[204 GH/s] yourbtc.net closing it's doors on 2011-12-08

[urstroyer]

I have addressed a similar issue to the poolserverj dev here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=33144.msg591274#msg591274

We switched back to our stable non-mm enviroment, these side effects should not appear anymore.

Added 5 BTC in our bonus pool to compensate your non merged mining earnings yet. I have faith in shadders, that he will release a working mm psj version soon

I'm glad to hear the issue is known and am looking forward to a working merged mining system.

shadders was very fast in fixing the last issues.

That means, we got Merged Mining enabled now!

All blocks found this month still will be added to the loyality pool. Starting on 1st nov NCM earnings will be distributed on double geometric method exactly like BTC.

More details about that soon.

[teukon]

shadders was very fast in fixing the last issues.

That means, we got Merged Mining enabled now!

All blocks found this month still will be added to the loyality pool. Starting on 1st nov NCM earnings will be distributed on double geometric method exactly like BTC.

More details about that soon.

Good news.

I'd like to send shadders some BTC for the hard work, do you have a link for me?

There appears to be some kind of delay but this is probably a clock sync issue.  I'm more concerned by the gaps of rejects I seem to now be getting.  Here's some data (09:45 -> 10:45 UTC, 2011-10-25):
{
My miner's state:
  09:46:19 - Disconnected (Presumably you are brining merged mining online here)
  09:48:01 - Connected
  09:48:01 - NMC 24299
  09:51:03 - New job
  09:57:15 - New job
    (all shares here are rejected)
  09:57:25 - BTC 150559
  10:03:25 - New job
  10:05:20 - New job
  10:05:21 - NMC 24301
  10:07:25 - New job
    (all shares here are rejected)
  10:07:36 - BTC 150560
  10:08:07 - New job
  10:15:23 - New job
  10:18:38 - New job
  10:20:00 - New job
  10:24:40 - New job
  10:24:40 - NMC 24306
  10:33:11 - New job
  10:36:05 - New job
    (all shares here are rejected)
  10:36:15 - BTC 150562
  10:37:50 - New job
  10:39:49 - New job
  10:39:53 - New job
  10:39:54 - NMC 24309

Bitcoin block explorer:
  09:50:23, 150559
  10:04:36, 150560
  10:23:32, 150561
  10:32:47, 150562
  10:39:22, 150563

Namecoin block explorer:
  09:45:45, 24300
  10:00:55, 24301
  10:03:27, 24302
  10:07:29, 24303
  10:14:26, 24304
  10:16:42, 24305
  10:18:39, 24306
  10:28:47, 24307
  10:36:06, 24308
  10:37:52, 24309
  10:40:58, 24310
}

Is this all as it should be?

Also, when you do start applying DGM to the Namecoin blocks, will there be namecoins in my account to withdraw or will they be automatically traded for bitcoins.  I'd guess there are a fair few miners who don't care much for namecoins and so some options for payout would be nice:

1) Donate all earned namecoins to the pool.
2) Withdraw earned namecoins to a namecoin wallet.
3) Have the pool convert the namecoins to bitcoins and added to my Bitcoin balance (with the pool taking a fixed fee for this service - 5% say).

[freakfantom]

It would be nice to have an option to automatically trade namecoins for bitcoins and add to account.

And yes, the same issue with rejected shares as stated above.

[teukon]

And yes, the same issue with rejected shares as stated above.

While the rejects are certainly a problem I would much rather use a 98% efficient merged mining pool than a 99.6% efficient normal Bitcoin pool.

[freshzive]

Just noticed that my efficiency has dropped ~1-2% as well. Is this because of merged mining?

[freshzive]

Also noticed that we jumped to 55GH/s after merged mining was implemented 

[urstroyer]

1) Donate all earned namecoins to the pool.
2) Withdraw earned namecoins to a namecoin wallet.
3) Have the pool convert the namecoins to bitcoins and added to my Bitcoin balance (with the pool taking a fixed fee for this service - 5% say).

It would be nice to have an option to automatically trade namecoins for bitcoins and add to account.

And yes, the same issue with rejected shares as stated above.

Hey, sorry for the delay but just got home.

