[CLOSED] BTC Guild - Pays TxFees+NMC, Stratum, VarDiff, Private Servers

[Adrian-x]

This luck is making me

it sucks, but i think the decrease in overall Hash has a role to play too, I think its going to be a hot summer, the fact that i have turned down my mining by about 20% to compensate for my inadequate cooling is probably topical with typical pool miners, I hope to see it pick up in the fall.

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[eleuthria]

This luck is making me

it sucks, but i think the decrease in overall Hash has a role to play too, I think its going to be a hot summer, the fact that i have turned down my mining by about 20% to compensate for my inadequate cooling is probably topical with typical pool miners, I hope to see it pick up in the fall.

Decrease in hashrate over the last year is a factor in why the luck swings as much as it does (smaller share of the network = bigger spikes and longer low periods).  But the bad dayss are outweighing the good days significantly.  And unlike the last time where it was finally statistically evident as to why (broken miner client software that wasn't submitting shares higher than 4.2 billion [unsigned integer max]), there simply isn't anything of the sort this time around.  There is not a single user showing a shares vs blocks solved ratio that indicates anything broken.  But that's because it's virtually impossible for a single miner to ever submit enough shares for that to be visible:  You would need to submit about 250-300b shares without a block solve.  We don't have anybody even remotely close to that many shares without a block solve, but we also barely have any miners who have even submitted that many shares to begin with.

[BCwinning]

yesterday was a good day, back to the 12 hr + grind today, few more days like yesterday is needed though

[navigator]

I hope we get in some more good days to bring our luck up. At least difficulty is relatively stable. Gives us time to make it up.

I'm going to need to make some changes soon if I want to stay in the mining game. Only running some S3's and a couple S5's. I'm finding it hard to sell my old miners. I have some S1's and an S2 just sitting doing nothing. I also like using my miners til they just aren't making money. Because say I sell them for what they could make in a few months. Then why don't I just mine a few more months then they are basically free again. It would also be kinda hard and time consuming for me to ship them one at a time or even many at once. I don't want to make a local post saying I have bitcoin miners for sale. Other outlets seem too risky for me.

[akashamar]

I'm running some small scale pools payouts experiment (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1059040.0), is anyone else observing very bad luck on BTC Guild lately?

[eleuthria]

I'm running some small scale pools payouts experiment (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1059040.0), is anyone else observing very bad luck on BTC Guild lately?

Yes.  The last month is at 77.592%.  You don't need to "observe" anything, it's posted right on the PPLNS Stats page.

[eleuthria]

BTC Guild is Closing Down
BTC Guild will be shutting down its mining servers on June 30th, 2015 at 23:59 UTC. Users will still be able to log in and retrieve their history (CSV exports on the settings page) and request withdrawals until September 30, 2015..



Why is BTC Guild Shutting Down?
This is the second time BTC Guild has announced closure, but this time the decision will not be reversed. The reasons have not changed much since the original announcement.

As mining has become more centralized, BTC Guild has continuously shrunk in proportion to the network, now being less than 3% of the network hash rate. The costs of running the pool have not changed, and the amount of funds at risk in the event of a compromise is significantly higher than what the pool could ever recover from. When the pool was 20-30% of the network, the amount of funds at risk was slightly higher, but the ability for the pool to recover from that loss was present. At 3% of the network, the pool would not be able to recover from such a loss..

Additionally, the NYDFS BitLicense regulations have now become finalized, and the final regulations have enough gray area that BTC Guild is at risk. The fact that BTC Guild is not in New York does not matter, since it would be doing business with New York residents while they are physically in New York. This fact makes it possible for New York to attempt to claim jurisdiction to enforce regulations. Whether or not BTC Guild could win in defense of such an attempt is irrelevant, since the cost of defending the pool would be greater than any income the pool is expected to generate going forward.

