Topic: DyslexicZombei's Darkcoin Community MasterNode Svcs: CLOSED. Nodes 2 4 5 Refunds - page 3. (Read 27987 times)

The language DZ uses, and the  "woe is me" tone of his posts, read exactly like the Silk Road 2.0 "I can't believe we got robbed when everything was in hot storage" dribble.

DZ, give these people their money back.

DZ, if you haven't already I would recommend you try this from chaeplin (https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.8180766) and if that doesn't work go to the #darkcoin IRC for assistance and give a step by step on what you did to cause this node 3 fiasco. I'm having a hard time believing that the coins are lost forever to this 'phantom address' but frankly I just want my principal Darkcoin deposit back ASAP without pursuing legal means.
JL

Given that the screenshots are censored, I was able to track down the funds from the "phantom self-transaction." Its interesting to note that there are quite a few transactions that occurred after the initial one.

Address: http://chainz.cryptoid.info/drk/address.dws?Xdm1jwKeGbYbxFfTdwWSdjTzpbcAtLTVa9.htm
Transaction: http://chainz.cryptoid.info/drk/tx.dws?428200.htm
Block: http://chainz.cryptoid.info/drk/block.dws?95264.htm


the bulk of the funds ended up here: http://chainz.cryptoid.info/drk/address.dws?XbJprnaLJKVDLQdi3UJuy2yJhjXUBTWdou.htm

Could you please post here your progresss in returning 2000 darkcoins? They need to be returned anyway I hope you understand this

DZ, this looks very dodgy. Also, there is no stake mechanism in Darkcoin. You can easily transfer funds out from a MN wallet at anytime, hot or cold.

So you're basically sitting on 2,000 Darkcoins that you supposedly cannot access or refund? Do you have an address we can look into or non-blurred out screen shots of the address? I have never heard of coins just disappearing randomly to non-accessible addresses and frankly I'm now very worried and wondering what you're going to do about it because honestly if I were in your shoes I'd be posting all over bitcointalk and darkcointalk nonstop every day if need be until the entire community realized what happened and banded together to help. Putting the onus on Evan and his 'beta software' is not going to save you from lawsuits.

Here you go, DZ: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.8180766

Thanks gents. Thank you all for trusting me with your DRK. I may revisit this in the future if I'm convinced that I won't see weird issues if I were to jump back in. I still feel awful that I can't seem to get the funds back from Node 1 and 3. Perhaps if only one node was fatally problematic I'd tough it out and hope they become profitable and that code and network would improve over time, but to have two nodes go down permanently for different reasons was too much and the results have been weighing heavily on my mind although I can't think of anything I couldn't have done differently at the time, since the setup processes for RC2 and RC3 nodes are the same steps we all have to take to set them up. C'est la vie.

It's been an interesting experiment/project and I wish I hadn't seen these problems. I would've been willing to operate them at a loss for months if necessary but all the troubleshooting, rebuilds, and transferring of funds to other local wallets I had to do to get just a handful of nodes back up and running over and over again were a PITA that a user shouldn't have to go through just to get a node working again. Anyway, enough of that. Just a bit of post mortem analysis and another major contributing factor to end this community service.

Tips are appreciated: XcbPGJKXPq4UMNrCBzza7kWEWeDjLSsTdq

Cheers.

Sorry it didn't work out. I may revisit this service in the future but for now your DRK was sent back via Tx ID a71949c665945339f1f01a40c1f459d9b7434a9250379167e19268d4033e86b0 to the address above.

Cheers.

It is a pity that you could not find stable solution DZ.
Thank you for your effort and if you ever again open this kind of service, feel free to contact me.
I received my DRKs back.
BR.

Thanks for everything you attempted to do here, DZ!

I PM'd you a few additional questions!  I would appreciate it, if you had time, to answer these questions,  regarding refunds.

Thanks,

jwuerz

Received my initial investment. Thank you. If you post an addy, I'll send a tip for your troubles. Thanks again for your honesty and integrity.

