Thoughts on Symbol Harvesting

General Discussion
#1

I finally got harvesting set up for my Symbol account, and here’s a couple of observations. Not sure if the final item is a bug, but the whole thing could certainly be improved for better user experience.

1) Choosing a node
This is something of a lottery - I attached to a couple of nodes who left me pending activation and never accepted. Eventually, after a few days waiting and after chewing through a few XYM in delegation fees trying different nodes, I eventually found one that activated immediately.

Each attempt to connect to a node costs XYM, and there is no way to know up front if a node is accepting harvesting connections. At least in the XEM ecosphere, you could see immediately if the node had slots free, and all nodes listed with slots would accept harvesting.

It would be more open and transparent if nodes signalled willingness to accept (and their rake if this is variable) when selecting from the list, so that users can make an informed choice and know they will be activated.

2) Harvesting status
Also something of a lottery - the documentation says that nodes can spoof acceptance and the only reliable indicator is actually earning blocks. That’s a pretty poor experience - especially in a world class blockchain where smart/aggregate transactions are an option.

Also, I have Symbol wallet set up on two machines - I connected to harvest via one and it shows active, but when I check in the other, it says “Harvesting status cannot be detected. Please select the node you are harvesting on.” … even after selecting the same node in the harvesting section.

Cheers
Rob

3 Likes
#2

  1. Probably you tried when you had importance = 0 (up to 12h after moving coins) or your delegation was rejected because node was full.

  2. If you see Active on device where you started harvesting it means you harvesting. Wallet is checking directly with node (if node exosing API - dual node)

#3

  1. A better user experience would have the wallet prevent (or at least warn) a user if they are about to spend XYM on a delegation they are not eligible for. Or any impossible transaction for that matter.

  2. Yes, the point is about UX. In NEM NanoWallet, if you selected the delegated node it showed the status in any wallet. In Symbol wallet, it does not currently.

1 Like
#4

I agree, you knew right away, I liked the NANO wallet not allowing you to connect if NODE was full. Much easier than Symbol.

I was having trouble in the first days to connect, if it didn’t work you then de-activated, and it took awhile to find a node. Good luck trying to do it with the Multi SIG accounts, that did not work, I ended up having to send back to single to see it connect.

#5

@RobW
@THOTH

3 Likes
#6

Superstar - thanks!

#7

testing the system

#8

The new Symbol Wallet 1.0.2 makes it all much clearer, and allows the current harvesting status to be checked by adding the node that was used to delegate.

The only issue I can see is that the node name is not persisted (and there is no ‘save’ button) - so as soon as you click away to another tab and go back, the info is lost and has to be re-entered next time you visit the Harvesting tab.

Cheers
Rob

#9

@RobW yeap. I reported that Harvesting - Problem when importing harvesting private key on other device - node is not saved · Issue #1431 · nemgrouplimited/symbol-desktop-wallet · GitHub

#10

Thanks man

#11

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