My plan right now, is to implement the namecoin distribution on double geometric method like Meni Rosenfeld suggested:
"You can add namecoins by having separate Bitcoin Score and Namecoin Score, where the namecoin reward according to the method is converted to bitcoins before entering the confirmed balance."

To keep things simple for you, the pool exchanges the nmc into btc and put it into the btc balance. I will have to do some work on the web frontend to make trade exchange rate etc. visible for you.

If there is someone who really really want's the nmc payed out as they are, i would like to hear some feedback.

[urstroyer]

Just noticed that my efficiency has dropped ~1-2% as well. Is this because of merged mining?

Yes, i can confirm this fact. The pool runs on 97% efficiency compared to non-mm on 99%+.

I guess, the longpoll on nmc blocks identifies stale shares on the nmc blockchain. It happens more often yet, since the nmc difficulty is still very low.

The good news is, that these shares should still be valid on the nmc blockchain. I guess the psj engine doesn't make a difference on both chains right now.

I'am sure we see some more improvements soon!

[teukon]

If there is someone who really really want's the nmc payed out as they are, i would like to hear some feedback.

I'm perfectly happy with receiving only bitcoins.

I guess, the longpoll on nmc blocks identifies stale shares on the nmc blockchain. It happens more often yet, since the nmc difficulty is still very low.

Interesting.  The thing I noticed was that after merged mining came online, there were significant rejects when moving to a new Bitcoin block.  The Namecoin longpolls don't seem to generate any significant rejects for me.  There was a predictable 10 second period of rejects when moving to a new Bitcoin block (this has now shrunk to only 6 seconds it seems but I have few data points to go on).

It's a bit upsetting to lose my 99.9% efficiency average but I'll live.

[urstroyer]

Interesting.  The thing I noticed was that after merged mining came online, there were significant rejects when moving to a new Bitcoin block.  The Namecoin longpolls don't seem to generate any significant rejects for me.  There was a predictable 10 second period of rejects when moving to a new Bitcoin block (this has now shrunk to only 6 seconds it seems but I have few data points to go on).

It's a bit upsetting to lose my 99.9% efficiency average but I'll live.

Thanks for your input teukon, i just tweaked some settings on the server. Hope to see some improvements now.

I'll keep an eye on it.

[freakfantom]

My statistics current round: Valid Shares 14,026 Invalid Shares 995 Efficiency 93.38%
Hm.. I'm using the latest cgminer if it helps.. Any ideas?

[teukon]

My statistics current round: Valid Shares 14,026 Invalid Shares 995 Efficiency 93.38%
Hm.. I'm using the latest cgminer if it helps.. Any ideas?

Ouch!  I didn't realise this stales situation was so sensitive to the end users configuration.  My current round data is:

Current Speed	Valid Shares	Invalid Shares	Efficiency
720.00 MHash/s	8,161	175	97.90%

So I've only dropped about 2%.  I'm using phoenix with an aggression of 12 for what it's worth.

[teukon]

Just some data on the current stales situation.  Excerpts from the output of phoenix on a 350 MH/s miner (times in UTC + 1).

My miner is now alerted to Namecoin block changes with an impressive 6 new jobs!
{
[28/10/2011 10:36:08] Result: 527688f6 accepted               
[28/10/2011 10:36:19] Result: a2265f38 accepted               
[28/10/2011 10:36:35] LP: New work pushed                     
[28/10/2011 10:36:40] LP: New work pushed                     
[28/10/2011 10:36:40] Currently on block: 24955               
[28/10/2011 10:36:41] LP: New work pushed                     
[28/10/2011 10:36:42] LP: New work pushed                     
[28/10/2011 10:36:43] Result: e6a20530 accepted               
[28/10/2011 10:36:43] LP: New work pushed                     
[28/10/2011 10:36:44] LP: New work pushed                     
[28/10/2011 10:36:55] Result: c7755a8a accepted               
[28/10/2011 10:37:01] Result: fe495922 accepted               
}
As you can see here, there can still be a significant window of rejects.
{
[28/10/2011 10:57:57] Result: 6fb45837 accepted               
[28/10/2011 10:58:09] Result: 9b264748 accepted               
[28/10/2011 10:58:18] LP: New work pushed                     
[28/10/2011 10:58:22] Result: 32fc2451 rejected               
[28/10/2011 10:58:23] LP: New work pushed                     
[28/10/2011 10:58:23] Currently on block: 24962               
[28/10/2011 10:58:24] LP: New work pushed                     
[28/10/2011 10:58:25] LP: New work pushed                     
[28/10/2011 10:58:26] LP: New work pushed                     
[28/10/2011 10:58:27] LP: New work pushed                     
[28/10/2011 10:58:29] LP: New work pushed                     
[28/10/2011 10:58:33] Result: 14bcb49c accepted               
[28/10/2011 10:58:35] Result: 309e5bcc accepted               
}

