Topic: [ANN] Puppet Master. Earn (much) more than 110% PPS. (Read 10185 times)

The problem with flooding requests in failover-only with cgminer has been fixed. Highly recommend upgrading to 2.6.1 if you are using this option (which most puppet master clients are).

That's the plain truth

Don't make me take off my shoes!  Now I know who was mining bitlc via BBE...   Told you it was not perfect!

I just saw this thread today. P4 and I go way back.  I would say more but I have to go save my crappy proxy!  
 

This jab is wonderful. 

'indeed' - chaching!

kind regards

This is a boring thread to watch Im afraid. No 50 pages of drama explaining why which server was down when, why rejects where high or payments delayed. Ill leave it up to you do decide wether that is because no one is using it, or because Puppet Master "just works".

watching 

You guessed right. Most new users that join have very recently restarted cgminer so we are talking about a handful of shares, if that, and even then I usually manually deduct the amount of "old" shares from the fees; in your case, I was asleep and your machine had been running for days, which is why the above happened. Once puppetmaster collected the initial stats, restarting cgminer no longer helps, as ppm keeps a rolling history.

But fear not, its all in the db, whatever you paid in fees is credited, Ill reset your stats.

After setting up all my miners, I noticed that one of them started with a very high fee balance compared to any of my other miners. The balance was over 2000 shares right after the miner showed up on the list. I'm just curious whether this is working as intended, since all the other miners (even including the obscured ones) have much lower fee balances.

I understood that the fee balance grows steadily by 1 share for every 20 shares a user has submitted to his own pool accounts. However, this miner that had a fee balance of over 2000 right away had already been mining for about a day and half at ~1400MH/s before I set up the port forward. I only restarted it afterwards to change my api settings and add the pools, but the old settings allowed read-only access too. Could Puppet Master have picked those 40k+ shares that I had submitted before actually using it, and calculated them on the fee? At least the math would add up. In that case, the initial fee would be uncalled for, and for some other users, this problem might be even worse.

Wish it wasnt so cloudy, then I would have more photons to generate electrons to generate bitcoins

kind regards

I love being a puppet !

Nice work p4man.

kind regards

I said nearly perfect because perfect would be predicting all blocks with 100% accuracy. Thats simply not possible but this is pretty dang close!

Though I maybe shouldn't say this
I wrote  a hopping script for the API before the version with switchpool was even released.
While writing the API code change to include 'switchpool' I immediately thought of this and thus tried it out straight away.
Worked easily enough ... and was a simple test of the change
It's easy to identify ~50% of blocks coz they say where they came from, it's the other ~50% that can be a little tricky - you need to be connected to each pools 'wallet' and see which one told you about the block first and also handle small pools/solo that come through another larger pool - however, this could be handled by knowing the wallet addresses of the pools you are hopping - and that can be done with tools like: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=88584.20 (unless it's a new address every time)

Why "nearly perfected"? 150 - 200% PPS without you having to manage anything or spend hours keeping an eye on pools to check their html doesn't change, then editing the regex when it does? I haven't used it but if it does everything as advertised, I'd say it's as good as it can get.

Yeah for sure, id say hes nearly perfected hopping.

Glad to hear P2man's getting some coin for all the work he's done.

I like it a lot so far. We have been pretty dang lucky recently. Seeing 150-200% pps. More people comin on board nearly daily! Will contiue to see how it goes

How is this going for people? What sort of returns are you getting?

I'm thinking of joining it this week.

Phil

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.1013749

Also, what was the exact UTC date/time he contacted you? ... just curious

Ill have to try your changes later (or if some 2.5 users want to chime in, please do), but just to be clear: Im not saying who should define the API, I would just like to see both forks implement it the same way as much as possible, to make it easier for everyone. I know you and luke wont get through the same door, but  I was contacted by Luke shortly after making this announcement, and I told him the exact same thing: please make whatever change you make to BFGminer compatible with cgminer. I think the fork was unfortunate, and still hope BFGminer and CGminer can be merged again eventually, but even if not, there is no benefit to anyone if the API implementations are incompatible.

I did mean Clipse, not EclipseMC. My bad.

Emails sent out.

If you signed up and did not receive an email, check your spam box and add my email address to your contacts.

If its not in your spam box either, you probably didnt give me your email address, contact me via [email protected]

Nice work p2man. Is Slush included in your configs? What are you using to determine when to hop them? Professional interest, you understand 

You might also want to point out that mining at multiple pools will reduce variance significantly, as an added bonus beyond pool hopping.


Goat did. Eclipse Mining Consortium doesn't. Maybe you meant Clipse? He claims his proxy doesn't pool hop though.

