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Pooling FAQ

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Mariano Sorgente edited this page Jun 30, 2021 · 163 revisions

General FAQ

When will Chia official pooling software be released?

Launch of pools is continuing to move forward steadily. We first need to launch it on testnet for integration testing. Afterwards, pool operators will need time to adapt their pooling code to use Chia's method to calculate farmer's share, collect to pool wallet, and distribute XCH to pool participants. For non-developers, reference code is just that, a reference to use when building your own solution. It is not a turn-key solution someone can immediately deploy and run without the right skillset, time, and effort to make the modifications needed for your own use.

How can I participate in testnet?

testnet is specifically designed for only programmers and technical testers to participate in. When we do release Chia official pooling software to testnet, we will provide enough instructions that experienced technical testers can do it. It won't be easily accessible for the average consumer and we will not provide support.

Will I need to replot to use the official pooling protocol?

Yes. Anyone who wants to join a pool will need to create new K32 or above portable plots. This new plot format allows you to switch between pools and self-pooling with a cooldown of ~30 minutes (100 blocks) between each switch. Each switch between pools will require a transaction with a smart contract on the blockchain. Our recommendation is to slowly replace your existing plots with portable plots one by one, so you still have a chance to win XCH while you convert to all portable plots.

When can I start creating portable plots?

Support for portable plots will be released sometime in June on testnet. Testnet portable plots are focused on finding bugs and cannot be used in mainnet. Using testnet code to create mainnet portable plots carries huge risk that bugs in the smart contract will make the plots non-viable and require replotting. We recommend you wait for mainnet launch before plotting portable plots.

Will I need pay XCH to create a Pool NFT or switch pools?

Each Pool NFT you create will require a minimum of 1 mojo (1 trillionth of a XCH) + transaction fee. For switching pools, you need to pay only a transaction fee. to switch pools. On the first few days of pool launch on mainnet, it's likely you can use 0 transaction fee. For those who don't have any XCH, you can get 100 mojos from Chia's official faucet: https://faucet.chia.net/

Can I farm with both OG (original) plots and portable plots?

Yes. The farmer will support both OG plots and portable plots on one machine.

How do I assign portable plots to a pool?

First you will create a Plot NFT (devs call this singleton in their code) in the new pools tab in the GUI. When you create a new portable plot, you must assign it a specific Plot NFT (for those using CLI, this replaces the Pool Public Key -p with a Pool Contract Address -c). All plots created with the same Plot NFT can then be assigned to a pool for farming.

How is Chia pooling different from other cryptos?

Chia has three major differences from most other crypto pooling protocol: 1) Joining pools are permissionless. You do not need to sign up to an account on a pool server before joining. 2) Farmers receive 1/8th of XCH rewards plus transaction fees, while the pool receives 7/8th of XCH rewards to redistribute (minus pool fees) amongst all pool participants. 3) The farmer with the winning proof will farm the block, not the pool server.

How can I start my own pool?

If you have experience writing pool server code for another crypto, adapting that pool code with Chia's reference pool code will be straight forward. We only recommend people who have good OPSEC and business experience to run public pool servers. Depending what country you operate your pooling business, you may be subject to tax, AML and KYC laws specific to your jurisdiction. All pools will be targeted by hackers due to the profitability of XCH and you may be legally liable if you have any losses.

Where can I find a list of Chia pools?

A crypto community site lists all upcoming Chia pools: https://miningpoolstats.stream/chia

Can I advertise my pool in Keybase?

You can only advertise your pool in Keybase @chia_network.public#pools once a day. If you're spammy, mods will warn you and then ban you if you persist.

Why shouldn't I join Hpool?

Hpool has created their own version of Chia client that has no source code released with it. There is no telling what kind of malicious activity that client can do. Chia Network Inc discourages everyone from joining any pool that requires custom closed source clients.

Why doesn't Chia run their own official pool?

We want there to be a healthy ecosystem of competing pools with no privileged official one having an unfair advantage over the others.

Can I name my pool chiapool.com?

We are not going to allow pools to use "Chia" as the first word or its equivalent (the chia pool). You can say things like "a Chia pool" though that will probably need a free and easy to get license. Go to https://www.chia.net/terms/ to get more information on obtaining a license.

If a pool gets 51% of netspace, can they take over the network?

