014:      p2pool - BTC2.99025045 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC5.0158
1-14  Feb 2014:      p2pool - BTC3.2248 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC2.7164 VS Eligius BTC2.5137
15-28  Feb 2014:    p2pool - BTC2.5711 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC2.4763 VS Eligius BTC2.0456
1-14 March 2014:    p2pool - BTC1.1336 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC1.7816 VS Eligius BTC1.7655
15-31 March 2014:  p2pool - BTC2.0796 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC1.7523 VS Eligius BTC1.7838
1-14 April 2014:      p2pool - BTC1.0615 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC1.1026 VS Eligius BTC1.2293
15-30 April 2014:     p2pool - BTC1.2836 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC1.2097 VS Eligius BTC1.2339
1-14 May 2014:      p2pool - BTC0.7297 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC0.7750 VS Eligius BTC1.0017
15-31 May 2014:     p2pool - BTC0.9148 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC0.7351 VS Eligius BTC0.7290
1-14 June 2014:     p2pool - BTC0.4106 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC0.5750 VS Eligius BTC0.5481
15-30 June 2014:   p2pool - BTC0.9081 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC0.6732 VS Eligius BTC0.5135
1-14 July 2014:      p2pool - BTC0.6109 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC0.3858 VS Eligius BTC0.4402
15-31 July 2014:     p2pool - BTC0.6724 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC0.4581 VS Eligius BTC0.4614
1-14 Aug 2014:      p2pool - BTC0.4627 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC0.2729 VS Eligius BTC0.2676
15-31 Aug 2014:     p2pool - BTC0.2996VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC0.3578 VS Eligius BTC0.3613
1-14 Sept 2014:     p2pool - BTC0.0878VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC0.2675VS Eligius BTC0.2782
15-31 Sept 2014:   p2pool - BTC0.1344VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC0.1743VS Eligius BTC0.2068
1-14 Oct 2014:      p2pool - BTC0.1764VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC0.1890VS Eligius BTC0.2478
15-30 Oct 2014:    p2pool - BTC0.2102VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC0.1907VS Eligius BTC0.1767


Total from 1 Feb 2014: p2pool - BTC16.9718 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC16.0933 VS Eligius BTC15.8041

Benchmark is goin on:
1080GH = 6 x AntMiners pointed to p2pool node - benchmark is running on Elizium node
1080GH = 6 x antMiners to Eligius.st
1080GH = 6 x antMiners to btcguild

[gmaxwell]

What firmware do you have on those antminers? Your DOA rate is quite high.

[semaster]

What firmware do you have on those antminers? Your DOA rate is quite high.

Thanks for tip.
I updated firmware to the last current from https://github.com/AntMiner/AntGen1/tree/master/firmware
and now DOA is much less

[zerokwel]

not really a ideal benchmark because of the differences of p2pool and PPS. as you could of been mining during a lucky time for the pool hence higher rewards. also got to factor in pool fees. for example next week the results could be much closer..

[eleuthria]

not really a ideal benchmark because of the differences of p2pool and PPS. as you could of been mining during a lucky time for the pool hence higher rewards. also got to factor in pool fees. for example next week the results could be much closer..

p2pool should always beat PPS on BTC Guild in the long run.  That's the trade off you make for PPS:  Steady income at a high fee vs extremely random income at low/no fee.


A much better benchmark is comparing BTC Guild PPLNS to p2pool.  But even then, as zerokwel pointed out, luck is going to be what determines anything.  In the extremely long run, p2pool will win (low fee).  But BTC Guild will be MUCH more steady from week to week.  It's up to miners to determine how much steady income, management interface, email alerts, etc., are worth to them.

[Holliday]

It's up to miners to determine how much steady income, management interface, email alerts, etc., are worth to them.

Let's not forget the issues surrounding network centralization and what that may do to confidence in Bitcoin itself (the hand that feeds). We should also keep in mind that mining directly to an address you control has the advantage of requiring no third party trust. Many of us have been around long enough to see miners lose revenue because the traditional pool they mined on was hacked (I'm not suggesting this would happen at BTCGuild, only that it is not beyond the realm of possibility). I do hope the miners consider all of these issues when choosing how to deploy their hashing power.

[raskul]

bitparking, as long as you are not expecting a steady rate of coins, you'll find long rounds followed by quick blocks... and merge mining with a range of other coins. bitparking. definately. 

[roy7]

I agree that comparing to BTCGuild PPLNS would be much more useful. However, the end result should just be that P2POOL comes out ahead because of BTCGuild's 3% fee.

