p2pool passwords

Question

I think I have cgminer configured and I want to connect to a mining pool.

I have created a .sh file with the following text:

export DISPLAY=:0
export GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT=100
export GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1
cd /home/oshirowanen/Downloads/cgminer-3.7.2-x86_64-built
./cgminer --scrypt -o http://<mining_pool>:<port> -u <username> -p <password> -I 9

I found this link for p2pool:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=66182.0

and have decided to use the following pool:

California::USA::http://p2pool.stitthappens.com:10336/::1%::LTC::StittHappens::Red Emerald

The format is as follows:

City/State/Province::Country::IP Address:Port::Fee::Coinage Mined::Pool Name::Operator (Nick)Name

My question is, according to the .sh file, I should also have a password, but no password is provided in my chosen p2pool, i.e:

California::USA::http://p2pool.stitthappens.com:10336/::1%::LTC::StittHappens::Red Emerald

Where do I get the password from?

Or are those p2pools at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=66182.0 only for testing purposes after which you're supposed to configure your own p2pool?

Answer 1

It a function of the Pool's server policy if they want/need to enforce miner/worker passwords, i.e. requiring formal accounts to be provisioned and email addresses to be bound to those accounts. You need-to-know your pool's policy.

There is a considerable number of P2Pool servers on the Internet that all aggregate up into p2pool.info's stats. Here is the most comprehensive P2Pool List of servers I've found. A P2Pool server I used during 2013/2014 was FaboulusPanda, now appears to be defunct. (If you have a Mac also see http://fabulouspanda.co.uk/macminer/.)

The issue with P2Pool servers is they come and go out of business. They are essentially egalitarian "ma and pa" pool shops or hobbyists sharing their pool. For the prior Fabulous Panda service, there was no need to provision an account, only had to configure my miner to use your wallet's public address for the username and password.

FYSA - Your P2Pool service provider is the entity that manages the Sharechain wallet for your mining operation that uses P2Pool unless you decide to roll out your own P2Pool capabilities from source code. P2Pool software also requires a Bitcoin full node to be running to broadcast any pool winnings out to the Bitcoin network.