[ANN][POOL] ipoMiner - Profitable multipool targeting new coins + merged mining!

[ocminer]

Sorry to "disturb" ... but as a pool owner I know what it means when suddenly bot nets "knock on your stratum" and miners try to make a quick buck by having hundreds (or thousands) of pc's "mining" at your pool. Its not only very resource consuming, its also very problematic for legal reasons. I had a botnet mining ZRC some time back when there was no GPU miner and my hoster almost shutdown ALL (!) my servers because they thought I was behind that botnet and my pool was a C&C server .. I was lucky and a friendly guy from tech department called me before they wanted to "flip that switch" so I could explain to them what was going on...

So you really don't want a botnet mining at your pool. Of course there are "smart" botnet miners which proxy their bots/zombies and there is not much you can do about it because you simply cannot separate them from the legit miners.

[1714042138]

1714042138

[1714042138]

1714042138

[1714042138]

1714042138

[ipominer]

Sorry to "disturb" ... but as a pool owner I know what it means when suddenly bot nets "knock on your stratum" and miners try to make a quick buck by having hundreds (or thousands) of pc's "mining" at your pool. Its not only very resource consuming, its also very problematic for legal reasons. I had a botnet mining ZRC some time back when there was no GPU miner and my hoster almost shutdown ALL (!) my servers because they thought I was behind that botnet and my pool was a C&C server .. I was lucky and a friendly guy from tech department called me before they wanted to "flip that switch" so I could explain to them what was going on...

So you really don't want a botnet mining at your pool. Of course there are "smart" botnet miners which proxy their bots/zombies and there is not much you can do about it because you simply cannot separate them from the legit miners.

Exactly right.

[pkobse]

So it is not Danila anymore, now it is anonymous.

And I can see you changed your stats display, so it is not so easy to see it.

[not.you]

Is that true?  Did you change the stats display to hide evidence of bot nets?  I came here to see if there was anything about why the stats were changed (they were certainly better before) but if this is about making it harder to spot a potential bot net from other miners that's pretty lame.  

[ipominer]

Is that true?  Did you change the stats display to hide evidence of bot nets?  I came here to see if there was anything about why the stats were changed (they were certainly better before) but if this is about making it harder to spot a potential bot net from other miners that's pretty lame.  

A few people contacted me, concerned that their hashrate by username were publicly accessible. (As screenshots were being posted with them.)

On review, I can't come up with a good argument of why they should be. Seeing hashrate by username for other miners isn't actually useful beyond "interesting", and there's certainly a valid point that some people don't appreciate the lack of privacy. I'm trying to figure out a good middle approach, which includes the usual option that pools give to appear 'anonymous' in hashrate reporting.

[not.you]

Is that true?  Did you change the stats display to hide evidence of bot nets?  I came here to see if there was anything about why the stats were changed (they were certainly better before) but if this is about making it harder to spot a potential bot net from other miners that's pretty lame.  

A few people contacted me, concerned that their hashrate by username were publicly accessible. (As screenshots were being posted with them.)

On review, I can't come up with a good argument of why they should be. Seeing hashrate by username for other miners isn't actually useful beyond "interesting", and there's certainly a valid point that some people don't appreciate the lack of privacy. I'm trying to figure out a good middle approach, which includes the usual option that pools give to appear 'anonymous' in hashrate reporting.

Well I agree that there is nothing actually useful from seeing other user names but I sort of liked being able to see how often I was finding blocks in the block list.  I also liked being able to see how many other miners were mining a coin and their hashrate.  If it simply said:
AnonymousMiner1 xxx hashrate
AnonymousMiner2 xxx hashrate
you (meaning me) xxx hashrate
AnonymousMiner4 xxx hashrate

that would be fine with me.  I do see that I can still see the pool hashrate on the coin but it was easier to look at the list and get an idea if a lot of people were mining it and if any heavy hitters were on it.  Especially with new or kind of obscure coins, lots of people and people bringing leased hashrate brings a little more confidence that the coins is worth mining.  May be just psychological since any coin can tank but I liked that setup.

