Any miner has heard the terms “share” and “share difficulty”. The concepts are important, including for making money, so you need to understand them. The article explains what a shara is, why it needs complexity, how a shara differs from solving a block, and why they should not be confused.
Ethereum mining pool. Source: 2Miners.com
Let's turn to the 2Miners Ethereum pool. The pool uses the PPLNS payment system, and the difficulty of the shares is indicated on the main mining pool - 8.6G. It looks like the designation of a mobile Internet network from the distant future, but it is not. Begin.
Difficulty of balls
Share: essence of the concept
The word “share” (the phonetic equivalent of the English word “share”) is translated as “share” - the share of the number of mining solutions proposed by the crypto miner’s equipment in relation to the total number of computational solutions, with the help of which the pool tries to find one correct one. The more powerful a participant’s mining equipment is, the more solutions it will offer – and the more work it will do for the common good. Therefore, the owner of the equipment can count on a greater reward regardless of whose device actually finds the block signature. If a crypto miner’s equipment in a pool is lucky enough to find the correct signature of a block, then theoretically (if the conditions of the pool allow) he can receive a reward both for the block found and for the size of the share of his equipment participating in crypto mining.
In fact, everything is a little more complicated. Therefore, to create a complete picture, let’s divide it into several semantic blocks:
- Connecting to the pool. In searching for a cryptographic signature of a block when working in highly complex crypto networks, a crypto miner with one computing device has virtually no chance of finding a solution that meets the network requirements. In systems like Bitcoin or Etherium, even using mining rigs with multiple video cards (for Etherium) or ASIC devices (for Bitcoin mining) can take years to find a solution on your own. To avoid this, crypto miners combine the power of their equipment into a pool - a common computing conglomerate that searches for a solution as one whole.
- Good and bad balls. If we roughly divide all the possible solutions, we get three conditional levels of difficulty:
- a block signature valid for the network, which is accepted into the blockchain and is considered the correct option - that is, this is the solution, which is sometimes called a “solo share”;
- a computation option that is already quite difficult to find, but which is not yet good enough to be considered satisfying the complexity of the network;
- a calculation option that does not satisfy not only the complexity of the network, but also the pool criteria - “garbage” versions of calculations that are not taken into account in the calculations. The balls in this division are the mid-level versions, which have not yet become the right solution, but which have already demonstrated “serious intentions” in mining - the degree of equipment participation in the search for successful rewarded signatures.
- Distribution of rewards in mining. When the pool finds the signature of a transaction block (that is, a suitable solution), it does not matter whose ASIC, video card or central processor made this calculation, because the pool reward is distributed in proportion to participation in mining - in proportion to the power of the resources, involved in cryptocurrency mining. And this power is determined by the number of shares sent, corresponding to the complexity of the pool. At the same time, there are different remuneration distribution models in which this participation is calculated slightly differently.
The hashrate on the pool is different from the hashrate on the Hive OS control panel. Why?
The hashrate on a pool is calculated from the number of decisions made by the pool in a certain unit of time and displays the average value. It should be taken into account that not all solutions sent by your worker are correct or do not arrive late. It depends on the connection quality and speed (Ping). The lower the ping, the faster the pool will receive decisions from your worker. Therefore, there is less chance that the solution will not be relevant and the pool will not reject it. Thus, the speed displayed on the pool will be closer to that displayed on the control panel. But it will always be a little smaller.
The effective hashrate of a miner on a pool differs in that only accepted and late balls are taken into account.
Why are balls needed?
In addition to the fact that shares are needed to find the digital signature of a new block, they are used as a miner identifier. The difficulty of mining any alts is growing exponentially; accordingly, it is extremely difficult to find a block on one PC or farm. This will take from several months to 2-3 years. The problem is solved by uniting miners into a community - pool.
Since there are many pool participants, and there is only one reward per block, profits are distributed among miners in proportion to their contribution. Each share contains a non-repeating digital signature of the miner. It cannot be faked, copied or changed. Accordingly, the procedure for distributing alts becomes as transparent and fair as possible.
What is Pool Luck?
This is a metric that shows how many shares it takes for a pool to find a block, relative to the average number of shares required to find a block. If the luck is above 100%, then the pool needs less ball than expected for a given difficulty. If the luck is below 100%, then a larger ball was needed. Luck only shows the history of the pool and cannot be used to predict future blocks. Finding a block is completely random, so joining a pool when luck is high and leaving when luck is low doesn't make any sense.
Differences between balls and hashes
The system automatically adjusts the calculation complexity of the block signing key, which makes it difficult to calculate hashes as the overall network capacity increases. For example, Bitcoin blocks must be closed every 10 minutes. If more miners join the network or they upgrade their equipment, the settlement speed increases and the block closing time decreases. In response, the algorithm increases the complexity of the calculations and restores the duration of block closure.
