p2pool-go-VTC (Beta)

This is a modern, from-scratch implementation of a peer-to-peer (p2pool) mining pool for Vertcoin, written entirely in Go. It is designed for performance, stability, and ease of use.

This project is currently in a beta testing phase. It is functional, connects to the live p2pool network, and can accept shares from miners, but should be considered experimental until it has found its first block and successfully processed a payout.

---

Features

The node is functional, with all core logic for P2P networking, share processing, and payouts implemented.

• Full Stratum Server: Allows any standard Verthash mining software to connect.
• P2P Networking: Connects to Go nodes to form a decentralized mining network.
• Live Web Dashboard: A built-in web interface automatically refreshes every 5 seconds to display real-time pool and miner statistics in a clean, pretty-printed JSON format.
• Color-Coded Logging: Important events like finding blocks, receiving new work, and warnings are color-coded in the console for easy monitoring at a glance.
• Automatic PPLNS Payouts: Automatically calculates and distributes block rewards based on the Pay-Per-Last-N-Shares model.
• Robust Variable Difficulty (Vardiff): A stable and highly configurable vardiff engine automatically adjusts difficulty for miners of all sizes.
• Daemon Integration: Communicates directly with your Vertcoin daemon (vertcoind) for block templates, transaction submissions, and maturity checks.
• Persistent Share Chain: Remembers the share chain across restarts by saving to shares.dat, allowing the pool to resume where it left off.

---

Prerequisites

1. A synced vertcoind with RPC enabled in vertcoin.conf.
2. The verthash.dat dataset. Point your configuration file to the verthash.dat location unless it's located in default location.
3. Go 1.18+ (Go 1.22 recommended).
4. An open P2P port on your router/firewall forwarded to the machine running the node. See default port settings below.

See PRE_SETUP_GUID.md for help with these prerequisites.

---

Configuration & Ports

The pool is configured using a single config.yaml file. You can create your own by copying the provided config.example.yaml. Before running, you must correctly configure your ports and firewall.

Port	Setting in config.yaml	Default	Purpose	Firewall / Port Forwarding Action
P2P Port	p2pPort	9348	For your node to talk to other p2pool nodes.	Required: Must be port-forwarded. The default is 9348. If running multiple nodes on one machine, you must assign a unique port to each in your config.yaml.
Stratum Port	stratumPort	9172	For your miners to connect to your node. Also serves the web UI.	Allow on local firewall. Only forward from your router if you want to run a public pool.
RPC Port	rpcPort	5888	For your node to talk to your local Vertcoin daemon.	No action needed. This is a local connection and should not be exposed to the internet.

---

Installation & Running

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/CADMonkey21/p2pool-go-VTC.git
   cd p2pool-go-VTC

2. Install dependencies:

   go mod tidy

3. Configure the pool: Copy the example configuration file and edit it with your personal settings.

   cp config.example.yaml config.yaml
   nano config.yaml

4. Run the pool:

   go run .

   Point your Verthash-compatible miner to your pool's IP address on the Stratum port you configured (default is 9172). The web dashboard will also be available at this address (e.g., http://<your-ip>:9172).

See LOG_GUIDE.md for logging overview and documentation.

---

Status

The project is in beta. The core logic is complete and tested, but end-to-end functionality (finding a block and processing a payout) is awaiting live confirmation. Legend: [x] = Complete and Tested, [~] = Code Complete, Awaiting Live Confirmation

• P2P Layer
  • Wire-protocol (version, ping, addrs, shares, get_shares)
  • Peer manager (dial, listen, discovery)
  • Stable handshakes & keep-alive
• RPC Client
  • Connect / auth to vertcoind
  • Fetch block templates & network stats
  • Block submission
• Stratum Server & Share Logic
  • subscribe / authorize handshake
  • Vardiff engine (stable and configurable)
  • Verthash PoW, target validation & share creation
  • Broadcast miner shares to P2P
• Share Chain & Payouts
  • Correctly validate shares from local miners and network peers
  • Stable share chain management (linking, orphan handling)
  • [~] Block finding detection (code complete, awaiting live confirmation)
  • [~] PPLNS payout logic implemented (code complete, awaiting live confirmation)
• UI & Monitoring
  • Live-updating web dashboard for stats
  • Color-coded console logging for important events
• Persistence
  • On-disk sharechain (shares.dat)
  • Fast loading of persisted share chain
• Next Steps
  • General code cleanup and further hardening
  • Expanded dashboard features (e.g., historical graphs)
  • Community-requested improvements

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to open an issue to discuss a bug or new feature, or submit a pull request with your improvements.

See DEV_GUIDE.md for developers guide - project overview and documentation.

Donate

If you want to support the development of this project, feel free to donate!

Vertcoin: vtc1qx9wlulctjps59jnlcg04z3jwnkku5tgwkj0j0l