I think the pool centralization issue is primarily a convenience issue. There are guides at the top of google showing you how to install one simple piece of software to start mining.

So it seems to me like the best solution is to make something **more** convenient. Bundle p2pool and xmrig into a dead simple GUI with a big green "start mining" button and plaster the download link all over the internet. Call it the "Official XMR Miner" or something, assuming the XMRig devs are cool with that use of their product.

Question: since p2pool mines on a side chain of monero, doesn’t this take away hashrate from the Monero blockchain? Or does the hash rate of p2pool still count since its merge mining into the mainnet monero chain.

Hypothetically: if 90% of the hashrate mining monero was on p2pool, would that give any advantage to an adversary trying to perform a 51% attack?

All of the hash rate from the pool is reflected in the main chain when it mines a block.

Eg if the pool has half the network hashrate it will find, on average, half the blocks.

The same as if an individual miner with a single computer had the same amount of hashrate.

s/90/40/

i've always liked the "require some data from the blockchain" approach. Although, if we take the tactic of making pools really expensive to operate, then an attacker could amass hashrate simply by running a pool with 0% fee... or negative fees.

if its the limitless resource adversary thing. though at some point some physical limits are reached?

did boolberry stick with their blockchain hash thing?

is there any thought to audit viewtags? im just reminded of subaddresses and then the janice attack. is there something with viewtags where if your cousins step-uncle creates a transaction with some magic in it, and then sends back the change to himself, all while doing the macarena, ..... u get my drift.

I think being more convenient than pools is the solution. Lots of miners cant or dont want to run a full node and would opt for a pool because they dont have storage etc. If p2pool was integrated into the gui wallet or xmrig could there be an option to select or automatically chose a random public node or from a centralized list like the dns blocklist?

I dont know if xmrig or the gui wallet would be a better candidate, either way it can potentially be way easier to enter your address (not even if gui wallet) and then chose a random public node to immediately start mining than trying to configure xmrig to work with a pool.

Gotta be careful about picking random nodes though: an attacker's remote node(s) could provide malicious block templates and manipulate the miners into a 51% attack

And the p2pool start/stop function has already been integrated into the gui wallet, it will be available next release

<merope> "And the p2pool start/stop..." <- It's true? It's the news of the century then, why are you reporting it so quietly? It will turn the world of cryptocurrencies upside down if you run p2pool right in your wallet