Topic: Bottlecaps 2.1 UPDATE REQUIRED - HARDFORK JULY 4 2014 to 200% Annual PoS - page 184. (Read 388610 times)

1.4.1 Is released Github updated. MANDATORY UPDATE BY 8/17/2013 12:00Pm EST

All download links in the OP

Windows QT:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0V-7FME2rcyM2Z0bTIyTVFIRVk/edit?usp=sharing

Source Code:

https://github.com/bottlecaps-foundation/bottlecaps

I have fixed the stake issue and set old old clients creating the problems to be disconnected at 12:00 Noon EST on August 17th

This will prevent and old clients form staying connected to the new clients and causing computeminwork() errors in PoS blocks which has been the source of the problem. As well as a few rouge peers which will be disconnected. If you have not updated by the time requirement you will be unable to connect to peers with v1.4.1 and will likely be left on a forked chain. This is necessary however to ensure stability from here on out.

Thanks Sunny King, Petr1fied, MuddaFudda and others for the support and tips

Installation instructions Windows QT:

1. Close your client and delete the folder that contains Bottlecaps V1.4
2. Click Start and search Run.
3. Run the location %appdata%
4. Navigate to roaming/Bottlecaps
5. Delete everything in this folder accept Wallet.dat and Bottlecaps.conf
6. In your Bottlecaps.conf folder remove all nodes and add the following

listen=1
addnode=50.137.233.14
addnode=199.180.115.100

For users who dont know how to Create/ Edit a .Conf file I will update the sample provided below often along with the update time. Simply place the file in the folder user/appdata/roaming/bottlecaps Which can also be found by Start button / search "run", then  run  %appdata% navigate to roaming / bottlecaps

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0V-7FME2rcySk40WnZUbE5KUjg/edit?usp=sharing

A wonderfull list can be gather here as well thanks to Petr1fied
http://bottlecaps.kicks-ass.net/peers.php

More to come as I get them all online, but I have verified the client syncs to the correct chain with no addnodes.

You will need to download the blockchain from the start but it should sync right to the correct chain no problem. If your client pauses on a specific block for a long period of time simply restart your client as it is sifting through bad peers restarting get will you on your way. If not deleting peers.dat and restarting also might help

If you are still having problems syncing to the correct chain Pm me or John Eden for further assistance. But I put much time into assuring it would not sync to an incorrect chain.

After Approx 48 hours when all old clients are removed from the network I am confident all these issues will be in the past. We can move on with making the improvements we originally had planned

Pool operators:

 There should be no more forking issues with individual pools as long as you have a healthy number of connections. Which does not seem to be an issue at this point. The latest errors have not been caused by this and that issue has been addressed as well

Might I suggest you gather a list of nodes from The Block Crawler provided by Petr1fied

http://bottlecaps.kicks-ass.net/peers.php

as well as
listen=1

New client is done. Setting it up on the nodes Once the chain is downloaded and the nodes are up to date I will be releasing it. 2 Hours at the most

More info at that time

I know what to do and am following all the recent posts as well but still no go. Using same client as in op. Win7 x64 Ultimate. Can't get to proper block height still and on rare occasions it shows proper height it won't sync all the way. Getting connected then rejected on various nodes.

Guess I still have to wait for update but I'm only more concerned it actually releases soon. Have had several expected release dates that all have been pushed back. Now it says tomorrow again..won't hold my breathe as faith getting low but not giving up either.

See what happens....

***update***
- gave it 8 hours and tried again following same steps and this time it (appears) working. correct block height with multiple connections and currently redownloading whole chain again. should make it.
Glad to be back in business..for now. Still eagerly awaiting update and will have to give it time before putting majority of 25 mh minifarm anywhere near the network...but gonna keep up hope that this time it will be ok.

- 10 mins later  - appears i spoke too soon. during last update the block height CHANGED during download. cant say ive seen that before. was showing height of 749xx and had 45xxx of it to go then showed the damn 72271 height at some point during with 10xxx left...just finished now at that same incorrect height...go figure..

