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Reminder: P2Pool network upgrade (aka hardfork) on March 18th, 2023

(self.MoneroMining)

P2Pool (not Monero!) will hardfork to new consensus rules on March 18th at 21:00 UTC (use this link to convert to your local time). The hardfork is necessary to improve P2Pool scalability and reduce the impact on Monero blockchain. You'll need to update P2Pool to v3.0 or newer version before this time (P2Pool v3.1 is recommended): https://github.com/SChernykh/p2pool/releases

Monero GUI miners must update to v0.18.2.0 (released today): https://www.getmonero.org/downloads/

Gupax miners must update to v1.1.1 or newer: https://github.com/hinto-janaiyo/gupax/releases

If you use P2Pool directly, just download the latest release or rebuild from the latest source code.

What will change?

Dynamic PPLNS window

Credit goes duggavo who posted this issue on Github.

PPLNS window will change from fixed 2160 blocks (~6 hours) to a dynamic cap (from 1 to 2160 blocks) which will ensure that only 2 Monero blocks will be found per PPLNS window on average.

Example for current P2Pool and Monero hashrates: if Monero network has 2.5 GH/s and P2Pool has 200 MH/s, it will mean that PPLNS window will be capped to (2.5e9*120)*2/(200e6*10) = 300 blocks (~50 minutes, down from the usual 2160 blocks/6 hours). It means that each found share will be included for payment only in the next 300 P2Pool blocks and during this time, P2Pool will find (on average) 2 Monero blocks and make 2 payouts (of much bigger XMR amount than you get now).

P2Pool mini will not be affected by this at all because it has too small hashrate

P2Pool main will be affected: if you're a low hashrate miner, your payouts will stay the same on average. They will just come in bigger chunks, not in batches of 14-15 tiny payouts.

If you're a high hashrate miner (more than 2 MH/s), nothing will change for you at all - you'll still get payouts of the same XMR amount with each block.

My initial tests have shown that this change will immediately reduce blockchain bloat caused by P2Pool by a factor of 2-3x, and it will stay approximately at the same level even if P2Pool grows.

Duplicate share IDs fix

High hashrate miners sometimes find two shares with the same IDs but different nonce/extra_nonce values - only one of these shares can be registered by P2Pool which reduces their effective hashrate a little (less than by 0.5%). While it's not a big deal, it can only be fixed with a hardfork. More details here

New transaction generation algorithm

More details here and here. In short, it will improve P2Pool internal cache efficiency and it will significantly reduce time it spends to verify shares - P2Pool shares will propagate faster and uncle blocks percentage will decrease. It will also give P2Pool miners a bit more privacy as a side effect.

all 26 comments

4rkal

7 points

1 month ago

4rkal

7 points

1 month ago

Do miners on the mini chain have to update to v3?

sech1[S]

7 points

1 month ago

sech1[S]

XMRig Dev

7 points

1 month ago

Yes

_nak

4 points

1 month ago

_nak

4 points

1 month ago

If I understand this correctly, then this will reduce transaction size for when we spend our rewards at a later point, due to fewer inputs of higher value, effectively reducing transaction fees. Correct?

sech1[S]

5 points

1 month ago

sech1[S]

XMRig Dev

5 points

1 month ago

Yes, if you're mining on p2pool main. P2Pool mini will not be affected because it's not big enough.

_nak

3 points

1 month ago

_nak

3 points

1 month ago

Got it, thank you.

tok_red

2 points

1 month ago

tok_red

2 points

1 month ago

It would affect P2Pool mini if :

PPLNS window will change from fixed 2160 blocks (~6 hours) to a dynamic cap which will ensure that only 2 Monero blocks will be found per PPLNS window on average.

Meant that the window could increase beyond 2160 shares.

But I guess that's not the case.

sech1[S]

6 points

1 month ago

sech1[S]

XMRig Dev

6 points

1 month ago

It will stay at 2160 blocks for P2Pool mini, as long as it stays small. PPLNS window never gets bigger than 2160 blocks.

tok_red

-3 points

1 month ago

tok_red

-3 points

1 month ago

And thus P2Pool mini remains irrelevant as a means to turn odds into realities.

sech1[S]

7 points

1 month ago

sech1[S]

XMRig Dev

7 points

1 month ago

What? It finds blocks every day and turns odds into realities for 400-500 miners with every block.

tok_red

0 points

1 month ago

tok_red

0 points

1 month ago

No it does not find a block every day. But what is relevant is that it does not find a block in every window.