Finally, I have been growing concerned for some time now about attempts to defraud pools. The pool's luck has been on a decline for over a year. The luck on a few other pools has also shown a negative trend. While it is not impossible that it's a coincidence, this is something I have been constantly made aware of and am helpless against. There is no way to know whether it's just bad luck, a small bug in older miners (BTC Guild probably has the highest percentage of first/second generation ASICs) resulting in a few % of block-solving shares to disappear, or a large pool trying to hurt the competition (many of the largest pools have large private mining operations now). It would only take a fraction (1 PH/s or less could do it) to cause significant harm to a competing pool, and that activity could be masked by proxies and multiple accounts to be impossible to catch.



PPLNS Blocks and Final Withdrawals
Users will be able to keep mining up until the servers turn off at end of day June 30th. Since PPLNS is a backwards paying system, the very last shares submitted are unlikely to receive any blocks unless a block is found at the last second.

The PPLNS shift length will be steadily reduced starting June 16th. This means that more shifts will likely end with 0 blocks, but shifts that find blocks will receive a larger amount than they would have previously. It is not recommended that users wait until the last minute to change pools.

The minimum withdrawal for a manual withdrawal will be reduced to 0.0001, and will not require a transaction fee to be paid in order to request the withdrawal.



Not For Sale
In the previous closure announcement, one reason it was cancelled was due to offers to purchase/take over the pool. This never happened because of personal attachment to the project and concern over user privacy and security.

The risk of users being cheated or stolen from as a result of transferring pool ownership is not something I am willing to accept. This is part of the reason the pool is closing in the first place: Risk of users losing funds because the pool would not be able to cover losses in the event of compromise.

I will not be entertaining offers on purchasing the pool this time around. There is no (reasonable) price the pool would be sold for.



Recommended Pools
The following pools are personally recommended for users to consider moving to:
BitMinter - long standing pool with good reputation
Eligius - long standing pool with good reputation
Kano CK Pool - cgminer developers No longer recommended because the operator acts like a child.
P2Pool (decentralized pool)



Thank you to all the users and the Bitcoin community for making BTC Guild a success for the last four years. It has been hard to finally make this call a second time with the determination to not reverse the decision. You will still be able to find me around the Bitcoin Talk forums (outside of the Pools subsection for once), and on IRC in #btcguild (and probably #bitcoin once the pool winds down).

[zerokwel]

Well Eleuthria Its been a long fun ride from joining the pool. I think it was sometime in 2011.

I understand why you are closing the pool and not transferring it or selling it. Keeping the users safe over making a quick dollar.

Just want to thank you for running a honest pool these last 4 years. Unlike some other pools over the years. (should give you more time for minecraft)

[p3yot33at3r]

Don't close. Just....don't 

[-ck]

BTC Guild is Closing Down

Once more, I'm very sorry to see you go but certainly understand your reasons which are very sound and sensible. You've been an upstanding part of the bitcoin community who ran a very solid outfit with this pool. I wish you well with whatever further ventures you choose and hope they involve bitcoin in some other way.

[philipma1957]

very sad to see you go.  I will move my gear very soon. thank you for the 15 day notice.

[RealMalatesta]

*sigh*

[eleuthria]

== Posting this again so it is at the top of a new page and people don't overlook it ==


BTC Guild is Closing Down
BTC Guild will be shutting down its mining servers on June 30th, 2015 at 23:59 UTC. Users will still be able to log in and retrieve their history (CSV exports on the settings page) and request withdrawals until September 30, 2015..



Why is BTC Guild Shutting Down?
This is the second time BTC Guild has announced closure, but this time the decision will not be reversed. The reasons have not changed much since the original announcement.

As mining has become more centralized, BTC Guild has continuously shrunk in proportion to the network, now being less than 3% of the network hash rate. The costs of running the pool have not changed, and the amount of funds at risk in the event of a compromise is significantly higher than what the pool could ever recover from. When the pool was 20-30% of the network, the amount of funds at risk was slightly higher, but the ability for the pool to recover from that loss was present. At 3% of the network, the pool would not be able to recover from such a loss..