Hey DZ,
When can those of us in node 3 expect refund?

Received all my DRKs! Thank you

Thanks for the feedback guys. The loss of access/control on 8/1 of two nodes at Amazon doesn't appear to be MN software related at first glance.

These were all Amazon Linux remote servers with Windows local wallets. All nodes had cold wallets except Node 1 with an RC2 hot wallet that we never got our funds returned back after server shutdown/rebuild prior to RC3's release. Setups were basic except that I added additional node connections besides the default IP address to try to improve node stability. Besides the fact that they were unprofitable at 10% management fees with inconsistent payouts, I just can't go on with 2 completely failed nodes with irretrievable stake funds and having to worry that I could see another database error or yet some other weird crap that causes additional loss of control of stake funds.

These nodes *should* be able to just run weeks or even months without issue (barring updates) like a good server should, but I just haven't seen it and I had 4 different nodes running at one point to give me my own "field data" to draw my own conclusions. Even if everything was running perfect, with current exchange rates the nodes would have to average something like 0.8 to 1 DRK a day for it to not run at operating losses at 10% management fees. I only saw an average like this over the course of 6 days and that was only for 1 of the 4 nodes.

==

Final payouts have been sent and refunds were sent for Nodes 2 and 4.

Since not everyone has a BTC account to share this, here's the spreadsheets on Node 2: http://xle3harsc3jjowqx.onion/omqmyb5w5k6nfaefol32yisvke

and Node 4: http://3edyzzs7i4sj6rxu.onion/4hou5odynz7ioh4tnavss2u6ai

You'll need to have the Tor Browser running to view it.

It's late I'll finish up tomorrow. Approx. 2650 DRK refunded so far during this project. To do: refunding Node 5 tomorrow (thanks for the DRK address CripLib), and catching up on a ton of PMs.

I am so sorry that this community node service is shutting down. I wish I could have been of any help, but I am far from having any useful technical knowledge.

Thank you for your honesty and your efforts.

(edit: I have successfully received my initial investment)

Thank you

seems like a very bad news for me

Sorry to hear that as well - I have also got several masternodes using the cold storage mechanism and have been running for months without issue.

Not sure what VPS service, Network configuration, Operating System or Darkcoin daemon version (possibly old) you have been using. Not being able to remote in and access servers with corruption etc doesn't sound like a darkcoin problem but possibly a OS configuration / VPS reliability issue.

As you can see from https://elbzo.net/masternodes.html there are now over 850 masternodes and the Darkcoin talk forums or darkcoin threads have not had any other people come in discussing instability or problems.

Possibly you could reach out to GhostPlayer who has been setting up Masternodes for many people who have been running without a hitch. There might be factors causing the issue that you might not have been aware of. i.e if you had antivirus software that was corrupting/blocking commits to certain wallet dat or system files etc.

All the best

DZ, sorry you had so many issues. However, in defence of drk, my MNs did not experience any downtime since I set them up from end of May until now. I did not use cold wallet setup, reasoning too many issues with connectivity. Also, Linux is far less vulnerable with ports closed compared to windows and passphrases are impossible to brute force, to the best of my knowledge. Good luck to you.

I'd try to work it out but man its taking up too much time even just for 2 simple servers on Amazon.

Its so hit and miss too. For instance: Node 2 didn't have any mining payouts from 7/15 to 7/20 having gone down on 7/19. Couldn't revive the node no matter what I tried so I had to transfer the stake & rebuild the node on another local wallet/PC and another remote server on the 20th. It was up without incident but then nothing happened from the 20th to 27th. However from the 27th to the 1st  it did about 6.9 DRK over 6 days which is great if it was consistent; then it'd actually be profitable and worth the amount of troubleshooting effort involved. As far as luck: they seem to be streaky. It was on a hot streak but as of last night I can't seem to remotely log into the server itself for some reason.