The window of rejects when the Bitcoin block changes still exists.
{
[28/10/2011 10:43:39] LP: New work pushed                     
[28/10/2011 10:43:43] Result: 13845b18 rejected               
[28/10/2011 10:43:43] Result: 0e7d80ea rejected               
[28/10/2011 10:43:47] Result: 8ee66e58 rejected               
[28/10/2011 10:43:57] Result: c552249c accepted                           
}
{
[28/10/2011 10:55:49] LP: New work pushed                     
[28/10/2011 10:55:52] Result: 96c68812 rejected               
[28/10/2011 10:55:56] Currently on block: 150893             
}

[jamesg]

I am now running on this pool with under 2% stales. See sig.

[urstroyer]

Thanks for your results.

I'am currently in contact with shadders (poolserverj dev) and gathering log files atm.

Keep you informed if got an update.

[teukon]

I am now running on this pool with under 2% stales. See sig.

I'm glad you've managed this.  It would have been a shame if your monsterous hashing power was taking a 4-5% hit.  I've been working pretty hard on my stales and my average for this round is 1.67% (only 8000 shares though) so until there's a change to the server software I doubt either of us will be able to do much better.

Thanks for your results.

I'am currently in contact with shadders (poolserverj dev) and gathering log files atm.

Keep you informed if got an update.

Excellent.  I hope this is not interfering too much with the plan to start using DGM for the Namecoin block rewards at the start of November.

[urstroyer]

I am now running on this pool with under 2% stales. See sig.

I'm glad you've managed this.  It would have been a shame if your monsterous hashing power was taking a 4-5% hit.  I've been working pretty hard on my stales and my average for this round is 1.67% (only 8000 shares though) so until there's a change to the server software I doubt either of us will be able to do much better.

Thanks for your results.

I'am currently in contact with shadders (poolserverj dev) and gathering log files atm.

Keep you informed if got an update.

Excellent.  I hope this is not interfering too much with the plan to start using DGM for the Namecoin block rewards at the start of November.

The problem with higher stale rates and cgminer is hotfixed for now.

We are now accepting stale shares from NMC chain as a valid share until we have a more advanced solution.

You find a more detailed and technical discussion here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.msg597031#msg597031

A slightly higher amount of stale shares is still a side effect of MM and frequent long polls. Stale rate will stilll decreasing a little bit in future with namecoin difficulty increasing.

[teukon]

The problem with higher stale rates and cgminer is hotfixed for now.

We are now accepting stale shares from NMC chain as a valid share until we have a more advanced solution.

This is fine short-term but if there is a fundamental problem with using cgminer (at least old versions of) for merged mining then ultimately the people using such software need to feel the sting of their inefficiency.  People that will try different mining software and will try to configure it so as to reduce stales should be appropriately rewarded.  If cgminer is the only option for a user (for whatever reason) then they will simply have to live with the stales.

I can offer help to anyone at this pool trying to use phoenix.

[teukon]

Does anyone know what happened at the pool recently?  The pool's hashrate and estimated payout graphs both flatlined for a few hours.

[urstroyer]

Does anyone know what happened at the pool recently?  The pool's hashrate and estimated payout graphs both flatlined for a few hours.

It seems like bitcoind got stuck in middle about 9 hours ago. Fixed it with server restart. If it happens again, i will take a more detailed look into it.

Currently finishing DGM on NMC blockchain, if all goes fine, it will go live today.