Quote from: BurningToad on July 06, 2011, 10:05:40 PM

Quote from: GimEEE on July 06, 2011, 02:13:16 PM

The problem with the wtfpps system is it operates under the false assumption of an infinite mining contract.
What if I mine on a wtfpps system for one full block of 30 minutes and receive a fraction of the normal proportional equivalent, then end the mining contract?
Doesn't the pool keep that unpaid difference (proportional expected - wtfpps rewarded)?
Simple example - The entire bitcoin network uses wtfpps for 5minutes, finds a block, then quits to go back to keeping their full earnings each round. Payout is maybe 25btc (or less in faster finds) and unpaid of 25btc. This extra 25 btc will be spent by the pool eventually won't it? Or you keep it in reserve ad infinitum in hopes of the whole bitcoin network giving you more work?
Am I missing something for the single block miner in this case?

2) Miner X mines for exactly one round in a SMPPS pool. Lets say the pool had an unlucky round, Miner X gets 15 BTC (because he had to mine for longer), while he would have gotten 10 BTC if the pool was set to proportional. This extra 5 BTC came from the buffer. (If there is a negative buffer, Miner X will get paid when the pool has a short round, even if he stops mining.)
. . . However, in scenario 2 the miner got paid an extra 5 BTC that he wouldn't have in a prop pool. . . .
. . . As has been obviously demonstrated in the OP, the proportional system is not perfect either. Would you like to have your earnings reduced by 12% because someone else is pool hopping while you are not? . . .

outside of the big 2 ppser's, I have the impression all the smaller wtfpps systems limit individual miner rewards to a MAXIMUM of proportional contributions over the length of the miner career. E.G. if a miner only mines one long round and quits, they got lucky and will get the full proportional amount (20% of shares gets 10BTC). The long term target of the wtfpps system approaches with infinite rounds is the proportional payout. Are there any miners that have received higher BTC credit than their share % contributed? I don't think so, they didn't on eligius at least. Please link their stats if I'm wrong.
Next - proportional being unfair - no, i don't think so. It never gives less than the submitted shares % of the round, never more.
It's just more fair to the miners with more omniscience of where to work at. The more informed miner with ability to locate fresh pools can get better odds per share.
Just like people can choose where to spend their BTC, some places will give better deals than others. It doesn't make it unfair to everyone spending btc at bad rates because the more informed buyer spends their btc strategically.
Also similar, the only way to capitalize it to have huge amounts of btc to spend to exploit your omniscience of market conditions. The same goes for mining, the more GH you have to rotate between pools, the more you can exploit good deals for submitted shares.
As I posted before, the easy fail safe solution is to simply delay stats by the average pool round time divided by 2 to actually punish the hoppers (give them worse deals for submitted shares), while the steady miners continue to enjoy proportional share rewards.
Of course this is a problem for pools starting out, and I can respect that if they want to not allow the poolhoppers to benefit from the pool by refusing (to continue with) proportional rewards for any of the miners.
Admittedly, *theoretically* the miner will get proportionally rewarded from the perfect pps system if they mine infinitely.
But it seems the wtfpps market is already dominated by eligius, shich offers no login, no signup for the wtfpps benefits. Plus some cool pictures, wow.