I thought about setting up a pool last year but decided there were already so many good ones, so what would be the point? I made a TRC pool instead. I've thought about doing it again recently, but I still come back to the fact there are multiple good pools and apparently you can charge a 3% fee and be the 2nd largest pool in the world. So you can't even try to compete for traffic by doing a lower fee.

[Kaega]

apparently you can charge a 3% fee and be the 2nd largest pool in the world

Now think of this:  Essentially btcguild is getting 3% of the total hashrate for running the service so at 4,534 TH/s is ~136 TH.  Throw that into any calculator without fixed costs as it's essentially "free" and realize running a successful pool is making someone very, very rich.

[roy7]

apparently you can charge a 3% fee and be the 2nd largest pool in the world

Now think of this:  Essentially btcguild is getting 3% of the total hashrate for running the service so at 4,534 TH/s is ~136 TH.  Throw that into any calculator without fixed costs as it's essentially "free" and realize running a successful pool is making someone very, very rich.

Certainly the very biggest pools make a lot of money, and the next tier of pools make a profit. Personally I'd like to set up a network of pool nodes around the world with latency based routing to get you automatically to the fastest one and such. But the problem is paying for 6-10 servers around the world gets expensive when it's unlikely you can attract enough miners to even break even.

[Sonny]

apparently you can charge a 3% fee and be the 2nd largest pool in the world

Now think of this:  Essentially btcguild is getting 3% of the total hashrate for running the service so at 4,534 TH/s is ~136 TH.  Throw that into any calculator without fixed costs as it's essentially "free" and realize running a successful pool is making someone very, very rich.

Why is there no fixed costs?
The pool operates need to maintain both the software and hardware, and need to deal with problems like DDoS.

[Kaega]

Why is there no fixed costs?
The pool operates need to maintain both the software and hardware, and need to deal with problems like DDoS.

Irrelevant for the given calculators.  Despite this, hosted hardware is cheap, software is easy to maintain and DDoS can be mitigated.  The expenses are a very small amount of the net generated. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against people profiting from their services.  I've been using BTC Guild since early '13 but I have been pondering moving some of my miners over to p2pool like the OP (which we have hijacked the thread).

[semaster]

result of continuous benchmark is awesome 
Seems a big unluck on p2pool

Continuous benchmark (PPLNS) 6 antminers total 1080Gh:
from 14 Jan till 31 Jan 2014: p2pool - 2,99025045 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - 5,0158 - PPLNS in both cases

benchmark is going on. 

eligius.st added to compare in next round

[stevenf]

So if I have 1 Antminer S1, would you suggest to use btcguild (PPLNS) ?

How about Slush pool?

[cr1776]

So if I have 1 Antminer S1, would you suggest to use btcguild (PPLNS) ?

How about Slush pool?

The math shows that p2pool will come out better over time (plus lower fees, in theory lower orphans, mining right to your own address so no worries about lost/stolen coins), many people are impatient or haven't read enough and won't give p2pool a few months to show its benefits. 

The OP is discussing doing a longer-term test to show this.  Pools have plenty of variance so even if the math shows that p2pool is going to come out ahead, there are weeks where it won't.  And visa versa, weeks where it would come out way ahead.

[semaster]

Here is result of next round benchmark
1-14  Feb 2014: p2pool - BTC3.2248 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC2.7164 VS Eligius BTC2.5137

As we can see this period p2pool is in favor.
Strange thing with eligius.st - on stats page eligius reports BTC2.5137 but real payout for the to address is only 2.0026

[fsb4000]

Strange thing with eligius.st - on stats page eligius reports BTC2.5137 but real payout for the to address is only 2.0026

I see ~2.5137 BTC payout(first tx 2014-02-02 12:28:51, last 2014-02-14 20:41:16)
Did you count these tx:
1) https://blockchain.info/ru/tx/ef086bf7ee8a8742fe16a14ac0f3535293d8fe5e8ae0331357508b60e4d99e52
2) https://blockchain.info/ru/tx/7a7170a1014dd3295512bf52040a244a032d9db7742697293afd4cae06ad9b27
3) https://blockchain.info/ru/tx/89fea198c9a8e7daeccdf7005bea2bccc8507d14faafceeed8efe10f0d9e2ddd
?