***update***
tying one last thing....showing 749xx as height again...good..downloading getting close to finishing and still proper height..good..started with 6+ connections but quickly down to 2...not so good but getting close.

it has stopped at 63658 but still shows 749xx total..connections back up to 3...but not finishing blockchain download..urghhh..this on different rig..new client install..even new wallet..and even different external ip/hostname (have two different high speed isp hookups here)...but still basically same result(s) will leave for now and see.what happens...(3:20am est)

that means the data folder too lol

after few tries i am on right chain  or what ever lol
 i call it wrong since i lost all the coins:(( was mining like crazy  block were comming in so fast..  i guess i should had stayed there just to look at those numbers accumulate.. off well....e

What ISAWHIM is describing is exactly what was happening to me last week. I would connect to the good nodes, start getting multiple connections then watch all those connections disconnect and I would end up downloading the wrong chain. I did end up getting on the right chain by using a single node and with connect=

After that I have kept my wallet closed waiting for the new release.

Edit: My wallet is on a Windows 7 Pro machine. I did install the Wallet on a Windows 7 Home machine several weeks ago when there were similar problems and had a hard time downloading the correct chain on that machine as well.

Odd that they are rejecting you I tried this and got back on the right chain

I think part of the issue here is that unless you have firewall ports forwarded (or UPNP enabled along the chain), the nodes will not accept incoming connections as they are blocked. I would expect the vast majority of linux daemons to fall under this boat as UPNP is not enabled by default

and yes thanks to Petr1fied for the node list and explorer!

All you need to do to get back on track is:

• Close your bottlecaps wallet
• Navigate to the %Appdata%\bottlecaps folder and delete everything (except wallet.dat and bottlecaps.conf)
• Open bottlecaps.conf in a text editor such as notepad and delete any current addnode= or connect= lines.
• Visit this link and copy and paste the contents (excluding the page title) into the file.
• Use the find and replace feature of the text editor to replace all instances of addnode= with connect= and then save the file.
• Start up bottlecaps and it should start to sync. Once you're synced (you can confirm the block count here) you should close your bottlecaps wallet once again.
• Open bottlecaps.conf (if it's not still open) and use the find and replace feature of your text editor to change all instances of connect= back to addnode= and then save the file.
• Start up bottlecaps and you should now be good to go.

IVe got faith that the next wallet will fix the issue In the meantime

The problem is not that we don't see the correct chain and connections...

The problem is that they are not letting us connect... (I have tried every connection manually, restarting 38 times, there is nothing to delete, because they never give us anything to delete. Except when the connections eventually connect to those four that are talking, with the shorter chain. My IP is not banned, I have tried from many connections and IP's and proxies.)

As per my above post. Either they are killing our connections, or our wallets are killing their connection.

I assume our wallets are rejecting the "-1" block-height, which is what our clients are translating that data that they are sending us as. (Usually an issue with a terminator that is incorrectly formatted or invalid ISO:chrs, eg, formatting as a 64-bit, but trying to read it as 32-bit, or by using CR or LF, when an expected "new line" in windows is CRLF. Some windows will attempt to "fix" that error, other windows will not. If that is the issue, other than malformatted raw data. Also, ISO conversions that we do not have the correct "format" for, which turns things like ISO:2345 into a "Q" instead of a "*", unless we have that language-type installed. That is only an issue if a program is compiled on a computer with a unique language-pack that other windows does not have, like chinese, japanese, french, italian, spanish, greek, etc... Only happens on HOME versions of windows which MS does not allow language-packs to be installed, that are non-standard. Not an issue on linux or mac, as they come with most ISO CHR formats.)

Please check the RAW DATA they they are sending, and locate why some of us translate that data as "-1" block-height and a bunch of nulls, and why other clients can correctly translate that data into the correct data, if they are sending us the correct data.

Every single IP with the "correct chain", is rejecting my connections, or is feeding my wallet this invalid data. So nothing ever gets downloaded, because there is no connection being sustained.

