p2pool - Decentralized, Absolutely DoS-Proof, Pool Hopping-Proof Pool [archival]

[Red Emerald]

So most setups will look like this

miner ->
miner -> p2pool -> bitcoind (and maybe namecoind for merged mining)
miner ->

NOT just

miner -> p2pool -> bitcoind

For p2pool to be bundled with cgminer (like people have been asking), you would have to also bundle bitcoind with cgminer.  Then if you run multiple miners, you are running multiple p2pool and bitcoinds, which isn't smart.  It looks to me like a bitcoind with p2pool bundled makes more sense. Then you would only have to run two programs.  You could just have "server=1" and a few more options in bitcoin.conf and be done.


It seems like the more successful that p2pool gets, the less well it works for small miners.

How can we setup multiple p2pools and not risk reducing security?  Maybe when the difficulty gets above some certain amount, the pool could automatically split.  Or maybe just have a config option that lets you join to a specific group of peers.  For example, we could have the pro-BIP16 p2pool and the pro-BIP17 p2pool

[gnar1ta$]

What is "RPC interface"?

It's how your miner communicates with bitcoind.  You set a username and password and then connect your miner with it just like you would a pool.

EDIT: actually in this case you will connect p2pool to it, and your miner to p2pool on it's RPC interface.

[JWU42]

might get brave and try this later today...

[Costia]

is there a way to see what was the last block discovered by the pool and how much i was credited?

edit:
went through my logs and it seems i have been a bit unlucky an got only 7 shares in 12 hours on 200-220 MH/s (should have been ~10, on the other hand - 0 stales. random hash is random)
is http://forre.st:9332/patron_sendmany?total=50 a good estimate of what i will get paid if a block is discovered?

[marcus_of_augustus]

I think some people need to appreciate that a large portion of miners are not s/ware savvy at lower levels. They know how to install packages, plug cables/hardware in etc but that's mostly where it ends ... (gamers )

They want a web/GUI interface/form where they fill in some details hit "Submit" and it all just works.

p2pool needs a few scripts to add that layer for the gui miner masses before widespread adoption will happen.

Maybe a local html file that has a p2pool gui form and can be pulled up by browser as the front-end?

[Costia]

is there a way to see what was the last block discovered by the pool and how much i was credited?

edit:
went through my logs and it seems i have been a bit unlucky an got only 7 shares in 12 hours on 200-220 MH/s (should have been ~10, on the other hand - 0 stales. random hash is random)
is http://forre.st:9332/patron_sendmany?total=50 a good estimate of what i will get paid if a block is discovered?

You can check block explorer for the address you are using to mine with P2Pool for past payouts.

The P2Pool software tells you "Payout if Block". I've also used the calculated sendmany with total=50 you mentioned as well, since I'm running P2Pool with the --debug flag and can't see "Payout if Block".

also - with this link i can check on my mining PC from remotely

An local html file with some stats would be great - i have no idea how to find the data on the http RPC\JSON interface

[gnar1ta$]

I think some people need to appreciate that a large portion of miners are not s/ware savvy at lower levels. They know how to install packages, plug cables/hardware in etc but that's mostly where it ends ... (gamers )

They want a web/GUI interface/form where they fill in some details hit "Submit" and it all just works.

p2pool needs a few scripts to add that layer for the gui miner masses before widespread adoption will happen.

Maybe a local html file that has a p2pool gui form and can be pulled up by browser as the front-end?

Agreed, p2pool is not the easy solution, and a GUI would pull in many more miners.  But if anyone comes here looking to get away from the larger pools or wanting to help strengthen the network - gamer or not - lack of simplicity shouldn't send them away.  Most miners have enough knowledge to be helped through the setup, it's just a matter of answering the right questions.  And many already have 2 of the 3 apps required already installed, they just need to be reconfigured. GUI miner seems to be an issue though.  Anyone know if it works and how to set it up on Windows for p2pool?  Or can someone post a link or guide to install cgminer on Windows with a p2pool config?

