Oddbean

I’ve got a new zine to release on Stratum V2, but before I do, I’m going to share some fun facts I learned along the way! Here’s the first: We usually associate Stratum with mining, but it was initially developed for wallet software (Electrum to be specific). It’s still used today by Electrum servers and clients. Come back tomorrow for another fun fact about Stratum 🤓

Haha thanks! My two year old called me a pond nugget then it was suggested I adopt it 😂 nostr:nevent1qqsyq88sd07wkqfkr68q58thqgnqtwncswahpwg32xgky2meuqpuc7cpzemhxue69uhkzarvv9ejumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgqgkwaehxw309ahx7um5wghx7mnnv968xtn0wfnsz9nhwden5te0dehhxarj9eek2dm9deazucm0d5q3wamnwvaz7tmxd9k8getj9ehx7um5wgh8w6twv596wfdw And I’m so excited to share what I’ve learned! “Technically aware not-programming pleb” is my favorite audience to write for ☺️ With past projects I’ve gotten stuck on the target audience discussion and I now realize it impacted my ability to create. Finally decided to just make stuff I wish existed 😊 So I appreciate you saying that!

Today's fun fact about Stratum: Stratum V1 was never properly standardized. This led to multiple implementations that are only semi compatible. Stratum V1 even has a BIP number (40 and 41) but no content! This is the only BIP like this. Now, if you want a BIP number, you have to propose the content/draft of the BIP first :)

BIP63 stealth addresses also has a number but no content. The basic idea is simple but one part was problematic and there was no agreement how to work around it. BIP47 payment codes is one way (that many people don't like); proposed BIP352 silent payments is a modern take on the problem that has broader support (but still comes with tradeoffs).

Another day, another fun fact about Stratum: Braiins Pool, formerly known as Slush Pool (the name was changed in 2022), was previously called Bitcoin.cz. Bitcoin.cz was the first publicly available mining pool (November 2010, released as "Bitcoin Pooled Mining Server"). It was created by Slush who is also the author of Stratum (version 1)!

Stratum fun fact #4: Have you been following along with Stratum V2 development? ICYMI, the Job Negotiator role was renamed to Job Declarator in June 2023. Because Stratum V2 has been under development for a while, many old resources like blog posts and podcasts still use the old terminology. If you’ve been confused by this you are not the only one! https://github.com/stratum-mining/sv2-spec/pull/43

Stratum Fact Number 5: Stratum is used by both mining devices (aka ASICs) and by pools. One really cool thing about Stratum V2 is even if you don’t upgrade the firmware on your device (so you run an ASIC that still uses Stratum V1), you can still connect to a Stratum V2 pool! To do that you use something called the “Translation proxy”. This proxy also lets miners select the transactions in the block they are mining. We talk a lot about the centralization that comes from pools doing all the transaction selection. It turns out devices don’t necessarily need Stratum V2 firmware, they just need a Stratum V2 pool that supports Job Declaration! Source: page 15 of this report from Galaxy Digital by Rachel Rybarczyk https://docsend.com/view/szk48syby33q28zq

Stratum Fact No. 6: If you just installed SV2 firmware on your device (your ASIC) and *nothing* else, Braiins estimates a ~35% efficiency gain compared to the SV1 firmware that the manufacturer initially puts on the device (OEM)! Miners that switch their firmware to SV2 are rewareded with smaller SV2 message sizes and added security. Source: page 16 of this doc https://docsend.com/view/szk48syby33q28zq