No, Chia's pooling protocol is designed where the blocks are farmed by individual farmer, but the pooling rewards go to the pool operator's wallet. This ensures that even if a pool has 51% netspace, they would also need to control ALL of the farmer nodes (with the 51% netspace) to do any malicious activity. This will be very difficult unless ALL the farmers (with the 51% netspace) downloaded the same malicious Chia client programmed by a Bram like level genius.

I have more questions, where do I ask?

Join our dedicated Keybase room: @chia_network.public#pools

Friendly reminder: do NOT at @ or Direct Message (DM) developers or mods. Just post your questions in Keybase and we will answer when we have a moment.

Technical FAQ

Why isn't the pool reference code working?

Currently the Pool Reference Code isn't fully functional, as there are a lot pieces that need to be checked in all Chia-Network repos. Devs are being transparent in providing early preview of what's going on. While all the pieces are being built out and you see progress, please be patient.

We feel being able to give you early access allows you to start framing your thinking about the work that needs to be done. It's likely the code will change many times before it becomes 1.0.

What programming language is the reference pool code written in?

Python

How hard is it to adapt Chia's reference pool code to my pool code?

If you've written pool code before, the reference pool code will be easy to understand. It's just replacing PoW concepts with Chia's method of evaluating each farmer's participation via PoST and adapting collection and distribution of XCH using Chia's smart contracts.

I am a programmer, but never wrote pool code, will I be able to run a pool with Chia's reference pool code?

If it's your first time writing pool code, we recommend you look at established BTC or ETH pools source code and features they provide users. You are likely going to compete with big time pool operators from those crypto communities who will provide feature rich pools for Chia on day one. Examples of features: leaderboards, wallet explorer, random prizes, tiered pool fees, etc.

Variable names used in pooling code

  • puzzlehash: an address but in a different format. Addresses are human readable.
  • singleton: a smart coin (contract) that guaranteed to be unique and controlled by the user.
  • singleton_genesis: unique ID of the singleton.
  • points: represent the amount of farming that a farmer has done. It is calculated by number of proofs submitted, weighted by difficulty. One k32 farms 10 points per day. To accumulate 1000 points you need 10 TiB farming for a day. This is equivalent to shares in PoW pools.

How does one calculate a farmer's netspace?

Farmers will be sending partial proofs (proofs with lower difficulty than the blockchain) to prove netspace. We expect the farmer to send partial proofs based on a current signage point to the pool server every 5 minutes (averaging 300 proofs a day) within a 25 second window. Farmers will be able to suggest a difficulty that lets them submit the least number of proofs that prove their netspace, but Pool servers will ultimately set the minimum difficulty Farmers must send their partial proofs at.

How does difficulty affect farmer's netspace calculation?

Difficulty is linear. Imagine this scenario: Obtaining 10 proofs a day with difficulty 1 for a k32, is equivalent to obtaining 1 proof a day with difficulty 10. As a pool server, you prefer to receive 1 proof a day per K32 with difficulty 10. This is why we allow pool servers to set a minimum difficulty level to reduce the number of proofs each farmer needs to send to prove their netspace.

How do you identify the farmer that submitted partial proofs?

The farmer will provide their singleton_genesis which is the ID of that farmer's pool group. They will also provide their Farmer Public Key, so the pool server can validate the proof and verify the farmer signed it properly.

Will pool servers need to keep track of all farmers and their share of rewards?

Yes, the pool operator will need to write code to keep track of all farmers and their share of rewards. Chia's pool protocol assumes no registration is needed to join a pool, so every singelton_genesis that submits a valid partial proof needs to be tracked by the pool server.

What actions can singleton take?

There are a few things you can do to the singleton:

  • Change pool (needs owner signature)
  • Escape pool, this is announcing that you will change pool (needs owner signature)
  • Claim rewards (does not need any signature, it goes to the specified address in the singleton)

How do pool collect rewards?

  • Farmer joins a pool, they will assign their singleton to the pool_puzzle_hash.
  • When a farmer wins a block, the pool rewards will be sent to the p2_singleton_puzzle_hash.
  • Pool will scan blockchain to find new rewards sent to Farmer's singletons.
  • The pool will send a request to claim rewards to the winning Farmer's singleton.
  • Farmer's singleton will send pool rewards XCH to pool_puzzle_hash.

How can I tell if the server is receiving enough partials from a particular client?

The number of partials received is the only thing the pool is aware of, the pool does not know the exact total space of the farmer. The space can be computed using the fact that each k32 plot will earn on average 10 points a day, on mainnet. That means if the difficulty is set to 1, that's 10 partials per day, if the difficulty is 10, 1 partial per day per k32 plot.