[Costia]

There is nothing to install for cgminer
you download it
unzip
and run
I edited the example.conf file so the command line is shorter but that isnt necessary

example.conf:
{
"pools" : [
   {
      "url" : "http://127.0.0.1:9332",
      "user" : "user",
      "pass" : "pass1"
   }
],
"gpu-threads" : "4",
"worksize" : "128"
}

commandline:
cgminer -c example.conf

[ThiagoCMC]

So most setups will look like this

miner ->
miner -> p2pool -> bitcoind (and maybe namecoind for merged mining)
miner ->

NOT just

miner -> p2pool -> bitcoind

For p2pool to be bundled with cgminer (like people have been asking), you would have to also bundle bitcoind with cgminer.  Then if you run multiple miners, you are running multiple p2pool and bitcoinds, which isn't smart.  It looks to me like a bitcoind with p2pool bundled makes more sense. Then you would only have to run two programs.  You could just have "server=1" and a few more options in bitcoin.conf and be done.


It seems like the more successful that p2pool gets, the less well it works for small miners.

How can we setup multiple p2pools and not risk reducing security?  Maybe when the difficulty gets above some certain amount, the pool could automatically split.  Or maybe just have a config option that lets you join to a specific group of peers.  For example, we could have the pro-BIP16 p2pool and the pro-BIP17 p2pool

I was thinking about make something like this happen...

This server will provide:

* A P2Pool server (maybe a Virtual Machine), with bitcoind, namecoind and litecoind;
* A Web Interface for CGMiner;
* A kind of "LTSP Server", to bring diskless miners (cgminers) to your network automatically;

 So, you install your P2Pool server somewhere in your network (probably as your firewall) and, at the public interface (eth0) you setup your ISP and at your internal interface (eth1), you can boot your diskless miners.

 When you access the CGMiner web interface, will will be able to see your new miners automatically as they boot in your network...

 What do you guys think?!

Cheers!
Thiago

[Costia]

anothinr thing i would suggest is a pre-configured package. like unzip and run
There are a lot of gamers out there with insane rigs that arent being used most of the time
currently if they want to make money from that they will have to learn quite a lot about bitcoin and how the daemons\miners work
If someone could provide an "unzip and run" package that runs on low priority - some of them might be tempted to try
And it has to run on a very low priority so they dont have to shut it down when they are playing and restart it when they are done

[ThiagoCMC]

You aren't a noob... This is damn so hard!! LOL

I'm working on a guide for Ubuntu Linux too...

[enquirer]

Option "--datadir=" is needed, otherwise it's not working well with dropbox

[Costia]

http://www.mediafire.com/?7m5ii5r8pxo8i7m
file: p2pool_cgminer_btc_pack.zip
contains the btc client, p2pool client, cgminer
instructions:
1) unzip
2) runFirst.bat
this will run the BTC client
3) wait for the client to finish updating
4) runSecond.bat
this runs the p2pool client
5) wait for the shares to download
6) runThird.bat
runs cgminer
7) you are currently mining on the p2pool. payments will appear in the btc client whenever the pool finds a block

notes:
1) wasn't really tested
2) I am running something similar , but using cygwin so all the outputs can go to the same console window
3) The zero trust idea is breached here since i could (but didnt) modify any of the clients

Edit:
new block mined;
http://blockexplorer.com/block/0000000000000144416535ce19a7d86c8deb258c5e3def700221d6c008623e99

[broken]

@Holliday

You have to edit bitcoin.conf before you start bitcoin.exe.
Or you have to restart after editing.

And "9. forward port 9333" is optional and I guess difficult for noobs.

The rest looks good!
Maybe you could add some screenshots?

[Geir]

I just cant get this running.