That list was old documentation (that I have written) for versions of when I added the pool commands to cgminer since you already stated versions - that documentation will give you the exact answers as opposed to guesses (it's in my API-README in cgminer)

I am the developer of the cgminer API from the start - so going with luke-jr's changes will not happen since I don't even know what he has done (or even if he has done it yet) and I've already told him about my changes anyway

It's already tested and implemented in the cgminer git and handles what anyone requiring a set of privileged commands given access to an IP address/subnet - it allows any set of commands of the users choice defined as available to an IP address just liek the current code already works - except with the change of allowing a set of commands rather than the current only 2 groups W: all, and non W: readonly commands.

I already said I would implement it in IRC 26-Jun 23:45 UTC and he made a comment about it in IRC to me 4hrs 40 minutes later at which point I repeated that I had already said before what I was doing and how it would be implemented (based on an idea I had months ago but no one had said they had any need of it)

The request "it would be nice if you implemented it in the same way." would be the same as me telling you how to write your pool hopping software and expecting you to change it ...

I'm rather used to making changes with no payment so I guess it will happen again to my part (API) of the cgminer software

@everyone who signed up;
Dont worry if you got no response yet. To accommodate everyone, Ive had to order a bigger server, right now Im waiting for btclot to set it up, and I will need a day or two after that to make sure its ready. Hopefully this weekend.


removepool (and disable/enable pool) isnt really needed for this phase of puppet master; it is only needed when we do contracted work, where someone can buy a mining contract, a bit like on gpumax. THis is (crudely) implemented but not used at this point, as it does require me holding coins in escrow, and frankly, there doesnt seem to be much demand for shares at >100% PPS.

As for the new version of cgminer; if this gets implemented somehow, then great. You may also want to check with Luke who is making similar changes to BFGminer, it would be nice if you implemented it in the same way.

Puppet master users are asked not to upgrade to a new version of cgminer (or bfgminer) until it has been tested with puppetmaster. I usually send out emails when I deem it safe to upgrade to a new version. Backwards compatibility with cgminer has been good so far, but I rather be safe than sorry.

As for GPUmax; Pirate did ask to limit the per user hashrate that connects/disconnects from gpumax because it causes trouble with load balancing. Ive implemented some changes to that effect and its one reason Im not accepting more than 5GH per user.

As for the API key, obviously there is a risk involved in giving the api key to someone else,  but it cant be greater than giving me full control over cgminer, which is what you do when you use puppet master. You shouldnt mine at a pool if you dont trust the pool op, and likewise, if you are afraid I will steal your hashes, dont sign up for puppetmaster.

This will all be in v2.4.4 which will be out in the next day. It should make setting up for this service much easier.

Has anyone thought to run this by Zux or Pirate?  You might be breaking their TOS.

Sent PM to OP .. interested =P

Send donations to my sig address
https://github.com/ckolivas/cgminer/pull/243

P4man you might also want to look at the new 'check' command so you can check and tell your users that they haven't done it right ...

Anyway - of course this will be in the next release, not in 2.4.3 of course

Edit: Also, as per the API-README I wrote:
switchpool: cgminer v2.2.0
disablepool, enablepool: cgminer v2.3.0
addpool: cgminer v2.3.1-2
removepool: cgminer v2.3.4

--api-groups, check: next release

Glad to see this announced. Definitely interested.

This could be fun

I see it more of a way to stop pool hopping once and for all. All the informations are available on the Internet, every miner and pool operator can learn about pool hopping and how to protect themselves against it. Everybody has a honest chance to not get abused and have the tools to do it.

And what happens? Well, they stay in their la-la-land thinking nobody is hopping them while the door is completely open. The only solution now is to hop them to death, until they finally decides to change their payment method.


Yes.

Well where money and bitcoins are involved I'm sure a lot of people will sell their mothers for better pps daily. So it is not a suprise hat pool hopping happens.

So, this is how Goat, Clipse, etc. make money operating their "bonus pools"? By pool hopping? I've not even explored pool hopping, but it seems that it's abusing inaccurate payout measurement schemes at certain pools.

Did I get all that right?

EDIT: I meant "Clipse" not "Eclipse". Sorry Inaba 

Please just stop posting.  Nobody cares what you say and anyone who doesn't already have you on ignore thinks less of the entire Bitcoin community because of you.

Where did I say I was going to DDOS him

It is illegal firstly and I said "somebody should DDOS him" in an old thread where I thought he was botnet owner control centre with 220 GPUs ...

So, you don't want to DDOS him anymore? 

(sorry, couldn't resist)

sub this is EPIX p4man you are a genius.

especially love your anti bfl ranting and asic realism

you rock dude !

Above I posted instructions to recompile cgminer on linux, so anyone who's requested an invite, and wants to recompile can already spend some time

The actual invites along with the rest of the instructions will be sent by email in a few days.

This looks interesting...

I have been waiting for this announcement for a while. Nice work P4man

Very interesting, I think I will be trying this, with my mod miner quad.

