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

[eleuthria]

I've been mining with you for just over 4 years. Thank you for the great service and good luck with your future endeavors.

You've got some funny math skills... the announcement post is dated 10/22/2011.  The first block with BTC Guild in the coinbase script was 152700 on 11/10/2011.  If you're going to make something up, at least make it somewhat credible.

Eleuthria, best of luck to you in your new cardboard mansion

The pool has been public since May of 2011.  This announcement post is the 2nd post for the pool.  When it changed from Proportional to Pure PPS (and before PPLNS was introduced), we started a brand new thread.  BTC Guild mined *thousands* of blocks without a tag in the coinbase, because the old pushpool software we used in the early days didn't have a built in way to add coinbase tags.  We were the third oldest still running pool (second oldest if you start measuring from our first block found with the pool software during private testing, but Eligius opened up to the public a few days before BTC Guild).


EDIT:  Original forum thread for the pool: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7760.0

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[Soros Shorts]

My first payment from the PPS pool was dated 5/23/2011, so I guess I was almost there at the very beginning. We'll it has been a good run!

[jonnybravo0311]

I've been mining with you for just over 4 years. Thank you for the great service and good luck with your future endeavors.

You've got some funny math skills... the announcement post is dated 10/22/2011.  The first block with BTC Guild in the coinbase script was 152700 on 11/10/2011.  If you're going to make something up, at least make it somewhat credible.

Eleuthria, best of luck to you in your new cardboard mansion

The pool has been public since May of 2011.  This announcement post is the 2nd post for the pool.  When it changed from Proportional to Pure PPS (and before PPLNS was introduced), we started a brand new thread.  BTC Guild mined *thousands* of blocks without a tag in the coinbase, because the old pushpool software we used in the early days didn't have a built in way to add coinbase tags.  We were the third oldest still running pool (second oldest if you start measuring from our first block found with the pool software during private testing, but Eligius opened up to the public a few days before BTC Guild).


EDIT:  Original forum thread for the pool: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7760.0

Thanks for the clarification eleuthria.  I do indeed wish you the best in whatever it is you decide to do.

Dust, please accept my apologies.  I based my reply on the information I had available, which was quite obviously incorrect.  And, I admit, I saw the newbie tag on your account and jumped to conclusions.  Again, my apologies to you.

[Sir Alan]

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

[eleuthria]

5 Minutes Remain...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw

Pool servers have now been taken offline.  Miners have hopefully already begun their journey to failover pools.


R.I.P. BTC Guild: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnQ8N1KacJc

[hurricandave]

I've got something like 3.25 NMC to donate toward your cardboard palace   If you have an address I can set. It would keep you from having to handle it till the default date since I don't have a NMC wallet set up.

[eleuthria]

I've removed the pages which will no longer serve any function (Charts, Workers, Rankings).  The Pool Stats page has been updated to show you the pool speed history over the last 2 and a half years.


Will likely begin posting some informational posts about the pool later this week just so anybody looking to start their own pool can learn from my mistakes and growing pains, and people looking at other pools can know what things they should look for from a pool operator.

[iCEBREAKER]

5 Minutes Remain...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw

Pool servers have now been taken offline.  Miners have hopefully already begun their journey to failover pools.

 

I'll miss the Guild.  This marks the end of the beginning, as we transition from the 'laugh at you' stage to the 'fight you' era.

 

[Cablez]

As a past member of the guild, I wish you all well and Thanks!

[Tigggger]

Thanks for everything and best of luck with future endevours.

You can keep the BTC and NMC that are in my account as a donation, same username as on here.

[btcspry]

What happens if there's still a balance left in people's accounts?  Do you keep it as a donation?

[DebitMe]

Just wanted to take a minute to thank eleuthria for his dedication and work on one of the most stable and robust pools that have ever graced bitcoin.  BtcGuild has been a pillar in the bitcoin world and it will be sad to see it go.

Thanks for all the hard work!

[eleuthria]

What happens if there's still a balance left in people's accounts?  Do you keep it as a donation?

Yes.  Balances are forfeit to the pool if they are not withdrawn after the 3 months of time being given for people to click a button.  This is in line with the Terms of Service, item #7, and what users who have left the pool/stopped mining have been told.  There are a couple hundred accounts (over the last few years) where users have offered to donate whatever remaining balances they had to the pool.  I have always stated that if that is what they want to do, leave the balance on their account and whenever the pool closes, that is when it will be considered donated/given back to the pool.  Up until that final moment where the servers shut off, users have every right to change their mind and pull those balances off their accounts.

[opentoe]

The one pool that I wouldn't put on that list is Eligius Mining Pool the owner has a reputation see below.

