Actually P2Pool mining is really simple because you don't need to register any account anywhere. You can find existing P2pool nodes here:
http://p2pool.hostv.pl/I use
http://pool.fabulouspanda.co.uk:9332/static/ for example.
All one needs to do is to start the miner like that:
./bfgminer -o
http://pool.fabulouspanda.co.uk:9332 -u 1DmMArx84zA6fpAsvDzrR1hsjnFgC5h6EK -p whatever
where username is your receiving address and password can be anything.
Also, people who wish to donate to P2P miners can go here:
https://blockchain.info/blocks/P2Pooland they will see the latest blocks found by P2Pool. Clicking on any of the blocks gives you a list of addresses that participated in finding the block so a donations could be sent to the same addresses.
If anyone is interested in monitoring your P2Pool mining effort, I created this Linux shell script that I can gladly share with you:
#!/bin/sh
#When hashrate falls below `minimal_hashrate` the alarm goes off.
minimal_hashrate=30
#Only if current time is more than `first_active_hour` the script can raise alarm. This is to be quiet during the night.
first_active_hour=10
#To change the number of idle seconds after checking metrics modify the following variable:
script_frequency=300
#P2Pool:
pool_addr="http://pool.fabulouspanda.co.uk:9332"
btc_addr="1DmMArx84zA6fpAsvDzrR1hsjnFgC5h6EK"
#Helper variables:
last_hash=""
pool_fee=""
first_run="yes"
echo -en "\033]0;ASIC Stats\a"
while :
do
hashrate=`curl -s $pool_addr'/local_stats' | grep -Po '"'$btc_addr'":(.+?),' | tail -1 | cut -d' ' -f 2 | cut -d'.' -f 1`
newest_hash=`curl -s $pool_addr'/recent_blocks' | grep -Po '"hash":(.+?),' | head -1 | cut -d' ' -f 2 | cut -d'"' -f 2`
now=`date`
hour=`date +%H`
orig="$hashrate"
if echo "$hashrate" | egrep -q '^[0-9]+$'; then
hashrate=$(($hashrate/1000000000))
printf "%s: Hashrate: %-16s%8s " "$now" "\"$orig\"" "$hashrate GHs"
else
hashrate=0
printf "%s: %24s " "$now" "NO CONNECTION"
fi
if test "$minimal_hashrate" -gt "$hashrate"
then
printf "(\033[1;31m%s\033[0m)\n" 'FAIL'
test "$hour" -gt "$first_active_hour" && (beep -l 350 -f 392 -D 100)
else
printf "(\033[1;32m%s\033[0m)\n" 'OK'
fi
if [ "$last_hash" != "$newest_hash" ]
then
if [ "$first_run" != "yes" ]
then
payout=`curl -s $pool_addr'/current_payouts' | grep -Po '"'$btc_addr'":(.+?),' | cut -d' ' -f 2 | cut -d',' -f 1`
pool_fee=`curl -s $pool_addr'/fee'`
printf "\033[1;35m%s\033[0m\n" "$newest_hash"
printf "Payout: \033[1;33m%46s\033[0m BTC\n" "+$payout"
printf "Pool fee: \033[1;31m%46s\033[0m %%\n" "$pool_fee"
test "$hour" -gt "$first_active_hour" && (beep -l 300 -f 100 -n -l 300 -f 112 -n -l 300 -f 126 -n -l 300 -f 100 -n -l 300 -f 100 -n -l 300 -f 112 -n -l 300 -f 126 -n -l 300 -f 100 -n -l 300 -f 126 -n -l 300 -f 133 -n -l 600 -f 150 -n -l 300 -f 126 -n -l 300 -f 133 -n -l 600 -f 150 -n -l 150 -f 150 -n -l 150 -f 168 -n -l 150 -f 150 -n -l 150 -f 133 -n -l 300 -f 126 -n -l 300 -f 100 -n -l 150 -f 150 -n -l 150 -f 168 -n -l 150 -f 150 -n -l 150 -f 133 -n -l 300 -f 126 -n -l 300 -f 100 -n -l 300 -f 100 -n -l 300 -f 75 -n -l 600 -f 100 -n -l 300 -f 100 -n -l 300 -f 75 -n -l 600 -f 100)
else
printf "\033[1;35m%s\033[0m\n" "$newest_hash"
fi
last_hash=$newest_hash
fi
first_run=""
sleep "$script_frequency"
done
The above script will play a PC speaker melody if the pool finds a block and it will make a single bleep if your miner is not producing enough GHashes per second. the
beep command requires the PC speaker to be enabled however, which is another story.
Well, that is a start, but my miners are in a room no one really ever enters, and i would prefer not having to actually enter the room and look every time if my miner is still running or not. I would prefer being able to see it from a browser plugin (on another computer), or on my phone. Or both.
Many of you here discus profitability, while miners obviously care about profit, ease of use is also a very important issue. I can't be the only one who does not want or is even unable to physically check up on their miner on a regular basis. And like I also said before, options like splitting the coins between multiple wallets without having to think about it would also be very handy to have.
Most of the popular mining pools offer many tools and utilities that, as far as i know of, P2P lacks.
I would join P2P pool even if they would not give donations, just to ensure security of the network, but so far only the most popular pools offer the kind of utility i want to have. The popular pools are popular for a reason guys, and that reason is not just less variance and lower fees.
I am perfectly aware of the risk of Ghash being too big, but like i already stated and has been quoted several times, i just want to set up my miner once and forget about it, and as long as i can't do that with P2P, P2P just is not an option no matter what rewards they promise. I have other things to do than worry about my miner.
Of course i'm just one miner out of many but i can't be the only one who thinks like this.
Btw i know how cgminer and such work, (some miners may not know, but you can probably assume most miners know).
I was thinking that eventually bitcoin holders may have to actually mine at a small loss in order to protect their coins. This would then mean bitcoin would be a depreciating asset? Once we see a leveling of the hash rate my hope is mining will return to the beginnings when individuals could run machines at home and collectively "donate" hashes for the collective. As long as enough people did this it would be effective.
that worked when all of the home miners were technologically capable.
Imagine what would happen if literally every home computer would mine.
It would only take 1 zombie botnet to attack the blockchain.
It's not as good an idea as it sounds, you can't expect to educate billions of people.
