Sounds like a problem with the pool and not with orphans.

Thank you for the details. We have contacted this pool operator. This seems to be a problem with this particular pool.

Please recognize that Proof of Work (PoW) mining efficiency will go down as more blocks are found by Proof Of Stake (PoS). So don't be surprised to have more difficulty finding blocks by PoW, even when the nominal difficulty is low. For example, the nominal PoW difficulty right now is 0.293. However, the difficulty realized by PoW miners is approximately 0.9, due to competition from PoS, which is responsible for 21 of the last 30 blocks (at 274729). No preference is given to PoS minting relative to PoW mining, but over time, the amount of eligible stake will go up, resulting in a greatly increased competition from PoS minters.

It is getting near the point in EBT's life cycle that creating new coins is probably easiest done by buying EBT from an exchange and letting it stake to mint transactions. That minting becomes more efficient relative to mining over time is a designed property of PoW/PoS coins like EBT.

Carful examination of the pool reveals that it is functioning as expected. Pos blocks will quite often orphan pow blocks due to increasing PoS mining capacity on the network.

Thank you for your continued support of my pool

Very neat!

@Dsync:

Seems like a bit of trouble in the pplns?  I see a lot of zeros on the 'block stats' page.  No large deal, but curious as to when I can see the massive pile of EBT I mined from last night?  Thanks!

User: EBTisTaxes
ID:    479

According to our programmers, this is not a bug and you are seeing the correct value. 250,000,000 is the coinbase for the current PoW blocks through 300,000.

Here is the relevant code:

util.h

main.cpp

The EBT COIN definition is only 1,000,000 (compared to BTC's 100,000,000) for a couple of reasons. First, EBT has 250,000,000 total coins by Proof of Work. BTC has roughly 10x fewer total coins. Second, EBT will continue to create coins by Proof of Stake indefinitely. The definition of COIN for EBT takes both factors into account, adjusting the total number of indivisible units of EBT to be comparable to BTC, after approximately 45 years of interest by EBT.

In principle, you need to know the source code value of COIN for any bitcoin descendent, including EBT and BTC itself. For EBT it will never change without a major announcement, so you can count on its being 1,000,000 for many years.

If it would be helpful, we can add a remote procedure call (RPC) named something like "getcoinbaseincoin" that returns the value of the coinbase for the current block in EBT.

Otherwise, just be aware of EBT's value for COIN.

from block 280036 to block 280037 is 26 minutes
all POW mined in that 26 minutes was orphaned, so the issue with lagging POS is still the same after update (or with something else)

same for 280047 to 280048 in 37 minutes

transactions was orphaned too, and then reconfirmed

This behavior looks like the result of normal activity. The mining difficulty seems to periodically drop very low and it looks like miners take advantage of the situation. When that happens, PoS blocks get orphaned, the difficulty goes up, and then block times temporarily get very long.

You can verify by observing short block times in the preceding blocks.

There is nothing we can do to control the miners. However, you'll notice that the long block times are temporary and recover reasonably quickly.

*sigh*

Still no word from Dsync.  PPLNS looks broken, goose eggs all the way down the block stats page.  No one answered in IRC yesterday... maybe on vacation?

Ah, well.  I really like the dark UI on argakiig.  Block and day estimates are off by a mile, way high, but that's minor.