[semaster]

Strange thing with eligius.st - on stats page eligius reports BTC2.5137 but real payout for the to address is only 2.0026

I see ~2.5137 BTC payout(first tx 2014-02-02 12:28:51, last 2014-02-14 20:41:16)
Did you count these tx:
1) https://blockchain.info/ru/tx/ef086bf7ee8a8742fe16a14ac0f3535293d8fe5e8ae0331357508b60e4d99e52
2) https://blockchain.info/ru/tx/7a7170a1014dd3295512bf52040a244a032d9db7742697293afd4cae06ad9b27
3) https://blockchain.info/ru/tx/89fea198c9a8e7daeccdf7005bea2bccc8507d14faafceeed8efe10f0d9e2ddd
?

here are incomes from mining on eligius (https://blockchain.info/address/1N8SATrJGSFCX1E1SuH8DgjMy4QTKy2uP7?filter=2)

Code:

2014-02-14T23:40:41	0.13666806	914e71227e3160af06108f4db8e9f9be576a18a9c2f5fe8aee50ce495346c056
2014-02-14T04:40:58	0.09247559	f30d4e5f2a70566f38eeb3ddc1eddbaf514daa3093757695460b88bcf8735ad7
2014-02-13T15:44:22	0.05058486	da7ed7a0fb2c47382ccea8ef5b5cdbffa2923fce58fe72c3b7ff019a6e2997f3
2014-02-13T01:07:46	0.20398982	fb0cde368061f631299caea355957fe598410657f54e4964445954c7ad9eb106
2014-02-11T17:47:56	0.15712258	71d9090f4a97cdf6beaba136eea111450f98cd75795ea6fc825f5ecb4e440be3
2014-02-11T17:47:56	0.13202596	fdcb66d7d64927eb7ba54252efefc44f88d0f9b6c8f6afea19a122f05a5afb56
2014-02-11T17:47:56	0.10336816	e508774070cbaa7bb6634f75fc8a2ff3a51b8a29e2bd3da449287ef09fd67f7f
2014-02-11T17:47:56	0.07013746	eb3976534fe21617a321d1e9d213baacc8d491d7d844fea6e261c4573e60ae65
2014-02-08T20:36:25	0.06442454	88406f9c5d9b0f0d3dd474dc75e0bd3f839d45ed0cde355c344da9db4c3fe2c6
2014-02-08T12:03:24	0.04373622	fd8e3a259b8eea1e939fbb6fdf6aecb1461751d323a77e95fd2a2dbd029bcc0b
2014-02-07T19:24:41	0.21350745	a7f02ad95de95c5f3a17750125beb71cf527abeb5ede08283bb4cc323afec30b
2014-02-06T01:31:40	0.19869417	708cc1fb16551440beea163175b7368203d903e65f3b2cc37dd74919a18bc716
2014-02-05T05:16:41	0.17318455	d445a08a119735f134b8d3c38131ff53456c0b04e0cc01d1c49e6266e4af74ac
2014-02-03T14:33:24	0.20667	      974bf04f7abe944d783cbd4aacdda68f529ca16c5865b7a5d81017de4d61ed7b
2014-02-02T15:27:36	0.15608154	f136e17921ada79c9d875a5a9623a01a05dc294dfc76d0a31c2d72b5fbfaa405

I started benchmark on eligius from 1 Feb - income to that address for this period is 2.0026 while eligius stats page reports 2.5137

[fsb4000]

All time total payout: 2.51377786 BTC

1) 0.15608154
2) 0.20667
1 + 2 = 0,36275154
3) 0.19437356
1 + 2 + 3 = 0,5571251
4)0.17318455
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 =  0,73030965
5) 0.19869417
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +5 = 0,92900382
6)0.21350745
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 = 1,14251127
7)0.24787598
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 = 1,39038725
8) 0.04373622
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 = 1,43412347
9) 0.06442454
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 = 1,49854801
10)0.07013746
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 = 1,56868547
11) 0.10336816
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 = 1,67205363
12) 0.13202596
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 = 1,80407959
13) 0.15712258
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 = 1,96120217
14) 0.20398982
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14 = 2,16519199
15) 0.06885736
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14 + 15 = 2,23404935
16) 0.05058486
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14 + 15 + 16 = 2,28463421
17) 0.09247559
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14 + 15 + 16 + 17 = 2,3771098
18) 0.13666806
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14 + 15 + 16 + 17 + 18 = 2,51377786
Q.E.D.

[semaster]

All time total payout: 2.51377786 BTC

...
3) 0.19437356
...
7)0.24787598
...
15) 0.06885736

3) 7) and 15) - that IS NOT  Newly Generated Coins.
Ok. I will check it, but I counted only Newly Generated Coins