Use Bitcoin miner for Peercoin

General
1

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to start mining on my private Peercoin fork (Testnet) and I’ve choosen ntgbt miner to do it, a simple miner which exploits the RPC commands. GitHub - vsergeev/ntgbtminer: A no thrills getblocktemplate Bitcoin miner, written in Python.

It can connect with the chain, but when submitting the new block it returns an error.
Submitting manually through the RPC with “submitblock” I get “Block does not start with a coinbase” and trying to decode the transaction with “decoderawtransaction” returns “TX decode failed”.

QUESTION

I was wondering if Bitcoin miners are still compatible with Peercoin ?
If not, what is the problem with this block / transaction ?
I was thinking to make this miner compatible also for Peercoin in case this is not too complicated…

TEMPLATE
{
“capabilities”: [
“proposal”
],
“version”: 3,
“rules”: [
“csv”,
“!segwit”
],
“previousblockhash”: “00005ba98b590b60c7df80b06a892993f5dd6235e54708480019426d38c1945f”,
“transactions”: [
],
“coinbaseaux”: {
},
“coinbasevalue”: 8408120000,
“longpollid”: “00005ba98b590b60c7df80b06a892993f5dd6235e54708480019426d38c1945f2”,
“target”: “0007ffff00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000”,
“mintime”: 1624194519,
“mutable”: [
“time”,
“transactions”,
“prevblock”
],
“noncerange”: “00000000ffffffff”,
“sigoplimit”: 80000,
“sizelimit”: 4000000,
“weightlimit”: 4000000,
“curtime”: 1625761879,
“bits”: “1f07ffff”,
“height”: 1,
“default_witness_commitment”: “6a24aa21a9ede2f61c3f71d1defd3fa999dfa36953755c690689799962b48bebd836974e8cf9”
}

GENERATED BLOCK

030000005f94c1386d421900480847e53562ddf59329896ab080dfc7600b598ba95b000016e5f8cb4524b74c25af4849e2334bd66ea5f519ba92ac76f12d8d111c2fce658928e760ffff071f8d5500000101000000010000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000ffffffff0c010161626364656600000000ffffffff01c0ba29f5010000001976a914aeae10fcd9256bbc45f8b2a09a4e2fba7e05178f88ac00000000

BLOCK DECOMPOSITION I DID (Reference: Bitcoin Technical Guide | Simple Explanations of How Bitcoin Works)

version: 03000000

previous hash: 5f94c1386d421900480847e53562ddf59329896ab080dfc7600b598ba95b0000
merkle root: 16e5f8cb4524b74c25af4849e2334bd66ea5f519ba92ac76f12d8d111c2fce65
time: 8928e760
bits: ffff071f
nonce: 8d55000001

version:01000000

#input
count: 01
txid: 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
ffffffff

#scriptsig
size: 0c
scriptSig: 010161626364656600000000
ffffffff

#output
count: 01
value: c0ba29f501000000
size: 19
scriptPubKey: 76 a9 14aeae10fcd9256bbc45f8b2a09a4e2fba7e05178f 88 ac #P2PKH

locktime: 00000000

NOTE

there was a similar unanswered question last year:

2

the tx format in peercoin is different from bitcoin. It contains the timestamp. You may have more luck setting up your own mining pool, rather than “solo” mining.

3

ok thanks nohea, I will try this one because nothing I’ve done so far seems to work.

EDIT: So just adding the time to the transaction will fix the compatibility problem ?

EDIT2: ok, adding timestamp does not solve, decoderawtransaction now is ok, but submitblock returns “Block decode failed - CDataStream::read(): end of data: unspecified iostream_category error”.

4

I used UNOMP a few years ago to do pooled mining with Peercoin and a forked chain. However that was before the Peercoin rebase on later bitcoin codebase. The tx binary format should be the same for the old and new Peercoin.
Last month i tried setup of NOMP pool software with Peercoin 0.10.x, it seems to launch but i didn’t have a SHA256 miner to test at the time.
If you are trying to fork your own, you got to learn all this stuff :sweat_smile:

5

it would be worth your while to look at peercoin branch of peercoin’s poolserver repository.

6

Ok I see the repo.
Thank you both, I’ll put my efforts on trying to set a pool. :+1:

7

this might be too old, but it was running the D7 ppc pool iirc: GitHub - chemicstry/poolserver: Cryptocurrency mining pool written in C++ for speed. Supports Stratum.
or this GitHub - hrobeers/poolserver: Cryptocurrency mining pool written in C++ for speed. Supports Stratum.

8

Thanks guys for your support, however for the moment I don’t know if I’ll have time to set up a pool since I’m running out of time with my thesis. :pray:

Thank you again, I hope you like the new Peercoin wallet UI. :iphone:

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