I'm using win7:
Starting bitcoind
then run_p2pool.exe test test (test is username and password)
cgminer.exe -o http://127.0.0.1:9332 -u test -p test

Looks like cgminer is running fine, but i dont get any shares in p2pool window

Code:

0% >0H/s Shares: 0 (0 orphan, 0 dead) Peers: 11
17:45:45.385000 Average time between blocks: 0.64 days
17:45:45.385000 Pool stales: 25%
17:45:51.251000 Sending 1001 shares to 76.93.79.221:9333
17:45:51.313000 Sending 1001 shares to 71.163.205.149:9333
17:45:51.391000 Sending 1001 shares to 93.97.192.93:9333
17:45:51.453000 Pool: 102GH/s in 25962 shares (19042/36017 verified) Recent: 0.0
0% >0H/s Shares: 0 (0 orphan, 0 dead) Peers: 11
17:45:51.453000 Average time between blocks: 0.64 days
17:45:51.453000 Pool stales: 25%
17:45:51.469000 Sending 1001 shares to 93.187.142.114:9333
17:45:51.531000 Sending 1001 shares to 96.32.168.192:9333
17:45:51.687000 Sending 1001 shares to 95.158.65.96:9333
17:45:54.480000 Pool: 102GH/s in 25962 shares (19043/36018 verified) Recent: 0.0
0% >0H/s Shares: 0 (0 orphan, 0 dead) Peers: 11
17:45:54.480000 Average time between blocks: 0.64 days
17:45:54.480000 Pool stales: 25%
17:45:56.165000 Requesting parent share f89b80d6 from 96.32.168.192:9333
17:45:56.180000 Sending 1001 shares to 71.191.197.79:9333
17:45:56.851000 Sending 1001 shares to 169.237.101.192:8335
17:45:57.491000 Pool: 102GH/s in 25962 shares (19044/36019 verified) Recent: 0.0
0% >0H/s Shares: 0 (0 orphan, 0 dead) Peers: 11
17:45:57.491000 Average time between blocks: 0.64 days
17:45:57.491000 Pool stales: 25%

Any ideas??

[gnar1ta$]

Any ideas??

What's cgminer status look like?

[Geir]

Now it's saying:

Code:

 cgminer version 2.1.2 - Started: [2012-01-22 17:58:33]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (5s):231.7 (avg):238.7 Mh/s | Q:8  A:0  R:1  HW:0  E:0%  U:0.00/m
 TQ: 2  ST: 2  SS: 0  DW: 0  NB: 1  LW: 14  GF: 1  RF: 0
 Connected to http://127.0.0.1:9332 with LP as user test
 Block: 00000c9f9f4028a4c46f7ffe5f16a381...  Started: [17:58:33]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [P]ool management [G]PU management [S]ettings [D]isplay options [Q]uit
 GPU 0:  72.0C 2010RPM | 226.9/239.2Mh/s | A:0 R:1 HW:0 U:0.00/m I: 4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2012-01-22 17:58:38] --donation is disabled, please consider just 0.5% :-(
[2012-01-22 17:59:33] Pool 0 not providing work fast enough
[2012-01-22 18:00:47] Rejected 00000000.0014c235.6272d312 GPU 0 thread 1

It has not been running to long, but I tried for a while earlier. And nothing

[gnar1ta$]

Beat me to it Holiday...had this typed up already so here it is.

It looks good to me. I would suspect the problem is patience  .  Your not mining difficulty 1 shares, your mining p2pool difficulty ~170 shares - it's going to take awhile at 230 Mh/s.  My 2.2Gh/s rig would find 30 shares/min (U) on a normal pool, only 3.5 on p2pool (don't freak out, reward is the same).  Let it run for the day, see what you get.

[Geir]

OK thanks I'll leave it running and see what happens

[DeathAndTaxes]

I don't know how long you've been running, but shares in P2Pool are much more difficult than shares in a normal pool. You don't have a very powerful card there, so it might be that it's taking a while to find a valid share.

Let it run for a bit and see if you find a share.

Exactly.  In case anyone else is wondering.  At difficulty 170 it takes ~ 730GH to find one share (remember that is an average each share may vary by as much as 30% to 300% of that number).

So 730GH / 0.23 GH/s = 3175 seconds ~= 59 minutes.

At 230MH/s it will take ~ 1 hour to find a share.  Due to variance it routinely could be anywhere from 30% of that (~20 minutes) to 3x that (3 hours).