They don't even connect to give us the blocks that everyone-else has. Only the connections which have the short chain are feeding us that forked chain, which obviously is forked because they are not being fed the same thing we are not being fed... the blocks.

last try  when wallewt synced it said 50000 blocks  give or take few  than hot 73000  give or take.. took my eyes off wallet for few

as it downloads  bock xxx of 72239 to be exact

When it says the wallet checkpoint is to old that is not a problem. It just means that an update is due. Regular checkpoints are good for a coin. It's possible that everything is just fine. What you need to check is the number of blocks your wallet indicates vs a known source of the information for the correct chain. If they are the same you are on the correct chain.

v1.4.0.0-g32a928e-caps    using this version.
after numerous  cleaning up folder adding peers provided  still wallets says checkpoint is too old. re-download blockchain     notify devs. any ideas

For now if you are on the wrong chain here is how to join the rest of us:

Delete everything in you appdata/roaming/bottlecaps folder EXCEPT wallet.dat and bottlecaps.conf

Then proceed to remove all nodes in your .conf file and add any from the list at the link from below

http://bottlecaps.kicks-ass.net/peers.php

Also please add listen=1 to your .conf file

Thank you Petr1fied your explorer has been instrumental in my investigation and your list of nodes will be a great help to anyone searching for the correct chain.

I am now 99% certain I have found the issue. For this fix ALL clients will need to update AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

As far as pool forks. This update also will resolve those issues as the real problem was contained in the QT. When PoS blocks were generated by a pool wallet it was rejected by the main chain and the pool went off on its own. As long as pool operators maintain plenty of connections to the network there will be NO MORE issues from this previous round.

Caps should be the only coin effected all other caps forks should be ok. Release will be tomorrow afternoon

* checkpoints
* stake fix
* UPNP enabled
* yet even more dedicated nodes
* possible disconnect of all old clients after 48 hours (TBD)

After 1 week of network stability 1.5 will be released with the 5% static stake reward


Breakdown of why the forks have occured

First fork:

This fork created many issues and it appeared to be multiple. The forked chain was kept alive for a very long time. older clients can still connect to this chain and mine at extremely low difficulty making it keep pace with the main correct chain.

It was caused by a lack of network communication and a lack of dedicated nodes. It appears the network "split" with each side only communicating with each otherlong enough to get the required 26 blocks to validate it as a correct chain. After this point the 2 chains were incompatible with each other.

One one side you had Multipool, bottlecapspool.com and cryptsy as well as some solo miners

On the other side you have most smaller pools and epools. As well as some solo miners as well

Pool forks:

Multiple times pools were "segregated" form the rest of the network and created their own chain. Each time it was only the pool effected maybe taking 1 or a few other peers with them.

This issue has been addressed and should not occur anymore as long as pool operators ensure they have a healthy number of connections to the network

Latest fork:

The issue was caused by a incompatibility with the windows qt and github sources. They had different "computeminwork" requirements. When PoS block #71897 was created the github compiled clients rejected the block while the windows qt accepted it. Causing 2 separate chains.

This issue has been cleared up and should not present itself again.

New client will be out as soon as I verify both clients are giving similar results again and I will be running tests overnight to ensure this. When I wake up and verify I will push the updates to github and compile the new QT from a fresh gitpull. It is imperative you update as soon as possible to prevent any issues from the change over. Once past this point it will be smooth sailing from here on out

Thank you Sunny King for your insight as well as ISAWHIM for further intriguing me to look into this as the possible cause

Once again the community has been amazingly helpfull and supportive.

We are in it for the long haul and hope these issues are finally behind us and we can move on with our planned development path

check your debug log files and you can see what irc you connecting to and then check them to see if they have banned or put a temp hold on your ip.

yeah..i'll just wait for the new client release cuz i'm having a nightmare of a time connecting the client to the correct chain. trying so many different addnodes or connects and on only a few it will at least show the correct block height but it never fully sync's all the way to it.. the ones that do sync are when i'm on the wrong chain that has the wrong (lower height)..i give up..so will wait for the new client

The 1.41 should be out very soon we are testing it right now to assure its working as planned. Sunny King assisted with the fix to PoS to ensure we have no issues in the future. This update will be required and block out the older clients causing issues.

We will release a detailed explanation of everything when the wallet release takes place. Thanks again for being patient ans supporting the coin!

Yeah mine is Windows 7 - 64 Bit as well, with the latest download on the OP.  I did delete the blockchain and recreated the bottlecaps.conf file with the single IP address that was posted recently on the OP as well.


....
rpcport=8385
addnode=69.85.86.195
daemon=1
server=1
gen=0