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

[eleuthria]

Notice to All Stratum Users

Going forward, miners with native Stratum clients are encouraged to connect via the following address:

stratum.btcguild.com:3333


Currently this entry points to a single Stratum instance.  All getwork X-Stratum redirects now point to this same DNS entry.  Going forward, this will be first updated to a Round Robin DNS entry, to help share the load over multiple servers.  Because of how Stratum works [persistent TCP connections], this will be seamless to an end-user.  By connecting with stratum.btcguild.com:3333, you avoid interacting with a getwork server to obtain the Stratum IP/port.

This is not a mandatory change.  Getwork servers will continue to function and provide X-Stratum redirects, this will simply reduce one extra connection needed to begin mining, and avoid one extra failure point when starting up.

[1474768723]

1474768723

[eleuthria]

The Stratum servers on 50.31.149.57 (ports 3333 and 10332) which were the default X-Stratum redirect will be down briefly at 3 PM [PST].  This downtime is expected to last roughly 5 minutes, and is to deploy the updated Stratum/bitcoind code to the server.  After the server is back online, it will be added to the stratum.btcguild.com DNS entry, which is the default X-Stratum redirect for US-based getwork servers at this time.


EDIT/UPDATE:  Got stuck at my day job longer than expected.  Restart of 50.31.149.57 stratum server has been postpone to 4:00 PM [PST]

[eleuthria]

Stratum servers on 50.31.149.57 were restarted at ~4:05 PM.  Back online as of ~4:08 PM.  The server has been added to the stratum.btcguild.com DNS entry as well, so using that DNS entry will now place you on one of the two stratum servers.


UPDATE:  Both US-based stratum servers were briefly restarted [downtime was about 3 seconds each] to fix a critical bug in the coinbase building.

[eleuthria]

Minimum difficulty interface is almost completed.  Very sorry this did not get released last weekend like I had hoped.  Unfortunately, it's hard to come up with an easy to use interface for settings like this, especially when some users have a large number of workers, leading to very unwieldy form entry.

There will likely be one restart on each Stratum server to complete the change, currently planned for 12:00 PM (noon) PST on Sunday.  The minimum difficulty interface may go live before this time, and will work on the US based server.  The stratum server on Germany will not support minimum difficulty until the restarts.

[eleuthria]

Minimum difficulty settings are now enabled for the US-based Stratum servers.  The EU/Germany Stratum server will be updated later this evening to include the API calls needed to update difficulty.

The link can be found under 'Manage Workers', labeled "Difficulty Settings".


EDIT:  I know the interface is a little clunky for users with a large number of workers.  I will be making subtle changes to the interface over time to make it easier to mass edit and keep track of which workers you're changing.


UPDATE: EU/Germany stratum server has been updated to the latest version, and now supports minimum difficulty modifications.

[Joshwaa]

I have tried to adjust difficulty for my miners and it is not working. Do I need to connect to a different server for it to work.

[eleuthria]

I have tried to adjust difficulty for my miners and it is not working. Do I need to connect to a different server for it to work.

It should work on all Stratum servers.  This is a MINIMUM difficulty though.  If you mine too quickly, variable difficulty will still retarget your difficulty to the ~20 shares per minute target.



EDIT/UPDATE:  Fixed!  When adding the Germany server to the list, I used the same variable for opening the socket to push the command to that server as the one used for one of the two US servers, overwriting the connection.  I'm going to manually push some difficulty changes so all servers have the same difficulty settings cached for workers.

[BitBlitz]

I'm in the US and running a few miners off one stratum proxy.  I've tried restarting the proxy (pointing to stratum.btcguild.com:3333 and redirects through btcguild.com:8332).  My diff target just climbs to the usual number.  I have all miners set for higher diff targets at BTCguild.

[eleuthria]

I'm in the US and running a few miners off one stratum proxy.  I've tried restarting the proxy (pointing to stratum.btcguild.com:3333 and redirects through btcguild.com:8332).  My diff target just climbs to the usual number.  I have all miners set for higher diff targets at BTCguild.

I've done a brief restart on the pools, and the logs now show that once your worker reconnected you were immediately increased to the minimum difficulty you specified.

[Joshwaa]

Still not working(difficulty setting). Tried restarting miner still no luck.

[eleuthria]

Still not working(difficulty setting). Tried restarting miner still no luck.

I saw in the logs your worker immediately bumped up to a higher difficulty as soon as the server restarted.  Additionally, looking at the Stratum proxy for my own farm, it IMMEDIATELY changes the difficulty when I increase the minimum.  Note:  It will never allow you to decrease difficulty on demand.  Lowering minimum difficulty will have to wait for your miner to naturally get adjusted downward by the normal vardiff formula.  Also note that the Stratum proxy by default [I think] will continue to serve work as diff=1 to your workers, but will only relay shares of the proper difficulty upstream.

[Joshwaa]

Not using the proxy. Adjusted down my diff a while ago and restarted the miner. Still no change yet. I am sure variable diff would have adjusted me by now.

[eleuthria]

Not using the proxy. Adjusted down my diff a while ago and restarted the miner. Still no change yet. I am sure variable diff would have adjusted me by now.

Alright, I'm seeing on my worker that vardiff isn't reducing difficulty on an already connected miner after minimum difficulty is decreased.  However, a reconnect is immediately fixes the problem.

Still looking at why vardiff won't eventually reduce difficulty on an established connections when you decrease the minimum.

[Frequency]

Omg..someone or some group just put 650.000mhase on Btcguild ..!!!!  

[Joshwaa]

Still stuck on 16 diff after many reconnects. Any Ideas?

[eleuthria]

Still stuck on 16 diff after many reconnects. Any Ideas?

I've found the problem!  Working on a fix now.  It's related to case sensitivity.  Fix will be deployed soon I hope.

EDIT/UPDATE:  Fixed your settings Joshwaa, all your workers [non-hidden] have been reset to diff=1 [most won't drop below diff=2 without a reconnect though].  Future changes will go through as expected.

[Joshwaa]

Thanks! Nice work.

[eleuthria]

Just warning:  User 67117 is NOT 3 TH/s right now.  I'm helping the user with some internal setup and reset their cached speed calculations, which caused a huge spike in hash rate to show up.  Do not panic .

[Frequency]

Just warning:  User 67117 is NOT 3 TH/s right now.  I'm helping the user with some internal setup and reset their cached speed calculations, which caused a huge spike in hash rate to show up.  Do not panic .

Pfoehoe Nice future numbers .. 

[BitcoinOxygen]

Just warning:  User 67117 is NOT 3 TH/s right now.  I'm helping the user with some internal setup and reset their cached speed calculations, which caused a huge spike in hash rate to show up.  Do not panic .

For a second I thought someone from BFL is mining at your pool.