Quote from: kano on October 18, 2016, 11:36:34 PM

I take it that the current relay network has been crappy for a while coz you decided you weren't getting enough sponsorship?
i.e. when the sponsorship isn't enough in your (unstated) opinion you just let it go to crap?
(No I've never sponsored it - but I do connect to every relay ... even the long dead hk one - our ckpool block relay is faster than using the relay to distribute to other relay nodes so I connect to all nodes to get our blocks out faster)

Yea, the HK one died after the host decided to wipe the drive on the server when the NIC failed....yes, you read that right. I didn't bother to re-install since a) I dont actually remember how to reinstall that stuff, and havent had time to look it up (FIBRE is so much easier...) and b) I want to turn the thing off for SegWit (though getting a public FIBRE network up has taken longer than expected :/.

Quote from: kano on October 18, 2016, 11:36:34 PM

Unless you have the top pools connected (i.e. every pool over a few % of the network) it's value is marginal so I'd think you should actually list the pools that are sponsoring and are connected - and update it when that changes - since that's not a large list.
I'd also suggest you whitelist access to most of it. That way you know who is connected and know it is still useful.
e.g. f2pool wasn't on the relay until long after the relay existed, and I've no idea if all of the 3 bitmain pools use it. Bitfury's high orphan rate at times makes me wonder if they have always used it.

Indeed, one of the things I'm planning on doing is listing those sponsoring on the site by putting their logo up. I assume if folks are paying 2-300$/month for something they will use it. Indeed, it was an uphill battle to get people to use it initially, but its much better these days. Bitfury still has some insanity occasionally, but I'm working with them to solve it.

Quote from: kano on October 18, 2016, 11:36:34 PM

Well I'm certainly no where near 7% of the network but I'll put forward ~$100 in BTC

a month towards it (as long as the biggest pools are on it)
N.B. none of my servers but the single main back end cost me even half of that

So I guess this network is either using an expensive provider or high end servers on every node

Yea, they're all dedicated servers since the random lag introduced by VPSes was incredibly annoying. Sadly, for dedicated servers, unlike virtual ones, it can be hard to get them in good locations in some places (APAC especially), and its also very nice to have them all on one network, so they're all on Softlayer. They're a bit more expensive than neccessary, but they have really, really good latency between any two points on their network (with the exception of JPY<->EU as they dont have TEA bandwidth), as well as solid peering in Tokyo/HK with PCCW/Pacnet, which is important for China.