Additionally, the NYDFS BitLicense regulations have now become finalized, and the final regulations have enough gray area that BTC Guild is at risk. The fact that BTC Guild is not in New York does not matter, since it would be doing business with New York residents while they are physically in New York. This fact makes it possible for New York to attempt to claim jurisdiction to enforce regulations. Whether or not BTC Guild could win in defense of such an attempt is irrelevant, since the cost of defending the pool would be greater than any income the pool is expected to generate going forward.

Finally, I have been growing concerned for some time now about attempts to defraud pools. The pool's luck has been on a decline for over a year. The luck on a few other pools has also shown a negative trend. While it is not impossible that it's a coincidence, this is something I have been constantly made aware of and am helpless against. There is no way to know whether it's just bad luck, a small bug in older miners (BTC Guild probably has the highest percentage of first/second generation ASICs) resulting in a few % of block-solving shares to disappear, or a large pool trying to hurt the competition (many of the largest pools have large private mining operations now). It would only take a fraction (1 PH/s or less could do it) to cause significant harm to a competing pool, and that activity could be masked by proxies and multiple accounts to be impossible to catch.



PPLNS Blocks and Final Withdrawals
Users will be able to keep mining up until the servers turn off at end of day June 30th. Since PPLNS is a backwards paying system, the very last shares submitted are unlikely to receive any blocks unless a block is found at the last second.

The PPLNS shift length will be steadily reduced starting June 16th. This means that more shifts will likely end with 0 blocks, but shifts that find blocks will receive a larger amount than they would have previously. It is not recommended that users wait until the last minute to change pools.

The minimum withdrawal for a manual withdrawal will be reduced to 0.0001, and will not require a transaction fee to be paid in order to request the withdrawal.



Not For Sale
In the previous closure announcement, one reason it was cancelled was due to offers to purchase/take over the pool. This never happened because of personal attachment to the project and concern over user privacy and security.

The risk of users being cheated or stolen from as a result of transferring pool ownership is not something I am willing to accept. This is part of the reason the pool is closing in the first place: Risk of users losing funds because the pool would not be able to cover losses in the event of compromise.

I will not be entertaining offers on purchasing the pool this time around. There is no (reasonable) price the pool would be sold for.



Recommended Pools
The following pools are personally recommended for users to consider moving to:
BitMinter - long standing pool with good reputation
Eligius - long standing pool with good reputation
Kano CK Pool - cgminer developers No longer recommended because the operator acts like a child.
P2Pool (decentralized pool)



Thank you to all the users and the Bitcoin community for making BTC Guild a success for the last four years. It has been hard to finally make this call a second time with the determination to not reverse the decision. You will still be able to find me around the Bitcoin Talk forums (outside of the Pools subsection for once), and on IRC in #btcguild (and probably #bitcoin once the pool winds down).

[ManeBjorn]

This is a sad day.
I'm sorry it came to this.
BitLicense is a mess that harms everyone. Organized block withholding attacks are also a nasty reality of the current ecosystem.
It won't be long before more centralization happens. Not a good thing.
Thanks for always being professional and maintaining a solid pool that has been a cornerstone for so long.

[cypherdoc]

bummer

[Nubminer]

Thanks for years of Dedication !!

Sucks to see changes like this..

You will be missed !!

[ShapeShift.io]

BTCGuild - would you be interested in joining the initiative we've created at PleaseProtectConsumers.org in response to BitLicense?

You could send NY traffic to that site or whatever other form of participation you'd be comfortable with. Please email erik at shapeshift.io if you'd like to discuss.

Very sorry to hear about the closure, thanks for all your great work in the community over the past several years.

[valkir]

This is really a sad day. Btc Guild was one of the best stable pool! 

[Adrian-x]

totally sad to have to say say thank you for everything under these circumstances.

but you've done a great service to Bitcoin.
I hope something can come from your experiences.

[Kexkey]

Very sad day, BTCGuild was one of the strongest.  Thanks Eleuthria for your dedication and for being present in the community.

Kexkey