Why am I receiving more points in testnet than mainnet?

The 10 points per day per k32 plot only applies to mainnet, which has a DIFFICULTY_CONSTANT_FACTOR of 2^67. To get the points per day per k32 on testnet, divide 2^67 by the testnet DIFFICULTY_CONSTANT_FACTOR, found in config.yaml, and multiply by 10. This allows participating easily with k25s on testnet.

What is the expected ratio between a k32 and a k25?

Look at the file win_simulation.py on this repo. This uses the function _expected_plot_size from chia blockchain, which uses the formula: ((2 * k) + 1) * (2 ** (k - 1)) to compute plot size. Plug in your k values and divide.

How to calculate how many partials with X difficulty a certain plot with Y size can get in Z time?

Look at the win_simulation.py file.

Can I use testnet pooling plots on mainnet?

No, you can only use plots created for mainnet in mainnet, and same for testnet.

Does that mean that forks of Chia cannot use these pooling plots?

Forks of Chia can easily use these pooling plots by sending the 1.75XCH to the farmer target address, making them all solo plots. If the alternate blockchain wants to do pooling as well, they need to create a special transaction which reserves a singleton by providing the launcher_id, and launcher spend (including owner signature). Then the code can automatically assign this singleton to the user who submitted it.

What are the API methods a pool server needs to support Chia clients?

There are two API methods that the pool HTTP server has to support: get-pool-info and submit-partial

@dataclass(frozen=True)
@streamable
class PoolInfo(Streamable):
    name: str
    logo_url: str
    minimum_difficulty: uint64
    relative_lock_height: uint32
    protocol_version: str
    fee: str
    description: str
    pool_puzzle_hash: bytes32


@dataclass(frozen=True)
@streamable
class PartialPayload(Streamable):
    proof_of_space: ProofOfSpace
    sp_hash: bytes32
    end_of_sub_slot: bool
    suggested_difficulty: uint64  # This is suggested the difficulty threshold for this account
    singleton_genesis: bytes32  # This is what identifies the farmer's account for the pool
    owner_public_key: G1Element  # Current public key specified in the singleton
    rewards_target: bytes  # The farmer can choose where to send the rewards. This can take a few minutes


@dataclass(frozen=True)
@streamable
class SubmitPartial(Streamable):
    payload: PartialPayload
    rewards_and_partial_aggregate_signature: G2Element  # Signature of rewards by singleton key, and partial by plot key


@dataclass(frozen=True)
@streamable
class RespondSubmitPartial(Streamable):
    error_code: uint16
    error_message: Optional[str]
    points_balance: uint64
    difficulty: uint64  # Current difficulty that the pool is using to give credit to this farmer

Where can I see the Chia Pool Reference Code?

Note: this is a work in progress draft, not fully functional and likely to change before 1.0 release.

You can find it here: https://github.com/Chia-Network/pool-reference

Why don't we give documentation or support dev preview of pooling code?

We don't support dev preview of pooling code for a few reasons: 1) it's work in progress, and will continue to change as we get closer to launch; 2) we need devs focused on completing the 1.0 version of pooling code, and every question that they take time to answer increases the chances we will slip; 3) pooling is a very complicated set of software not meant for inexperienced coders to get involved with. The pooling code is not a turn-key solution without additional development efforts from the pool operator, and generally speaking, if this question is relevant to you then odds are you do not have the existing experience needed to successfully (and securely) run a pool unassisted at this time.

Where can I see the video Technical Q&A on Chia Pooling:

For those interested in the Chia Pools for Pool Operators video and presentation, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/XzSZwxowPzw https://www.chia.net/assets/presentations/2021-06-02_Pooling_for_Pool_Operators.pdf

Features Requests to Devs

No new feature requests taken at this time.

Outstanding Questions to Devs

chris222 - keybase://chat/chia_network.public#pools/12180

  • how the pooling harvester will work
  • how the pooling singleton will work
  • Why is the escape time something a pool can define? Why not a fixed value?

xch_pool - keybase://chat/chia_network.public#pools/12947 Q: is there any kind of estimate how many partials the current reference code can check per second on a single CPU thread on lets say a recent i7?

Draft FAQ Items

Important Keybase conversations captured that needs to be converted to FAQ items. All items below will be cleaned up, this is just a place to temporarily cut and paste conversations in Keybase as a place holder:

All caught up at the moment!

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