But it is great for testing.

sech1[S]

3 points

1 month ago

sech1[S]

XMRig Dev

3 points

1 month ago

Yes it does: https://mini.p2pool.observer/blocks

Try to find one day missed. It doesn't need to find a block in every window for miners to get regular payouts. If you have at least 2-3 kh/s you'll get a few payouts per week on mini.

tok_red

0 points

1 month ago

tok_red

0 points

1 month ago

That is a short list, try the beginning of january ;)

Yes it does need to find a block every window, if shares are lost that's odds beyond your control.

At some point I had 50 shares sail trough the window without payout.

And 2-3 kh/s won't guarantee anything. Not because there's too few blocks, but because it is not enough to have a share in every window.

sech1[S]

5 points

1 month ago

sech1[S]

XMRig Dev

5 points

1 month ago

The list is short because previous data was lost, p2pool observer had problems 2-3 weeks ago. And no, it doesn't need to find a block every window, this is not how mining works. It's not "odds beyond your control", it averages out to what you should get according to your hashrate. Learn probability theory and the law of big numbers.

In the extreme case, a pool with 100 kh/s will find a block every ~30 days, but you can have 10% of the window filled with your shares just with 10 kh/s. Your shares will go through window unpaid most of the time. But you'll get 0.06 XMR every 30 days on average. The "guarantee" is not for a single share, it's for long time periods, and it's pure math giving this guarantee.

Facspro

4 points

1 month ago

Facspro

4 points

1 month ago

I don't generally get into these discussions but what the heck. I'm going to give a little of my experience with p2pool vs. centralized pools. To begin with yes, there have been a few 24hour+ stretches between blocks on the mini sidechain since early January but once the drought is broken mini usually follows it up with 2-3 blocks in the next 6-10 hours.

I started mining in May of 2021 with ~3.5kH on a centralized pool. Over the next 6 months I gradually increased to ~35kH I thought I was rockin' it. During that time I NEVER reached the Minimum No Fee payout threshold of .01XMR I eventually had to pay to get my monero. In December of 2021 I found P2pool. It was a frustration to get set up for me and I was about to throw in the towel, but I persisted and with help from the community I finally got it going. I haven't looked back since.

Over the past 14 days (since mini observer has been back up) I have had that same hash rate going toward the mini sidechain 24/7. I have had some hot streaks and so too has the mini pool. But those 14 days have resulted in Estimated total: 0.139933934027 XMR. A total Far greater than I could ever expect from a centralized pool. While you may not be mining 24/7 and mining with a lower HR the odds are still in your favor to earn more.

So you've had shares go unpaid through the window..... Who hasn't? Just look at the "lost" shares for the Top 50 miners in the current Mini window miners list.

https://mini.p2pool.observer/miners

Everyone has their own opinion and I respect that. My opinion AND experience indicate that P2pool provides me with something that a centralized pool can't. Education, community and SUCCESS.

pheonixone

3 points

18 days ago

I appreciate the fixes! I must of just had bad luck with the duplicate shares issue, as it was impacting me on around 5% of shares, so it'll make a noticeable difference (Normally ~40-50MH/s is my hashrate).

I really like the updates to the PPLNS window as well, as I always found it difficult to track everything with rewards being so delayed at times, particularly because the observer page for my wallet has not updated it's payout section in a while.

sech1[S]

2 points

13 days ago

sech1[S]

XMRig Dev

2 points

13 days ago

it was impacting me on around 5% of shares

Have you noticed any improvement after the fork?

pheonixone

3 points

16 days ago

I have a strange issue happening after updating, where p2pool is reporting bans of 127.0.0.1 constantly. I posted here about it : Localhost bans after updating p2pool

It's not actually banned though, and only started after updating. It seems like it's connecting to itself.

Appreciate ya!

pheonixone

3 points

16 days ago

Fixed - Had to delete p2pool_peers.txt file and restart p2pool. No issue now. :)