Why would a miner who is not bitmain use ASICBOOST on antpool? I don't think it produces more shares, so anypool would pay out the same as if it was not being used, and additional investment would have to be made on the part of the miner.
Because you need a stratum server that supports ASICBOOST for it to work. Currently only antpool does, but there is rumours slush may add support for it. It doesn't pay out more shares but reduces power consumption.
I'm not saying bitmain is mining on antpool. I have no idea if they are nor have I any idea if they use ASICBoost for their farms. I'm saying normal joe bloggs has figured out how to turn on asicboost and is using it on antpool.
i'm confused... before i heard there is no pool that allows it... then someone else mentioned that : that would be overt mining, and this is covert asicboost... so does overt vs covert require the pool configuration?? You sound like youre somewhat knowledgeable, ... i still think its all a huge distraction from scaling and bigger blocks, but its interesting, so give us the gangster deets.
https://blog.bitmain.com/en/regarding-recent-allegations-smear-campaigns/
Bitmain admits they have used it on a test network but not for actual mining. The only issue I see around asicboost is Bitmain holds a patent on it, at least in China. Other than that, I all for whatever can be done to reduce the amount of work necessary to find a block. However I'm in the process of writing my third miner and I may decide to build a hardware implementation of it. These though are for my own use as I really dislike supporting software, that is what I do for a living I don't need to do it for my own personal business.
What a lot of people seem not relies is. Just because something is tested. And just because something is patented. Doesn't mean it will ever work.