BITMAIN announces Antpool

[jonnybravo0311]

Did anyone else notice that Antpool got block # 363894

https://blockchain.info/block/00000000000000000ce42ddb0d4033f6462d1070b6f3dc0078610605793f4965

but that its not recorded in their Stats/block history or payout - and its a valid block?

www.antpool.com/poolStats.htm

Using a certain pool is meter of trust. Do not count on pool stats or that blockchain will show you all blocks mined by pool. If in doubt just CHANGE POOL.

Thanks - yes get your drift - Blockchain is definitely missing blocks that Antpool report - and it seems Blockchain is reporting blocks that Antpool stats misses - cheers

The problem, though, is that if AntPool isn't reporting finding a block, then you as a miner aren't getting paid for it.  The info on who mined a block by blockchain.info is based on a few things like the BTC address of the generation transaction, the coinbase signature, etc.  It's not always accurate, and it certainly misses sometimes.

A pool's own stats?  They should be 100% accurate, otherwise they're not properly tracking payouts and you, the miner, are getting the shaft because of it.

[1714132714]

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[1714132714]

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[TTravis]

How is AntPool fairing in the wake of all this news about this botched upgrade.  I have seen some strange
blocks reported by Blockchain.info and even seen AntPool mentioned unfavorably in an article as still running
old software.  Anyone know what AntPool's status and plans are for this?

Tom Travis

[dog1965]

Did anyone else notice that Antpool got block # 363894

https://blockchain.info/block/00000000000000000ce42ddb0d4033f6462d1070b6f3dc0078610605793f4965

but that its not recorded in their Stats/block history or payout - and its a valid block?

www.antpool.com/poolStats.htm

Maybe some one solo mining hit a block so it does not belong to antpool it belongs to the guy that hit it. just a thought.

[clgrissom3]

How is AntPool fairing in the wake of all this news about this botched upgrade.  I have seen some strange
blocks reported by Blockchain.info and even seen AntPool mentioned unfavorably in an article as still running
old software.  Anyone know what AntPool's status and plans are for this?

Tom Travis

@BitmainWarranty, how about it?  What's the latest from Bitmain?

[kano]

How is AntPool fairing in the wake of all this news about this botched upgrade.  I have seen some strange
blocks reported by Blockchain.info and even seen AntPool mentioned unfavorably in an article as still running
old software.  Anyone know what AntPool's status and plans are for this?

Tom Travis

They lost one block:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=700411.msg11800211#msg11800211

[clgrissom3]

Did anyone else notice that Antpool got block # 363894

https://blockchain.info/block/00000000000000000ce42ddb0d4033f6462d1070b6f3dc0078610605793f4965

but that its not recorded in their Stats/block history or payout - and its a valid block?

www.antpool.com/poolStats.htm

Blocks 363894 and 363896 were both added into the Payout History right at the end today after Block 363998.  Block 363894 is the one you referenced in this link.

[TTravis]

I've seen several single transaction blocks with same size and name $ amount the past few days.  Often they appear right after AntPool finds a real looking block.  This can't be right.

364026    14 minutes    1    $ 6,720.25    AntPool    0.2


If AntPool is collecting on these and in turn, paying us on these blocks, I would imagine the other pools would not be happy.

Is this the outdated software problem?

[-ck]

I've seen several single transaction blocks with same size and name $ amount the past few days.  Often they appear right after AntPool finds a real looking block.  This can't be right.

364026    14 minutes    1    $ 6,720.25    AntPool    0.2


If AntPool is collecting on these and in turn, paying us on these blocks, I would imagine the other pools would not be happy.

Is this the outdated software problem?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1085800.0

[dog1965]

They sure are collecting on there miners the S5 went up again !

[Mikestang]

I've seen several single transaction blocks with same size and name $ amount the past few days.  Often they appear right after AntPool finds a real looking block.  This can't be right.

364026    14 minutes    1    $ 6,720.25    AntPool    0.2


If AntPool is collecting on these and in turn, paying us on these blocks, I would imagine the other pools would not be happy.

Is this the outdated software problem?

No, that's a separate "problem" (that some pools don't think is a problem) of creating empty blocks, blocks without transactions.  When the purpose of a block is to handle transactions and a pool solves a block that contains 0 transactions, to me that's a problem.

[kano]

I've seen several single transaction blocks with same size and name $ amount the past few days.  Often they appear right after AntPool finds a real looking block.  This can't be right.

364026    14 minutes    1    $ 6,720.25    AntPool    0.2


If AntPool is collecting on these and in turn, paying us on these blocks, I would imagine the other pools would not be happy.

Is this the outdated software problem?

No, that's a separate "problem" (that some pools don't think is a problem) of creating empty blocks, blocks without transactions.  When the purpose of a block is to handle transactions and a pool solves a block that contains 0 transactions, to me that's a problem.

You need to be careful how you word that.

"a pool solves a block that contains 0 new transactions"

Luke likes to argue about how it's ok because you are confirming old transactions with an empty block using his word games as usual.
It's not ok (yes as should be obvious I agree it's not ok) but his word games will cause grief if you miss technicalities, he likes to claim that everyone says the non-obvious that he wants when they say something, not the obvious that he doesn't want, even though we know what is being said. Yes he's a griefer.

