[~1000 GH/sec] BTC Guild - 0% Fee Pool, LP, SSL, Full Precision, and More

[SteveB]

Now I'm getting a lot of long poll exceptions:

09/05/2011 22:59:49, long poll exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "BitcoinMiner.pyo", line 259, in longPollThread
  File "BitcoinMiner.pyo", line 222, in request
  File "httplib.pyo", line 974, in getresponse
  File "httplib.pyo", line 391, in begin
  File "httplib.pyo", line 355, in _read_status
BadStatusLine
09/05/2011 23:00:04, long poll exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "BitcoinMiner.pyo", line 259, in longPollThread
  File "BitcoinMiner.pyo", line 222, in request
  File "httplib.pyo", line 974, in getresponse
  File "httplib.pyo", line 391, in begin
  File "httplib.pyo", line 355, in _read_status
BadStatusLine
09/05/2011 23:00:20, long poll exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "BitcoinMiner.pyo", line 259, in longPollThread
  File "BitcoinMiner.pyo", line 222, in request
  File "httplib.pyo", line 974, in getresponse
  File "httplib.pyo", line 391, in begin
  File "httplib.pyo", line 355, in _read_status
BadStatusLine
09/05/2011 23:00:24, long poll exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "BitcoinMiner.pyo", line 259, in longPollThread
  File "BitcoinMiner.pyo", line 222, in request
  File "httplib.pyo", line 974, in getresponse
  File "httplib.pyo", line 391, in begin
  File "httplib.pyo", line 355, in _read_status
BadStatusLine
09/05/2011 23:00:27, long poll exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "BitcoinMiner.pyo", line 259, in longPollThread
  File "BitcoinMiner.pyo", line 222, in request
  File "httplib.pyo", line 974, in getresponse
  File "httplib.pyo", line 391, in begin
  File "httplib.pyo", line 355, in _read_status
BadStatusLine
09/05/2011 23:00:28, 18e1c548, invalid or stale
09/05/2011 23:00:35, long poll exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "BitcoinMiner.pyo", line 259, in longPollThread
  File "BitcoinMiner.pyo", line 222, in request
  File "httplib.pyo", line 974, in getresponse
  File "httplib.pyo", line 391, in begin
  File "httplib.pyo", line 355, in _read_status
BadStatusLine
09/05/2011 23:00:37, long poll exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "BitcoinMiner.pyo", line 259, in longPollThread
  File "BitcoinMiner.pyo", line 222, in request
  File "httplib.pyo", line 974, in getresponse
  File "httplib.pyo", line 391, in begin
  File "httplib.pyo", line 355, in _read_status
BadStatusLine
09/05/2011 23:00:39, long poll exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "BitcoinMiner.pyo", line 259, in longPollThread
  File "BitcoinMiner.pyo", line 221, in request
  File "httplib.pyo", line 898, in request
  File "httplib.pyo", line 935, in _send_request
  File "httplib.pyo", line 892, in endheaders
  File "httplib.pyo", line 764, in _send_output
  File "httplib.pyo", line 723, in send
  File "httplib.pyo", line 704, in connect
  File "socket.pyo", line 514, in create_connection
error: [Errno 10061] No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it
180919 khash/s


Edit: And now it seems to work again 

[Nythain]

I've applied a few more bandaids, including an auto restart script for the night, so if the pool crashes it's back up in about 1/10th a second.  I've got it creating a dump after each crash so when I wake up I can try to fix it while I'm at work.

It's still accepting shares, and submitting PROOF-OF-WORK to bitcoind, but you may lose some mining time during the brief pool restarts.  Consider this a 'caution' sign.  Hopefully after a good night's sleep I'll be able revive my old C debugging skills that have been dormant for so many years.

Auto restart is working pretty well... most downtime i see from crashes at this point is approx 2-3 minutes... just went through another brief episode from 00:00 to 00:02.

