Hi, Paul: Our Knots node v. 29.4 is stuck on the lats block mined “NYPOstSympathyForThe Devil” but on mempool.guide there are lots more blocks since earlier on today. Is it stuck or they do not count until the Blake2b hard-fork come into effect?
BTW: on Start9 your Bitcoin Knots is stuck on waiting on Blake2b, is this normal? It doesn’t finish syncing!
Many thanks and have a rest of a great Sunday.
Yes, the official Start9 Knots package has not been updated (so it is still on the BIP-110 rules, not on the new hard fork rules). You should be able to switch to this version: Release v29.4.1.knots20260508rc4 · Retropex/knots-startos · GitHub
Note that Datum Gateway, Mempool, Electrs/Fulcrum, and Sparrow will probably all stop working once you make the switch (as well as LND and Core Lightning if you have those). I’m working on a full stack (minus the lightning apps) right now. I’ll be posting updates as I release each of them.
BTW, the reason my app is stuck is because probably because it was built for rc3, which is no longer current.
So we can set it up in the same way as the reg test version you developed ? i am using a BTC address generated by bitcoin knots on my start 9 to keep everything the same as the test
Technically you could use my Knots build, which I’ve renamed to “Bitcoin Knots (BLAKE2b) Companion”. But I would NOT recommend that if you already have Bitcoin Knots RDTS installed and synced. If you use mine, you would need to run a full mainnet IBD again once you switch from regtest or testnet over to mainnet. If you upgrade Knots RDTS to the one by Retropex, it will will sync very fast since it is already mostly synced on mainnet (it just needs to catch up the blake2b blocks). Way faster than starting over the IBD from scratch.
Datum Gateway is the other component that will need a separate package. My version of Datum Gateway is only designed to integrate with my Knots buid, so it won’t work with Retropex’s Knots build. Luckily, I just saw that Retropex released a Datum Gateway build of his own that should connect with his Knots build. It is at: Release pow_0.4.1_17 · Retropex/datum-gateway-startos · GitHub
BTW, my focus is for folks who want to run a full stack on both chains on one server (without needing to break the bank on RAM and NVMe space), so if you are a pure-BLAKE2b follower, Retropex’s software is going to be the better route. My components will be good to fill in gaps until there are official alternatives for the new chain.
I just watched Matt’s new video on the new B2b fork launch!!! Now I understood what has happened. All day I have been puzzled with all those new blocks but my other question now is why does my desktop KNots v. 29.4 not catch up with the Blake2b blocks? Will thsi work on Windows, running the new Knots rc4? Or only on Start9? This is something to take with a bit of calmness as Matt suggests. Maybe when you have all your new packages ready for it on Start9 it will be easier to follow instead of risking a failure. Matt suggest to up the op_return to 84 bytes so that it doesn’t get stuck with the previous Knots settings. Too much data but we have to get this done slowly but steady! Maybe a full tutorial from you ASA you can would be nice! Thanks a million! (A million sats!) Rui
Yes, I would prefer both chains on Start9, thank you! @chainboarder on YouTube is also doing videos on mining Blake2b now as well as @ConnorsLab. I mean, I have my Sparrow linked to the pre-rdts Knots on Start9 as we speak but I don’t want to lose my BTC (core chain) so thread carefully! For me it’s bedtime now. All day I have been checking my Knots node on my Windows 10 PC and the mempool.guide and finding it strange but obviously someone pulled a fast one before September 1st with B2b.
Yes, it makes perfect sense from a technical perspective. Start it up on mainnet early, and then do a go/no go decision on Sep 1. Any major problems, roll back the chain and pick a new release date, but if all green then continue on. The problem of course is that the pro-spammer crowd is going to have a hay day with it, saying Luke is either completely incompetent and disorganized or that he used this as a way for insiders to do some pre-mining.
Don’t worry about the nay-sayers, Paul. We are in this for the future of mankind! Of course us folks are not going to be here for very much longer (fact) a strong German friend of ours just died from having a foot sore and going into Hospital only to get sepsis and pass away, this was a strong man! He was into BTC earlier on but lived off-grid at their farm. Not much internet, except from satelitte connection. Not Blockstream, LOL!
do we need to download all the assets or just the top one ?
Just the top one (the .s9pk file)
Thanks. I already did that but still not reporting hash on Datum. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. I sideloaded the updates to both Knot and Datum, and pointed my miners at my stratum port.
Did you update it to solo mine? If it is configured to connect with Ocean, it won’t work.
Also, make sure you are using the correct Stratum port in your ASIC settings (it is different than the one my build uses)
And also make sure Knots has fully synced. It should sync pretty quickly, but if it is taking a while for any reason, then this also would prevent Datum from serving block templates.
I just removed pool port and pubkey, had host removed before as well as having the collaborative mining set to never. Hopefully clearing those two will now work. I’ll keep you updated. Really appreciate the help !
I think collaborative mining never is the only one you need from that list. Probably the next thing is making sure the node is fully synced. Unfortunately, that isn’t so simple without Mempool.
You could try adding my apps (though you’d have to wait for Electrs Pruned to sync, which takes a few hours). It would give you a Mempool exporer for your node though. If you are interested, the process is:
Then you should be able to explore the chain to make sure Knots is properly syncing the BLAKE2b blocks.
I’m setting this up on one of my test servers (the electrs sync will take a while to finish), to see how it goes. I haven’t used Retropex’s services myself yet, but others have reported them to work fine. My guess is maybe it hasn’t connected to enough blake2b nodes (or maybe the ones it has peered with are flaky)
Oh wow, didn’t think I’d need all that. My Electrs is having issues since updating knots today. It definitely is synced, but I’ll go through all your steps and check back in.
The original Electrs and Mempool are not compatible with the new chain. There may be more official forks that the blake2b community are using (I haven’t really been plugged in, mainly just been focusing on my apps). But mine should work fine with Retropex’s services (I looked at his code, and everything appears compatible). Running a test now to confirm though (just waiting on my electrs to sync).
Oh, Retropex has a compatible Mempool explorer – that would be faster than using mine (since it doesn’t need electrs, so no need to wait on it to sync)
Retropex seems to have taken a very similar path that I did (though mine was focused on supporting pruned nodes, not just full nodes). I’ve gotten a little bit further than him, though – he has an electrs fork, but no releases published yet. And I don’t think he has a Sparrow fork started yet (assuming he plans to).
–EDIT-- I take that back – Start9 makes you pick the indexer. However, I just selected electrs and have electrs stopped. Mempool still starts up and shows the blocks. Worth a try to make sure you are seeing the blake2b blocks syncing in.
alright i’m downloading the updated mempool now and will get the electrs pruned off your registry ust in case it doesn’t work . lets see hope i can get this working tonight to have my miner working through the night