Node 4 also saw that same inconsistency. This was actually the most stable node of the four I had set up, but that didn't help its profitability much IMO. It "only" needed one re-activation during 2 weeks and only proved problematic last night on 8/1 when I couldn't log in to the remote server itself. There were 2 payouts on the 19th, then nothing till the 25th six days later, then nothing again until the 1st last night, meaning there were only 4 payouts for a node that was relatively stable in that it only had to be dealt with twice (the second time "fatally", unfortunately) from the 16th to the 1st.

At the moment my best bet would be to do another 2 server rebuilds since as of last night I can't get into either instance even after rebooting them. Regardless of the alleged safer cold wallet method introduced by RC3, I'm tired of fighting these things at a loss and at risk with everyone's funds.

I work in labs and field tests of mostly low Tech Readiness Level products and prototypes that are usually between TRL levels 2-7. For a consumer products example: a new refrigerator model would likely be TRL 9-10. I'm comfortable working with and troubleshooting or assisting with troubleshooting various types of early beta software and hardware. Some would see it as a bad sign that an ubernerd like myself that makes a living in R&D no longer wants to lose money managing beta masternodes.

Nodes 2 and 4 should be seeing payouts in a few hours. The refunds should arrive in the evening after I get back from the beach.

Final tally:

Node 1: RC2 Hot wallet method; stake funds never sent back from mempool when server shut down/rebuilt prior to RC3. Owned 45% stake in this node and no idea who has control of the address the getaccountaddress 0 command yielded on the local wallet with RC2. Asked for help but ignored by Evan.
Node 2: RC3 (as are Nodes 3/4). Refunding. Luckiest of the nodes but still a net loss to operate even with low cloud hosting fees. 7 rebuilds in July, about 10 rebuilds total. Ended w/ inaccessible remote server which doesn't appear to be MN software related but can't be rules out either.
Node 3: Was operational from about 6/25 to 7/2. Database error appeared on 7/2. Phantom self-payment upon rebuild to inaccessible self-address not listed in receiving addresses. Shows up as grayed out address in parentheses but balance of payments equal 1000DRK instead of 0DRK. Copies of orig. wallet file and database/blockchain weren't helpful as soon as it syncs to 7/2, the phantom self-payment appears rendering the stake as unreachable. No idea where this DRK is or if its recoverable. Community help (including offers to pay for help) didn't yield a fix for something that could happen to anyone that sees a database error.
Node 4: Refunding. Most stable of nodes, needed 2 rebuilds in July and 1 re-activation. Had highest uptime of nodes set up but earned less than node 2 in latter half of July.
Node 5: Refunding, was half full and could've been filled easily with community support but declined to host with problems shown and costs of running nodes taken into consideration.

Full Node setups AND management: Canceled.

Full Node Setups ONLY: Available shortly. After refunds are complete, will shift to only doing cold wallet setups for 1 or 2 full node setups (since multiple wallet setups are still somewhat complicated) where I don't have to touch stake funds. More importantly: I won't have to be responsible for stake funds. Except for one large order: Management will have to be self-management or management by a 3rd party. Client will need to set up a host service and allow me temp. admin access. Setups should take less than an hour providing the hosting service is set up and 1000DRK is ready.

MN Repair services: Considering this for a worthwhile fee but would rather just set up nodes and turn over admin access going forward.

All 4 nodes operated at a net loss from 6/25 to 8/2, with 2 of 4 nodes stake funds currently (and possibly permanently) inaccessible without some sort of developer (or divine) intervention. I wasn't trying to get instantly rich from offering this service but I can't operate at a net loss with what appears to be a coin that has twice showed me whimsical and capricious loss control of hard earned stake funds from external/internal factors at a 50% rate, and requires excessive babysitting for the nodes that do work without major issues.

I too am disappointed, not in your efforts DZ, but just in general that the service proved to be so difficult. I hope that in the not so distant future, we'll be able to once again join this venture with much greater success. I commend you for your efforts and your honesty and would like to tip you after the last batch of payouts and refunds go out. Thanks again for your efforts and I look forward to the opportunity to work with you again in the future.

Daddeo