By accepting hashes, the blockchain algorithm evaluates the complexity of calculations and weeds out keys whose complexity is “worse” than the specified one. The resource takes these hashes, which are not accepted by the blockchain, as proof of the work of each miner.
Blockchain requires a valid hash as PoW, but this indicator is not suitable for correctly accounting for pool performance. The probability of obtaining a valid key during solo mining is approximately 1 hash in a year and a half of continuous calculations. However, by participating in distributed computing, they contribute to the common good. It also depends on the quality of the data transmission channel (if access to the Internet is unstable, keys may be lost without reaching the recipient). The pool keeps a count of the number of accepted shares from each miner. The good ones are accepted as hashes, the bad ones serve as a measure of performance.
For this purpose, the resource sets its own difficulty criterion to help select good shares. The difference between a hash is that the hash meets the requirements of the blockchain, and the share meets the requirements of the pool.
For example, at a difficulty of 1000, the pool sets its own difficulty limit to account for eligible "parts". For example, 10. In this case, all “hashe candidates” whose complexity is below 1000 and above 10 are counted by the site as balls. If a participant is lucky enough to “get” a key with a difficulty above 1000, the pool will send it to the blockchain and receive a reward for its publication.
How to reduce the difference in hashrate values (hashrate gap)?
There is usually some significant difference between the stated hashrate and the average hashrate. This is considered normal, so don't worry too much about the stated hashrate. The higher the stated figure, the better the average hashrate. But keep in mind that if you overclock your workers too much, your actual hashrate will drop dramatically, creating a gap between the advertised and actual hashrate. This will affect your payments.
- The actual hashrate is the most important statistic. The higher the better. Use reasonable overclocks to achieve this goal.
- Keep a small gap between the stated and actual hashrate.
- If your actual hashrate is much lower than advertised, your worker is most likely overclocked and not achieving the required efficiency. Your hashrate may be higher, but you generate more rejected or invalid hashes. Miner logs can confirm this in most cases.
- A large number of late shares can affect your effective hashrate. Check your internet connection. Wi-Fi will result in more late balloons.
- Fluctuations in actual hashrate are normal.
- The higher the average hashrate, the better for your performance. Remember that this is not a race, but a marathon.
Signs of a delayed balloon
In a pool system, the following may happen: the system does not send the “hang up” command, or the working client program for some reason does not understand the action of the cause, that is, it does not understand the “hang up” command, and then approximately 0.5-1. 5% share will be considered obsolete.
The hang-up principle itself is implemented through the long polling program.
Sometimes there are a large number of outdated shares on the network, for example ethermine stale shares, if the pool power parameters are very high and your ping is below average. In some cases, the problem may lie in other reasons, for example, your farm is freezing.
The reasons may be different, the same “glitch” of removing the statistics program, for example, from something systemic (in this case, network parameters), in addition to this, other reasons may arise: peak percentage loads; network driver problems; unexpected “whims” of the antivirus program; you have accessed a faulty hard drive or other system input/output parameters.
AMD Driver Update
Drivers for AMD cards are updated only with the image. To select the version you need, first launch Hive Shell. You can find it in the web interface of your worker here:
After that, click on this icon:
We ended up in the Hive Shell. Now enter the command:
hive-replace --list
A list of all available images appeared before us. Driver versions are indicated next to them. If you need the latest version of AMD drivers, then simply enter the number of the Last stable image:
After that, wait for the new image and drivers to be installed.
You can also update AMD drivers with one command. To do this, in Hive Shell, enter:
hive-replace -y --stable
The installation of the latest stable image and the latest drivers will begin.
How can I solve the problem?
The largest percentage of reasons for the occurrence of outdated shares among miners is due to improper connection of the contacts of the equipment for the mining farm.
In most cases, Stale Shares are not perceived by the system as an error; the computer simply does not have time to transfer the share to the pool in time.
Naturally, the appearance of obsolete shares ultimately has an impact on the “miner pay fund.”
The advice is this: to avoid the appearance of outdated balls, achieve long and maximum perfect operation of your structural parts of the trusses without freezing, and you also need to reduce the occurrence of possible overloads.
If necessary, reduce the overclocking values, in particular the numbers for MH/S. Even if the indicators are lower for overclocking, you will achieve uninterrupted operation of your equipment and then you will not have problems with the appearance of belated balls.
The worst thing for an experienced miner is the pursuit of good MH/S indicators, as a result of which the technical base of the farm suffers, and, consequently, you lose your earned money.
So, excessive overclocking of the video card has a negative impact on the operation of the system itself, where signs of freezing and overload appear, as a result of which input-output contacts or other things become loose, and during the mining process a lot of Stale Shares suddenly pop up.