Luke-Jr used the pools hashing power to 51% attack an alt with out the permission or authorization of the people hashing for the pool.
Luke-Jr also injected his personal Bitcoin address black list into Gentoo Linux code base. for religious reasons multiple times.
Luke-Jr also threatened to 51% attack an independent Bitcoin protocol build as a core developer.  (read the whole thread to get a feel for his personality)
Luke-Jr also ripped off CGMiner code without giving credit,  

so no i wouldn't group Eligius with the others on that list, there is a history of abuse of power there.

All valid points, & exactly the reasons I won't use Eligius or anything else even slightly connected with Luke-Jr.

After reading up some, I chose p2pool - it's decentralised nature really appealed to me. The Bitcoin mining scene will be worse off without the Guild - thank you eleuthria for being an upstanding & trustworthy member of the mining community - in these times of badly coded scam pools - you will be sorely missed.

I agree and am looking for a new pool myself. Might just be a good time to bow completely out of bitcoin too.
I really don't like the direction it is heading.
I gave slush a chance years ago, tried him again at beginning of last year and nothing changed.
I saw they updated the site but he doesn't offer anything special. If anything I recall them removing merged mining and now they are "redeveloping" it. seriously I'll give a mining fee to someone else kthx.
I won't join a pool that avg's a block every 24 hrs or worst. There needs to be a few to make it worth my time.

Eligius sucks. There's only so many months or years you can look at "Much more to come - be patient" all over the place. And yes, it is my opinion. And I'm not sorry if you disagree.

[opentoe]

Well, I only take the inclusion of luke's post of lies as siding with luke's lies.

With that, I would request that eleuthria remove me from his suggestions.

I have no wish to be suggested as an option by a pool that would allow luke's post of lies without my response.

You guys sound like bickering women. All to sensitive here. Unless you are actually a woman.

[opentoe]

On the brighter side:  At least our last 2 weeks might be a bit lucky, the last few days haven't been half bad.

I have read about the opinion of different pool owners regarding the Bitcoin QT vs XT debate. But, I could not find your opinion about it. Though you are a closing pool, you were one of the earliest and served successfully over a very long time. So, I'd like to know your opinion about this debate. I am sorry, if you have already stated about it. Then you may please point me to that source.

The block size debate is something I've been expecting for years, and it's something I just can't see a great solution to.  The real problem I'm seeing is the larger blocks, once they become normal/blocks actually start using up some of that extra space, is the ability for people to run full nodes.  Similarly, solo mining/p2pool is already at a disadvantage compared to pools/farms running on datacenter quality connections, larger blocks just make it worse.

I've always fallen into the camp that felt like Bitcoin would be a settlement network more than a transactional network.  Services building on top of the chain rather than all trying to live inside of it.  I was very interested in what sidechains could accomplish.  The idea of a separate network for insignificant transactions that then get settled on the main chain as a bulk settlement rather than 10,000 transactions cluttering up the entire network.

Obviously, we haven't gotten something like that ready in time, so we *need* to increase the block size in order for Bitcoin to remain functional in the next few years.

Sorry to say bitcoin is just a test. There will be another virtual currency that will take its place without any of the limitations or problems bitcoin currently has.

[opentoe]

Ok...

All other things being equal, and a bit of a derail. But... Why the HELL is eleuthria's trust rating so low? Mine is higher, and I mostly just talk.

The trust system seems really arbitrary.

Eleuthria has a trust rating visible to me of 10: -0 / +1

Yours is all 0's.

So what does that mean?

yeah, the system is fubar. I just wish that the default people paid more attention... Or it was abolished altogether. On my side it was showing him at 5, and me at 30. Mine probably shouldn't be anywhere near that high, and his should have at least a couple more zeroes.

This forum software should have been updated quite a long time ago. Have the slightest idea on why it was never updated. I see your trust rating as 2. Others see you as 30. The whole idea of "trust" is what to expect from someone you don't know. Since I don't know you, I would rather see your true trust rating, but I don't. NEVER go by the trust rating system on here. Even with the users that have a -20 or more. It doe not work properly.

[guytechie]

Sorry to see the pool close.  So how much did you get as donations as NMC?  Interested cuz NMC minimum was not lowered.

[os2sam]

Sorry to see the pool close.  So how much did you get as donations as NMC?  Interested cuz NMC minimum was not lowered.

I had no trouble clearing out my complete Namecoin balance.

[eleuthria]

Sorry to see the pool close.  So how much did you get as donations as NMC?  Interested cuz NMC minimum was not lowered.

NMC was dropped to 0.001 because of how many people were bitching about their trapped NMC worth *less than a penny*.  It was also updated so all automatic payout triggers paid out the entire balance down to 0.00000001 a few hours after the pool closed for the same reason.