I used to mine on mmpool and they use a sort of SID for each miner.  They show all stats but you basically have to look at your individual stats and compare them to the list to see what your own SID is.  But your SID never changes either so once you get used to recognizing it you can see where you sit in the list.

http://mmpool.org/statistics

If you were logged in and mining you could see your own stats at the top but you can go look and see exactly what I mean anyway.  It shows everyone's stats and also shows who the block finders are in the block list.

[ipominer]

I used to mine on mmpool and they use a sort of SID for each miner.  They show all stats but you basically have to look at your individual stats and compare them to the list to see what your own SID is.  But your SID never changes either so once you get used to recognizing it you can see where you sit in the list.

Right. Using a form of numeric id (sid, uid, whatever term you prefer) is something I've considered, instead of usernames for stats. There's fairly substantial code changes needed to implement that, so its will take a bit of time to consider the options and devise the appropriate implementation.

[jch9678]

Is that true?  Did you change the stats display to hide evidence of bot nets?  I came here to see if there was anything about why the stats were changed (they were certainly better before) but if this is about making it harder to spot a potential bot net from other miners that's pretty lame.  

To answer your question, it's true.  There is a botnet mining vtc on Ipominer and owns 70% of the network hashrate.  Once this was discovered Ipominer said they would close the port.  The botnet owner contacted Ipominer and complained of a privacy issue.  Subsequently Ipominer stated they will not close the port and they now hide all user stats to prevent others from investigating.  Obviously this is a pretty substantial revenue stream for them.

So if you're a botnet owner, ipominer is the best place for you to mine. 

[ipominer]

To answer your question, it's true.  There is a botnet mining vtc on Ipominer and owns 70% of the network hashrate.  Once this was discovered Ipominer said they would close the port.  The botnet owner contacted Ipominer and complained of a privacy issue.  Subsequently Ipominer stated they will not close the port and they now hide all user stats to prevent others from investigating.  Obviously this is a pretty substantial revenue stream for them.

So if you're a botnet owner, ipominer is the best place for you to mine.  

That's completely untrue. We actively ban botnets regularly -- they are against our terms of use. What's being discussed here is not a botnet by any common legal or technical definition -- it's mining via bundled software. Disclosed bundling of software is a valid, industry standard practice which generates revenue for software developers, distributors, and publishers. We're certainly not going to ban a user over a legitimate activity.

Privacy concerns were raised by more than half a dozen ipoMiner users about showing hashrate by username, because of people posting screenshots on bitcointalk and reddit with users information, so we took action to change that.

[Angora]

To answer your question, it's true.  There is a botnet mining vtc on Ipominer and owns 70% of the network hashrate.  Once this was discovered Ipominer said they would close the port.  The botnet owner contacted Ipominer and complained of a privacy issue.  Subsequently Ipominer stated they will not close the port and they now hide all user stats to prevent others from investigating.  Obviously this is a pretty substantial revenue stream for them.

So if you're a botnet owner, ipominer is the best place for you to mine.  

That's completely untrue. We actively ban botnets regularly -- they are against our terms of use. What's being discussed here is not a botnet by any common legal or technical definition -- it's mining via bundled software. Disclosed bundling of software is a valid, industry standard practice which generates revenue for software developers, distributors, and publishers. We're certainly not going to ban a user over a legitimate activity.

Privacy concerns were raised by more than half a dozen ipoMiner users about showing hashrate by username, because of people posting screenshots on bitcointalk and reddit with users information, so we took action to change that.

I see 2 solutions to that right off the bat.
1) change TOS to reflect that username & hashrate will be publicly viewable.
2) change your code to give user the option of hashrate being public with default setting of anonymous.

A majority of pools go with #2.    I have no problem with my hashrate being public. 