[Mikestang]

I've seen several single transaction blocks with same size and name $ amount the past few days.  Often they appear right after AntPool finds a real looking block.  This can't be right.

364026    14 minutes    1    $ 6,720.25    AntPool    0.2


If AntPool is collecting on these and in turn, paying us on these blocks, I would imagine the other pools would not be happy.

Is this the outdated software problem?

No, that's a separate "problem" (that some pools don't think is a problem) of creating empty blocks, blocks without transactions.  When the purpose of a block is to handle transactions and a pool solves a block that contains 0 transactions, to me that's a problem.

You need to be careful how you word that.

"a pool solves a block that contains 0 new transactions"

Luke likes to argue about how it's ok because you are confirming old transactions with an empty block using his word games as usual.
It's not ok (yes as should be obvious I agree it's not ok) but his word games will cause grief if you miss technicalities, he likes to claim that everyone says the non-obvious that he wants when they say something, not the obvious that he doesn't want, even though we know what is being said. Yes he's a griefer.

Funny that you mention technicalities, because after I posted that I thought, "Well, an empty block really has 1 tx, the coinbase tx that generates 25BTC, but I'm going to leave it as 0 because everyone should know what I mean."

So yes, when I wrote "contains 0 transactions" I should have wrote "contains 0 new transactions, excluding the coinbase generation of 25BTC", but who has time to type all that out?  

[TTravis]

Thanks for explaining the 0 Blocksize issue to me.  I was not aware of this before and appreciate the fact that you guys helped me understand what was going on.

That said, I've seen AntPool mentioned at least twice in articles, something about outdated software and creating/processing invalid blocks.  One recent article is here:  http://www.coindesk.com/double-spending-risk-bitcoin-network-fork/ where they say the following:
_________________________
Mining firms that solved invalid blocks lost income as a result of the need to correct the issue, with Bitcoin.org estimating that $50,000 in revenue was effectively withheld from F2Pool, AntPool and BTC Nuggets, the three mining pools that effectively created and briefly propagated the invalid chain.

Rewards were ultimately never paid as the 25 BTC winnings per block was sent to a bitcoin wallet that invalidated the blocks after syncing with the valid chain.
_________________________

Is this just FUD, or does something need to happen at AntPool?

Thanks,

Tom Travis

[jonnybravo0311]

Tom,

That is referring to those pools propagating V2 blocks.  Effectively, they mined on an incorrect chain because of it after BIP66 went into effect.  The amount of lost revenue is based on how many blocks they mined to the incorrect chain before switching back and working on the correct one.

[Dmc123dmc]

Is the bitmain registration down? I have tried several times to register but with no joy. I get a message " we're sorry, but something went wrong. If you are the application owner check the logs for more information."
I thought perhaps it was because i am behind a vpn so i tried on the phone and i still get the same message.

[TTravis]

I've been asking a lot of questions and appreciate those who give answers to help me understand.  I've been watching blockchain.info and see that a lot of blocks have a size of 912K  for example, the last three from AntPool:

364324    7 minutes    1425    $ 1,072,062.78    AntPool    912.08
364323    11 minutes    1707    $ 2,047,362.88    AntPool    912.06
364322    14 minutes    3013    $ 8,004,362.73    AntPool    912.22

What is magical about 912K?  I know this is pushing the 1M limit.  I've seen some go up to like 970K.  What actually happens when a block fills up to it's limit?

Is there a good book or site that I can read that explains the type of questions I've been asking lately?  I've read several bitcoin books but they don't get into this type of detail.

Thanks in advance,

Tom Travis

[macbook-air]

I've been asking a lot of questions and appreciate those who give answers to help me understand.  I've been watching blockchain.info and see that a lot of blocks have a size of 912K  for example, the last three from AntPool:

364324    7 minutes    1425    $ 1,072,062.78    AntPool    912.08
364323    11 minutes    1707    $ 2,047,362.88    AntPool    912.06
364322    14 minutes    3013    $ 8,004,362.73    AntPool    912.22

What is magical about 912K?  I know this is pushing the 1M limit.  I've seen some go up to like 970K.  What actually happens when a block fills up to it's limit?

Is there a good book or site that I can read that explains the type of questions I've been asking lately?  I've read several bitcoin books but they don't get into this type of detail.

Thanks in advance,

Tom Travis

They are using eloipool. Luke-jr needs to have 65536 bytes for "breathing". (1000000 - 65536) / 1024 = 912.5625 KB

[Dmc123dmc]

Is the bitmain registration down? I have tried several times to register but with no joy. I get a message " we're sorry, but something went wrong. If you are the application owner check the logs for more information."
I thought perhaps it was because i am behind a vpn so i tried on the phone and i still get the same message.

Bitmain registrations are sorted now thanks

[Mikestang]

Is there a good book or site that I can read that explains the type of questions I've been asking lately?

Yes, there's a great bitcoin web forum where you can read threads that talk about all this stuff.  Now where did I put that url...
 

[TTravis]

Dear Antpool,

WAKE UP!  It is no fun watching the price of bitcoin go above $308 right now and your luck for the day was only 76%.

I need to earn some bitcoin and pay for those expensive machines of yours.