[Miner-TE]

My miner (phoenix 1.45) appears hung.  Last share sent 21:36:38 PST. (30 Min ago)

does not appear to be attempting reconnect,  Just sitting at 0 MH/s.

restarting it.

Edit: running another instance connected immediately.
 

[eleuthria]

Auto restart script is running and will keep running all night.  Will be back to work on figuring out why the process is crashing in 6-7 hours.  First thing tomorrow morning is linking the payout buttons to the My Account page in case we get lucky in all the chaos tonight.

[SteveB]

Auto restart script is running and will keep running all night.  Will be back to work on figuring out why the process is crashing in 6-7 hours.  First thing tomorrow morning is linking the payout buttons to the My Account page in case we get lucky in all the chaos tonight.

Go get some well deserved sleep! I will do the same.
I will leave my miner connected to your pool overnight. But I will also keep running my low priority backup miner just in case 

[Miner-TE]

I'll do the same.

Thanks for your hard work.

[Sukrim]

What I just thought about: It might be interesting to see (if possible) an estimate when your BTC will be available for payout. Something along the lines of:

Confirmed Rewards:      1.000
Unconfirmed Rewards:    1.234
Estimated Rewards:      0.987

Estimated:                      Unconfirmed:                           Confirmed:
0.987 ..............|1.000|.................|0.234|...................... 0.987


The .| stuff could be a graph where you see how many of your BTC are where in the "maturing pipeline". The numbers in there could also be done via tooltips or so, to have a fixed length of the graph.

It's not a very important feature, but might be nice for less informed people to easily see how BTC generation works (as you see immediately after a block is generated, that the current estimated amount is "travelling" over 120 steps to the confirmed area).

[jedi95]

My miner (phoenix 1.45) appears hung.  Last share sent 21:36:38 PST. (30 Min ago)

does not appear to be attempting reconnect,  Just sitting at 0 MH/s.

restarting it.

Edit: running another instance connected immediately.
 

This is a bug in Phoenix that has been fixed in 1.46.

[eleuthria]

Looks like the pool didn't have too many problems overnight.  Found two blocks!  I'm finishing up the code for instant payouts for donations over 2.5% right now.  If you look at the pool stats and they look weird (odd donation amounts listed in Payout Stats) don't be concerned, I'm just modifying my personal (user id 1) btc_earned/btc_donated values to make sure nobody is going to lose BTC or be paid more than their share.

[SteveB]

Yeah! Two blocks!

I'm glad I kept my miner in your pool overnight.
As soon as you went to bed, the pool started working great. 

Keep up the great work!

[eleuthria]

Yeah! Two blocks!

I'm glad I kept my miner in your pool overnight.
As soon as you went to bed, the pool started working great. 

Keep up the great work!

My pool must have performance anxiety when I'm watching over it .

New update is live for the JSON API.  You can now get all of the information from the my account and my workers pages via JSON.  It's quite a large chunk of data currently, so tonight there will be customizable settings made available for the API (defaulting to only basic data) so you can tweak what data you want your app to receive.

[Miner-TE]

My miner (phoenix 1.45) appears hung.  Last share sent 21:36:38 PST. (30 Min ago)

does not appear to be attempting reconnect,  Just sitting at 0 MH/s.

restarting it.

Edit: running another instance connected immediately.
 

This is a bug in Phoenix that has been fixed in 1.46.

Thank you,  I'll update tonight and send you a donation for your assistance.

[mskwik]

I seem to be getting "last_share":"45 minutes" through the API even though the worker page lists closer to 45 seconds

[eleuthria]

I seem to be getting "last_share":"45 minutes" through the API even though the worker page lists closer to 45 seconds

Caught that, it's now fixed .

Another update: Instant payouts are now available for any blocks which you donated at least 2.5% of your reward.  I can't access my personal wallet from my office to seed the pool balance beyond what I left in there for testing.  If you get an error regarding your payout, you can try again once Block #123066 is confirmed.  Once #123066 is confirmed, instant payout will be available on all future blocks for 2.5%+ donators.