Now as for PUP; any program, especially a cpu miner, that is installed w/o end user being informed that it is a condition of use of main program; is treated as malware by most computer security personnel. 

To say what Danila is doing is not a bot may be legally true, but it's splitting a fine hair.


There's a saying: if it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it must be duck.

[ipominer]

2) change your code to give user the option of hashrate being public with default setting of anonymous.

Yes, I'm working on changes along those lines - just takes a bit of time to code and implement.

[not.you]

You know I have to say it looks pretty bad that you removed all signs of VTC mining from the website while you still continue to mine it, or let danila mine it.  That makes you look guilty.  Shoot, I liked this pool.  Guess I have to find another now...

[ipominer]

You know I have to say it looks pretty bad that you removed all signs of VTC mining from the website while you still continue to mine it, or let danila mine it.  That makes you look guilty.  Shoot, I liked this pool.  Guess I have to find another now...

How so? It's visible as always.

[jch9678]

To answer your question, it's true.  There is a botnet mining vtc on Ipominer and owns 70% of the network hashrate.  Once this was discovered Ipominer said they would close the port.  The botnet owner contacted Ipominer and complained of a privacy issue.  Subsequently Ipominer stated they will not close the port and they now hide all user stats to prevent others from investigating.  Obviously this is a pretty substantial revenue stream for them.

So if you're a botnet owner, ipominer is the best place for you to mine.  

That's completely untrue. We actively ban botnets regularly -- they are against our terms of use. What's being discussed here is not a botnet by any common legal or technical definition -- it's mining via bundled software. Disclosed bundling of software is a valid, industry standard practice which generates revenue for software developers, distributors, and publishers. We're certainly not going to ban a user over a legitimate activity.

Privacy concerns were raised by more than half a dozen ipoMiner users about showing hashrate by username, because of people posting screenshots on bitcointalk and reddit with users information, so we took action to change that.

...not a botnet by any common legal or technical definition...??  This most definitely is a botnet by technical definition.  There's no such thing as a legal definition for a botnet.  It's either a botnet or it isn't.  For the time being let's say it's irrelevant how the software got onto users computers.  It is a network of computers that are commanded and controlled by Danila with or without the user knowing what is going on.  Bottom line, it's a botnet and it goes against your terms of service.

Nobody is debating whether bundling software is valid or not, it obviously is.  

What we need to do is drop the discussion whether something is illegal or not.  Nobody is going to jail over this, the internet police are not going to knock on ipominer's or IZABELCOIN LTD's door.  There is no legal issue, unless maybe you live in Yokneam, Israel (https://www.israelbizreg.com/izabelcoin-ltd) but that would only be if maybe someone's computer under Danila's control blows up and starts a fire.  How could that be traced back to Danila, because it's in his EULA right here http://danilafri.wix.com/cpuminer   Oh look it has danila in the URL mentioning cpu miner as if it's his own (we'll get to that later).  Danila don't worry about taking it down it's already archived here https://archive.is/7taoH and locally.  Take a look at these gems in the EULA  

THE CpuMiner INSTALLER AND OR SOFTWARE MAY....ACTIVATE ALL FANS AND GENERATE AN UNLIMITED AMOUNT OF HEAT, AND UTILIZE AN UNLIMITED AMOUNT OF ELECTRICITY (OUTLET AND BATTERY)

. Or this

THIS MAY DAMAGE AND CAUSE IRREPARABLE HARM TO YOUR COMPUTER. YOU MAY ALSO INCUR ADDITIONAL COSTS OR FEES BY YOUR INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER (ISP), INCREASED SUPPORT COSTS, LIMIT OR VOID YOUR WARRANTY.

 What a joke this is, what did you call it, "compelling documentation"

This is you ipominer, this is who you are associated with, this is who you stick up for.  