Cool, so even those with only one BFL Single have enough hash to be accepted.

Instructions to compile a modified cgminer on linux.

This is only needed if you use GPUs and you want to be sure Puppet Master can not change your GPU settings (clock speeds, fans etc).

If you feel comfortable giving me full access to the API, you can skip this step. If you use FPGAs there is no need to recompile either, since FPGAs dont have voltage or clock settings I could possibly abuse.

Compilation instructions are for 2.4.2, but apply to other versions too, just change the version where appropriate.  Puppet master will work with any cgminer between 2.3.x and 2.4.x

The same changes also work for cgminer for Windows, but when it comes to actually compiling on windows, you are on your own.

Grab and untar cgminer:

Grab and unzip amd adl


You can remove amdtemp after that. Please make no typing errors here, its easy to wipe your stick :

Now lets make the change to cgminer:

Find this section:


Change from true to false, the following commands:
-switchpool
-addpool
-enablepool
-disablepool

So it looks like this:


Explanation: commands that have "true" here, require privileged (write) access. By changing it to false for these commands, you can run the api in restricted mode (no write access) for me. So I will only have access to the "false" commands.

When done editing, save the file:

now we can compile

ASIC mining is almost upon us. For many of us, myself included, that will mean the end of our bitcoin mining careers.  If you have somewhere between 0.5 and 5 GH and you want to max out your GPU or FPGA mining revenue over the few months we still have left, this thread is for you.








What is Puppet Master?
Puppet Master is pool hopping done right. No proxy. No bullshit. No crumbs.
Traditional hopping proxies like Project 2, ABC, Project X, Clipse's bonus pool etc are easy to use and allow a miner to earn a little over 100% PPS; but they all suffer from some serious drawbacks: a proxy causes stability and scalability problems, generally high reject rates and it provides no transparency in either generated profits, or where the hashing power is sent to. Current hopping proxies are also paying just crumbs, some even charge you for the privilege, others hold your coins ransom for a week.

Puppet Master does away with all that, and uses no proxy. Instead it relies on cgminer's API. The Puppet Master software runs on my servers and analyzes the blockchain and pools and decides which pool is most optimal, then sends a command to the "puppets", ie miners, to hop there using cgminers built-in API. While this is more complex to configure and manage, the advantages of this approach compared to a proxy are legion:

- Your miners are connected directly to the pools using your own accounts. You are always in control of your payouts, you dont rely on me to send you your coins.
- Total transparency. You see where is being mined, you can see how much it really earns. Hint: its more than 110%.
- You choose were to mine when we have no pool to hop. You can use p2pool, or any PPLNS, PPS or DMG pool of your choosing.  
- No extra stales and rejects.
- No single point of failure. Even if Puppet Master would fail and the service would be disrupted, about the worst that can happen is that your miners stop hopping and instead mine the same pool. They will never idle.
- GPUmax integration.  If you have a GPUmax account and API key, Puppet Master will detect when GPUmax is running public work and at what price, and adjusts the hopping strategy to maximize your profits without compromising your GPUmax rewards. You will only hop as long as expected hopping revenue exceeds your GPUmax revenue, so Puppet Master will seamlessly combine GPUmax and pool hopping rewards, giving you the best of both worlds. Optionally, puppetmaster can also assist you in configuring an optimal GPUmax lease price.
- You get a simple but functional webinterface where you see your miners, hashrate, GPU temperatures, GPUmax status, pool statistics etc.

How much does it earn?
I cant predict the future, so I cant predict exactly how much you will make; Puppet Master users are subject to variance,  but it will certainly earn you more than you earn without puppet master and when averaged over a long enough time, substantially more than the other 110% proxy pools. How much more depends on how much public work GPUmax offers (and at what price), how long it will take for some of the hoppable pools to  switch payout schemes, and just plain luck. I dont give any guarantee, but historically, Puppet Master has generated  ~130% PPS without gpumax public work, and well over 150% during public work. I wont lie, as more pools are (finally) switching to hop proof payout schemes, these numbers are likely to go down, but people saying pool hopping is dead already, are not telling truth, do not know what they are talking about, or dont know how to do it properly .

How much does it cost?
Hopping proxies earn money on the difference between their actual revenue and what they pay you. As a miner, you cant see how much that difference is, so it may sound better to get a 110% payout than paying a fee (even if that 110% turns out to be 105% after stales and downtime), but the truth is you might be paying 20% or more to the pool op if he knows what he is doing.

Puppet master isnt free either; there is fixed 5% fee, and a sign-up fee/guarantee. The 5% fee is collected automatically by directing your miners to a dedicated worker for 5% of the time. You can monitor this precisely, its completely transparent.  BTW, this 5% may be lowered in the future at my discretion if our profitability is compromised by pools switching to honest payout schemes.