[Sukrim]

Great solution, offering "premium services" like that for a higher fee, but still keeping the choice at the "customer"! 

Would it pay out all of my money or only the money I earned for that 2,5% donation block?
(Example: I have 100 BTC confirmed and now set my donation over 2,5%, earning me 1 BTC - do I get 101 BTC or 1 BTC directly?)

[eleuthria]

Great solution, offering "premium services" like that for a higher fee, but still keeping the choice at the "customer"!  

Would it pay out all of my money or only the money I earned for that 2,5% donation block?
(Example: I have 100 BTC confirmed and now set my donation over 2,5%, earning me 1 BTC - do I get 101 BTC or 1 BTC directly?)

Your confirmed total includes the complete reward from your 2.5% blocks (example:
  A block is completed and your total reward for the block was 4.  You had a donation set at 3% (0.12), so the total amount you will receive is 3.88.  You can withdraw the full 3.88 immediately, without waiting for 120 confirmations.  The amount is put directly into confirmed rewards, and is available even if the block is later found invalid.

  When you click the 'Pay Me Now' button, your entire confirmed balance is sent to you, so if you had another 15 BTC in your confirmed balance before the 3.88 block, your payout will be 18.88 when you click the button.

  This weekend I'll be setting up an hourly automatic payment script so you can receive your BTC whenever it reaches 'X' amount, or every 'X' hours, depending on your preference.  The feature will be another "premium service" for anybody with donations over 1% in the previous 24 hours.  This won't be an additional 1%, so if you're already donating 2.5% you will get this service as well.

[Sukrim]

The amount is put directly into confirmed rewards, and is available even if the block is later found invalid.

http://www.bitcoinpool.com/ has an invalid block rate of 3,5%, so in essence you offer better conditions than bitcoin itself!

Might I suggest to just have a very short wait time instead of direct payout? The system you suggest would benefit the miners more than you as the pool operator and would probably eat up your ~1% profit that transactions make up currently (or even more).

At the current model a miner would be stupid or very risk loving not to pay the 2,5%, as you have a loss of ~3,5% in the form of invalid blocks anyways (didn't find statistics from the other pools on the spot...)

[eleuthria]

The amount is put directly into confirmed rewards, and is available even if the block is later found invalid.

http://www.bitcoinpool.com/ has an invalid block rate of 3,5%, so in essence you offer better conditions than bitcoin itself!

Might I suggest to just have a very short wait time instead of direct payout? The system you suggest would benefit the miners more than you as the pool operator and would probably eat up your ~1% profit that transactions make up currently (or even more).

At the current model a miner would be stupid or very risk loving not to pay the 2,5%, as you have a loss of ~3,5% in the form of invalid blocks anyways (didn't find statistics from the other pools on the spot...)

I know bitcoinpool had quite a few invalids early on when they first started but haven't had as many recently.  Deepbit offers the same invalid protection as part of their 3% fee as well, and I doubt Tycho would keep running it if he was losing money.  As a smaller pool the risk is greater for me, but I think by offering these services at competitive rates I can make the pool grow fast enough to reduce that risk.

If the invalid rate is causing me to lose money to the point I'd have been better off mining personally at Deepbit/slush, I may adjust the instant rate higher (to cover myself on invalids), and then add a lower tier donation to receive payouts at 2 confirmations.

[SteveB]

Those "premium services" sound great. I changed my donation level to 2.5% 

One thing I would like to see is how many shares I contributed and what my payout was for each found block.
Also, being able to delete workers would be nice.

[eleuthria]

Those "premium services" sound great. I changed my donation level to 2.5% 

One thing I would like to see is how many shares I contributed and what my payout was for each found block.
Also, being able to delete workers would be nice.

I'll be adding those stats to the block statistics this evening, as well as a hide worker.  Hidden workers won't appear in the list, or in the API, but their data will still be present if you wish to re-enable them.  That way the historical data is kept intact for all work done since the pool started.