Updating Nvidia Drivers
To update Nvidia drivers we will need Hive Shell again. To view all driver versions available for download, you can enter the command:
nvidia-driver-update --list
A list of all drivers available for download and installation will appear. Type the version you need and press Enter.
After installation, the worker will reboot. Your drivers are up to date.
Balls and mining safety
A common question among beginners is why a miner should send a valid share suitable for signing a data block to the pool. After all, it is more profitable to send it to the blockchain and receive the reward yourself.
The pool operating system is organized in such a way that all balls carry information about the resource for which they are intended. Therefore, the resource will receive coins regardless of whether a valid key is sent directly from it or from another source. Balls without pool information are simply invalid.
Miners cannot “reassemble” the signature on their own. They do not receive the contents of the entire block for which the signature needs to be calculated. To work, all you need is a header with hashes of the actual contents of the block. That is, a worker without a pool is not able to collect and send a valid hash.
The only harm that a miner can theoretically cause is not to send the found valid key to the resource. Such an action causes more harm to the group than to an individual. Theoretically, if you have your own computing power, such an attack could bring some benefit. It is called a “block holding attack” and increases the chances of an attacker independently finding and presenting the hash. But such systematic actions are quickly calculated by resource owners when analyzing statistical data. And they can only benefit powerful opponents, and not small miners. Therefore, attempts to use such attacks in practice are extremely rare.
As a result, the balls are only used as proof of the worker’s participation in the search for keys and serve to calculate the final reward.
Models of distribution of rewards “from participation” in mining
There are many ways to assess the participation of crypto mining equipment in mining: PPS, PPLNS, PPLNT, PROP, etc. All these abbreviations are abbreviations for the English description of the contents of the model. So, for example, PPLNS stands for “Pay Per Last N Shares,” which translates as “payment for the last N shares,” and PPS stands for “Pay Per Shares,” which translates as “payment per share.”
- P.P.S. The simplest and most common way to distribute rewards in mining. The reward is given to all participants in accordance with the share of balls poured into the “pool” during the entire block search period.
- PPLNS. According to the accrual method, the miner also receives payment for his shares, but the structural unit is no longer the period “from finding to finding a block” (as, for example, in RBPPS), but the number of last accounting shares specified by the administrators. For example, if in the “Pay Per Last N Shares” formula N = 10,000, then when dividing the reward, it is calculated how many shares out of these 10,000 the miner sent. The number N is assigned by pool administrators. So, if for a found block in Ethereum they give 3 ETH, then the user who sent his 1000 shares out of 10 thousand, if the entire pool is successful, will receive a share of 0.3 ETH.
- RBPPS (Round Based Pay Per Share) is another way of accruing rewards in mining. Pool, which works on the RBPPS principle, calculates the percentage of share-based equipment involved in mining within the mining of one block. It is much less common than the two previous methods.
There are other ways to distribute mining income, but here are the ones that count the shares.
Total
I tried it on. Where this rig is located (now I call computers rigs) it’s cool, but the memory is really hot - 100-102 degrees in mining mode, although in games it’s about 80. Such things. A little history
Memory overheating
The frequency and voltage on the GPU are set through the curve in MSI afterburner at 1400Mhz and 0.743v, so that consumption does not go beyond 70% (
Definitely, you shouldn’t waste memory on the cards after mining. For games, the increase is small, but the risks increase.
Error 511
“Autofan: GPU temperature 511 is unreal, driver error”, also known as error 511, usually looks like this:
If this error occurs, you need to check the risers, their connections, cables and power connectors. Perhaps a cable or connector has come loose or melted somewhere.
To find out which cards are causing this error, click on it. A log like this will open:
In this case, you need to check the risers, cables and connectors of the second and seventh cards on the bus. The number of the card on the bus is under the GPU number of each card in the worker.
Conclusion
Crypto mining pools provide an exciting approach to mining. They are cost effective and can offer a number of benefits to members. Especially since then. How do you get to mining in your own power. Your rewards won't be the same though. Like when you decide to mine gold alone. Your earnings should accumulate over time. And you should make a significant profit.
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Content
- What is a share in mining?
- How PPLNS Payouts Work
- Difficulty of balls
- Relationship between the difficulty of shares and the difficulty of mining
Let's take a closer look at what a shara is, why it needs complexity, how a shara differs from solving a block, and why they should not be confused.
To understand the material well, we strongly recommend reading the article What is mining? Good luck with mining, or better yet, the entire Crypto Bible. Let's turn to the Ethereum 2Miners pool. The pool uses the PPLNS payment system, and the difficulty of the shares is indicated on the main pool - 4G. It looks like a designation for a mobile Internet network, but it is not. Let's deal with everything in order.
