Update on changes to deal with lower-luck miners

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Steve Sokolowski
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Update on changes to deal with lower-luck miners

Post by Steve Sokolowski » Sun Sep 13, 2020 1:15 pm

Recently, we've been aggressively tackling the "low luck" miners problem. This issue involves some miners who submit fewer blocks than they would be expected to. This lower luck causes reduced profitability for everyone. It's not clear who is responsible for the low luck, and the miners themselves may not even know about the issue because it could be a firmware bug.

We have been able to identify almost all of the low-luck miners and have taken a number of steps to mitigate the issue. One of the most important steps was to suspend service to Nicehash rentals. Another, which we started yesterday, is to require miners to mine with us for a period of time before they can statically mine very difficult coins in pay-per-share mode, since it takes longer to identify low-luck miners when the "c=" password argument is used in full pay-per-share mode. There are only a few coins affected, like bitcoin and litecoin. When miners affected by this restriction attempt to connect, an authorization error occurs.

The ultimate solution for the error is simply to mine for a little while until enough money has been earned for the system to verify you are not a low-luck miner. Here are some ways you can do that:
  • Mine in dynamic FPPS mode, which switches to the most profitable coin and which will always be the most profitable mining mode. Just remove all of your password arguments, except perhaps the "n=" and "o=" arguments if you want to name your miner.
  • Mine static coins in solo mining mode. Here, you can use "c=[coin] m=solo." You can still solo mine bitcoins or litecoins if you want to try to hit the jackpot with a block-finding share.
  • Statically mine an easier coin. Easy coins can be statically mined in FPPS mode, using password arguments like "c=Digibyte."
The new website's documentation will be updated with these changes. After the changes have been in effect for a month, we'll reevaluate them and see whether they need to continue. We expect that, at that time, we will be able to increase profitability by as much as 5%. If you have a suggestion on how we can improve how we are addressing low luck miners, feel free to let us know in a reply or in a support ticket.
Last edited by Steve Sokolowski on Sun Sep 13, 2020 1:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
joeymau5
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Re: Update on changes to deal with lower-luck miners

Post by joeymau5 » Sun Sep 13, 2020 1:21 pm

Steve Sokolowski wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2020 1:15 pm Recently, we've been aggressively tackling the "low luck" miners problem. This issue involves some miners who submit fewer blocks than they would be expected to. This lower luck causes reduced profitability for everyone. It's not clear who is responsible for the low luck, and the miners themselves may not even know about the issue because it could be a firmware bug.

We have been able to identify almost all of the low-luck miners and have taken a number of steps to mitigate the issue. One of the most important steps was to suspend service to Nicehash rentals. Another, which we started yesterday, is to require miners to mine with us for a period of time before they can statically mine very difficult coins in pay-per-share mode, since it takes longer to identify low-luck miners when the "c=" password argument is used in pay-per-share mode. There are only a few coins affected, like bitcoin and litecoin. When miners affected by this restriction attempt to connect, an authorization error occurs.

The ultimate solution for the error is simply to mine for a little while until enough money has been earned for the system to verify you are not a low-luck miner. Here are some ways you can do that:
  • Mine in dynamic PPS mode, which switches to the most profitable coin and which will always be the most profitable mining mode. Just remove all of your password arguments, except perhaps the "n=" and "o=" arguments if you want to name your miner.
  • Mine static coins in solo mining mode. Here, you can use "c=[coin] m=solo." You can still solo mine bitcoins or litecoins if you want to try to hit the jackpot with a block-finding share.
The new website's documentation will be updated with these changes. After the changes have been in effect for a month, we'll reevaluate them and see whether they need to continue. We expect that, at that time, we will be able to increase profitability by as much as 5%. If you have a suggestion on how we can improve how we are addressing low luck miners, feel free to let us know in a reply or in a support ticket.
It might really be the firmwares being thrown around the internet i've seen a few that looked beyond sketchy and read about them screwing up the miners especially the ones that allow custom control to the boards
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Steve Sokolowski
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Location: State College, PA

Re: Update on changes to deal with lower-luck miners

Post by Steve Sokolowski » Sun Sep 13, 2020 1:27 pm

joeymau5 wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2020 1:21 pm It might really be the firmwares being thrown around the internet i've seen a few that looked beyond sketchy and read about them screwing up the miners especially the ones that allow custom control to the boards
Which particular firmware do you believe has issues, and where can I find it?
joeymau5
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Re: Update on changes to deal with lower-luck miners

Post by joeymau5 » Sun Sep 13, 2020 4:16 pm

https://www.antminer-firmware.eu/modifi ... -firmware/ this one screams red flag as more of a bait trap that people have had to fallen in also the blissz has absolutely been tampered with and reissued out i actually just flashed the hiveon firmware to test that out and i will say out of them all it seems to be the only one worth using but don't quote me on that just a first impression and the support team is just as active as you guys are here which i very much so appreciate
joeymau5
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Re: Update on changes to deal with lower-luck miners

Post by joeymau5 » Sun Sep 13, 2020 4:19 pm

another thing they aren't accounting for is overclocking with the wrong equipment i can absolutely attest that the APW3++ is not okay to use with any custom feature assuming it works when you overclock and doesn't just keep rebooting i watched my hashboards freak out as if world war 3 was happening inside my miner and also saw significantly insane issues with the hash power maintaining a steady number to rely on
digillio
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Re: Update on changes to deal with lower-luck miners

Post by digillio » Mon Sep 28, 2020 2:30 am

I am getting this error mining Digibyte on pplns. Is this expected?
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Steve Sokolowski
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Re: Update on changes to deal with lower-luck miners

Post by Steve Sokolowski » Mon Sep 28, 2020 9:20 am

digillio wrote: Mon Sep 28, 2020 2:30 am I am getting this error mining Digibyte on pplns. Is this expected?
You didn't post the error you received. What is the specific error message?
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