Bitparking Merged Mining Pool (100G/s, PPS 2.5% fee, BTC, NMC, I0C, IXC, DVC)

[doublec]

As mentioned in the main i0coin thread,  now that i0coin supports merged mining I've modified my existing pool software to merge mine Bitcoin, Namecoin, i0coin, IXcoin and Devcoin. Payment is 'Pay Per Share' rather than the proportional system used by my other bitparking pools. Details at http://mmpool.bitparking.com.

There may be bugs in the i0coin merged mining implementation or the pool software so there may be a few ups and downs in the pool at this early stage as I stamp them out. Contact me via email (email is on the pool website) if you have questions/problems.

[Mousepotato]

Thanks, DC!  Will try this out when I get home!

[doublec]

If anyone is using old versions of cgminer, please update to the latest version before using a merged mining pool like mmpool. The older versions don't always respond to the longpoll notifications from the pool. This was an optimisation used in cgminer but it breaks with merged mining. Notifications will occur when auxiliary chains have a new block but cgminer will think because the primary chain hasn't changed it can continue mining. You'll get higher numbers of stales with these cgminer versions.

[doublec]

The merged mining pool found its first bitcoin block a few blocks ago, and its first namecoin block a few hours ago, so I can confirm that merge mining is working successfully.

[kjlimo]

Thanks!  I'm drinking $1 Great Lakes xmas ales, but I hope to setup all my miners tomorrow to point towards your pool tomorrow!!!

[Artamir]

Is this only cgminer related ?

I am getting about 15-20% stales using Phoenix miner (Version 1.6.2). Almost after every "LP: New work pushed" the first share send is rejected. Tried out the new Version (1.7.0) but it drops from 300 MHash down to 200 MHash and does not produce any shares. Read that the new Version seems to be still buggy.

Anyone else having that issue with Phoenix?

So guess i should change my miner, any prefered suggestions ? - Which is most appropriate miner for merged mining ?

[doublec]

I am getting about 15-20% stales using Phoenix miner (Version 1.6.2).

My pool always seem to show higher stales with Phoenix, I'm not sure why. Namebit also saw the same thing with their pool software. The method the merge pool is using to handle longpolls combined with stale shares is a bit inefficient too (related to the merge mining proxy I'm using) - something I plan to improve on.

[doublec]

Fees for i0coin on the pool have dropped from 10% down to 5%, the same as bitcoin and namecoin, now. I'll monitor how that goes over the next day or two.

[kjlimo]

Fees for i0coin on the pool have dropped from 10% down to 5%, the same as bitcoin and namecoin, now. I'll monitor how that goes over the next day or two.

Awesome!  We should be able to merge mine Ixcoin within the week/year!  Do you think you'll add ixcoin to this pool?  Or will you setup a new pool for the transition?

[btc_artist]

Might try this pool out.  Only thing it needs is merged mining with Devcoin. (when that is implemented)

[doublec]

Awesome!  We should be able to merge mine Ixcoin within the week/year!  Do you think you'll add ixcoin to this pool?  Or will you setup a new pool for the transition?

Ixcoin is all set to go, just waiting for the chain switch on block. It'll be interesting to see how the extra coin will impact mining with the increase in long polls. I'll monitor that and decide whether to keep it or move it to another pool at that point.

New users of mmpool can register now and add an ixcoin address. It'll be used when it is turned on. Current users will need to re-register under a different name to add an ixcoin address. I'll have to work out some way of dealing with 'dust' in old accounts.

[doublec]

Might try this pool out.  Only thing it needs is merged mining with Devcoin. (when that is implemented)

I was keen at one point to implement merged mining in devcoin. But there turned out not to be a stable source repository for it and one of the official clients had an invalid checkpoint making downloading the block chain not possible. It looks difficult to contribute to as a result. If there were a stable repository, accepting pull requests, it'd be more likely to happen.

[btc_artist]

Might try this pool out.  Only thing it needs is merged mining with Devcoin. (when that is implemented)

I was keen at one point to implement merged mining in devcoin. But there turned out not to be a stable source repository for it and one of the official clients had an invalid checkpoint making downloading the block chain not possible. It looks difficult to contribute to as a result. If there were a stable repository, accepting pull requests, it'd be more likely to happen.

Have you talked with Unthinkingbit or markm about that?

[doublec]

Have you talked with Unthinkingbit or markm about that?

Yes, there was a discussion in the devcoin thread about it when I asked about source code repositories to contribute.

[btc_artist]

Have you talked with Unthinkingbit or markm about that?

Yes, there was a discussion in the devcoin thread about it when I asked about source code repositories to contribute.

That's quite unfortunate.

[doublec]

That's quite unfortunate.

I think it's early days for devcoin and it'll improve over time. Probably a good thing since it might avoid the hype/bust cycle of other coins.

[doublec]

Does not appear to allow you to register a new name everything is already registered including random letters and numbers just bashed in at the keyboard.

Edit: and why not just allows existing user to go to the register pager and only give them choice of iXcoin address to add or tell them only to add iXcoin address otherwise it rejects the new additions of other addresses.

I just registered one and it worked fine. PM me the name(s) you tried if you want me to investigate, and the error message you got. I can't allow adding an IXcoin address like that otherwise people can try and guess others names and add their own ixcoin address which can't be changed. The cost of me avoiding passwords on the site.

I consider the names to be 'throwaway' so I don't think the burden of registering new ones occasionally to get new features is too great. At some point I'll have the 'dust' in old accounts automatically be sent to the relevant addresses so it won't be lost. I just need to work out the best way of doing that without paying fees for small amounts.

[doublec]

Edit: Avoiding the passwords could have been done with the OpenID like you did/do with your exchange(s) that way you could allow people to update their addresses if they wanted/needed to without changing the name on the account.

Yes, there are a lot of ways of doing it but I've decided with the pools I've run to make it minimal registration and passwords as possible. Even having to register to allow multiple addresses is more than I wanted but it was the easiest way of doing it at the time. It has upsides and downsides, all part of the fun of choosing which pool to go with.

[Bobnova]

Made an account, but I cannot connector to it with a miner.
If I put the username into the page to check my balances it comes up correctly, but I get an RPC Invalid User error when I try to point a miner at it.

[doublec]

Made an account, but I cannot connector to it with a miner.
If I put the username into the page to check my balances it comes up correctly, but I get an RPC Invalid User error when I try to point a miner at it.

Can you paste or PM me the command line you are using? The username is case sensitive so make sure that is right.