Ipominer are you a fan of open source software?  Well guess what because Danila decided to make IZABELCOIN LTD and use open source software for profit, he is in violation of whatever license cpuminer and sgminer are under.  Maybe you don't want to stick up for the vertcoin community, that's obvious, but how about sticking up for the open source community.  Do the right thing, ban Danila for so many legitimate reasons, or keep him on for greed.

Speaking of greed, why haven't you raised your fees to 10% yet?  You can easily get them from Danila since you've already said no respectable miner would pay 3% to mine with you.

[ipominer]

This is you ipominer, this is who you are associated with, this is who you stick up for.  

Ipominer are you a fan of open source software?  Well guess what because Danila decided to make IZABELCOIN LTD and use open source software for profit, he is in violation of whatever license cpuminer and sgminer are under.  Maybe you don't want to stick up for the vertcoin community, that's obvious, but how about sticking up for the open source community.  Do the right thing, ban Danila for so many legitimate reasons, or keep him on for greed.

Speaking of greed, why haven't you raised your fees to 10% yet?  You can easily get them from Danila since you've already said no respectable miner would pay 3% to mine with you.

You're clearly missing the point. We have no control over why or how users mine with us -- if there's 100% illegitimate mining taking place, we do our best to ban it. We are a mining pool, nothing more. It's hardly under our purview to somehow be the arbitor of restricting legal software distribution methods. Let's be realistic.

[not.you]

This is you ipominer, this is who you are associated with, this is who you stick up for.  

Ipominer are you a fan of open source software?  Well guess what because Danila decided to make IZABELCOIN LTD and use open source software for profit, he is in violation of whatever license cpuminer and sgminer are under.  Maybe you don't want to stick up for the vertcoin community, that's obvious, but how about sticking up for the open source community.  Do the right thing, ban Danila for so many legitimate reasons, or keep him on for greed.

Speaking of greed, why haven't you raised your fees to 10% yet?  You can easily get them from Danila since you've already said no respectable miner would pay 3% to mine with you.

You're clearly missing the point. We have no control over why or how users mine with us -- if there's 100% illegitimate mining taking place, we do our best to ban it. We are a mining pool, nothing more. It's hardly under our purview to somehow be the arbitor of restricting legal software distribution methods. Let's be realistic.

It's malware.  It is using your pool.  You know about it.  <--Everything that needs to be said. 

I have moved my miners I hope everyone else does too.

[ipominer]

It's malware.  It is using your pool.  You know about it.  <--Everything that needs to be said.  

I disagree, but hey, that's the beauty of the internet. You are entitled to your own opinion.

[jimlite]

Can someone please list the programs that this miner is built into?

[chrissibel]

Any news on LTCGear or HashX? Been about 8 months now and no payouts. Has anyone heard anything. I just checked the LTCGear.com site and saw this:

Announcement
The requests for opt2 are now processed, further instructions will become available via My Account page. The answers for Q&A are not ready yet, most likely part of answers will be sent for publishing during or right after the weekend. Taking this in account, opt2 is not yet disabled and requests for conversion will be added to the processing list.

As you may have noticed, altcoins (not BTC) are disabled, and there is an extra delay in processing balance updates and payments, due to an exploit of a certain condition involving multiple coins. A fix was applied and system is retested.

[CryptoHobo]

Any news on LTCGear or HashX? Been about 8 months now and no payouts. Has anyone heard anything. I just checked the LTCGear.com site and saw this:

Announcement
The requests for opt2 are now processed, further instructions will become available via My Account page. The answers for Q&A are not ready yet, most likely part of answers will be sent for publishing during or right after the weekend. Taking this in account, opt2 is not yet disabled and requests for conversion will be added to the processing list.

As you may have noticed, altcoins (not BTC) are disabled, and there is an extra delay in processing balance updates and payments, due to an exploit of a certain condition involving multiple coins. A fix was applied and system is retested.

through those 8 months ltcgear have been giving people the run around this announcement is probably just more of the same. don't hold your breath