The signup guarantee is 5 BTC per user, but half this amount will be refunded immediately once you start mining with Puppet Master, the other half will be credited in its entirety to your fee balance, so you wont pay any % until you have mined ~50 BTC.

IOW, if you actually use Puppet Master, the sign up cost is zero.

The reason for this guarantee  is just to avoid me wasting a lot of time  with people just signing up to check it out without any intention of ever actually using it.  This fee is not refundable in principle, but I like to think of myself as a reasonable person, so if there is a good reason to, I wont hesitate to decide to refund anyone on a case by case basis.  Should puppet master cease operation, I will also refund any balance you still have. Im not demanding 5BTC to make money, its just to save myself a lot of unnecessary work and time.

What do I need?
For now Im only accepting users with more than  ~0.5GH and up to ~5GH for gpumax users. Less than 500MH is more trouble than its worth, more than 5GH can cause load balancing issues at gpumax particularly when avoiding gpumax passthrough. If you have more than 5GH and do not have a gpumax account, contact me.

You need either a static IP, or a hostname alias provider like no-ip.com. You also need to use cgminer (2.3 or higher), you need full control over your network and firewall and you need to have some basic skills to set up cgminer and port forwarding.  Having a gpumax account will obviously increase your profitability, but is not required.  In fact, if you do not have a gpumax account, puppet master will give your mining revenue a bigger boost than for a gpumax user, who is already earning well over 100%. Well, used to anyway.

Using linux on your miners is recommended, particularly if you want to disable privileged API access, see below.

You need access to my cgminer API, does that mean you can control my GPU settings using  that API?
With the standard cgminer, in theory, yes.  As of cgminer 2.5, this is no longer a concern. api-groups lets you define which commands you give puppetmaster access to, and it only needs pool related commands. Instructions will be provided if you sign up. If you use an older version of cgminer, its possible to recompile with some minor changes to avoid giving api access to commands ppm doesnt need.

FPGA users have nothing to worry about and should just use the standard cgminer. AFAIK, there isnt any cgminer setting I could abuse when you use an FPGA.

Do you guarantee x,y or z.. ?
No. Im running this on a best effort basis. I dont guarantee anything other than whats been said. Not profits, not uptime, not hopping accuracy. However, puppet master is not new; as many of you know, it  has been operating for almost 6 months now, serving ~100GH for a number of users that were invited.  None of those users have come forward to the forums claiming I tried to steal their coins or kill their videocards, in fact, so far none of them have even stopped using it; every single person who has ever tried Puppet Master, is still using it today, so I guess it cant be all that bad .  You can also thank those users for helping me iron out the bugs, so you dont have to suffer them.

As for reliability, particularly over the last few months Im pretty sure we achieved over 99% uptime as I believe we have had only 2? unplanned outages that lasted more than an hour. And remember, an outage simply means you stop hopping, not that you stop mining.

Arent you a hypocrite, I thought you were against pool hopping?
Im not. I know some people have claimed I was crusading against hoppers, but if you read what I actually wrote you will find nothing of the sort. To illustrate, most of you will know Im not Goat's biggest fan, but if you go read Goat's project 2 thread, you will not see a single post of me criticizing him for doing what he did (well, other than ridiculing his utter failure to execute) for the simple reason that he was open and honest about it. I did rant against proxies that hop with their users hashrate without telling their users, as I did rant against pools that falsify their stats under the false pretense of preventing hopping. But Ive never voiced any criticism about miners doing the mathematically sensible thing.

Why would I use Puppet Master and pay fees instead of using some free hopping program?
If you can set up and use BitHopper, maybe you should. But none of the apps Ive tried are anywhere near as good at hopping as puppet master. Aside from the issues and stales associated with a proxy (even a local one), they are also poorly integrated with GPUmax and for hopping they rely on delayed (/false) pool stats, long poll timing or scraping blockchain.info to guess a blocks origin. While I admire the efforts of the developers and Im sure these apps were awesome once upon a time when you could hop a dozen proportional pools, I found their hopping accuracy tends to vary between poor and appalling. Puppet Master uses its own mechanisms which are vastly more accurate than anything else I am aware off and this accuracy translates directly in to higher profits.

How do I sign up?
Send me a PM or email [email protected]. State your forum name and email,  aggregate hashrate, number of machines and whether or not you have a gpumax account and API key. I will already send you the (optional) instructions on how to recompile cgminer if you want to do that.  

Im provisioning a new server right now, once that is ready and has been tested (ETA less than a week from now), you will get an address where you can deposit the 5 BTC guarantee, after which you will get detailed instructions and templates on how to configure your miners, workers and network in order to use puppet master.  Once you have it configured, and I verified your settings,  you will receive a URL where you can monitor your rigs and you will start earning.