Idena node mining monitor

Script to check if an idena identity is mining. Uses idena API to check last activity of the address and sends an e-mail if there is no activity for a time longer than the allowed in config file.

In the idena Proof-of-Person blockchain, individual identities that are validated are encouraged to run their own node on a VPS or on their home PC if their network and hardware can handle it. This node is tied to their identity and can be set to mining mode which earns them iDNA for issuing and verifying blocks.

The protocol issues a penalty if your node is offline for more than 1 hour while set to mining mode. This script's purpose is to notify you if your node is offline for (by default) 35 minutes or more, so you can react on time to bring it back online. It is recommended to keep 35 minutes as the threshold because there are times when your node can be online and mining, but not "active" in the sense that it will show up in the API this script uses for checking activity. If you reduce the threshold you will most likely get false positives, but even at 35 minutes you should verify manually that your node is actually offline.

During idena validation, you will likely receive an alert if validation and reaching consensus takes longer than 35 minutes in total, this doesn't mean your node will receive a penalty, your node will reconnect and continue mining after consensus has been reached, provided that you have passed the validation process.

WARNING: The e-mail alerts work only with a localhost MTA without authentification or encryption

Usage:

1. clone this repo
2. make sure you have the requests python library installed
3. rename minewatch.ini_default to minewatch.ini
4. edit minewatch.ini with the address of the identity you wish to monitor and the from/to emails for the alerts
5. set up a cron job to run the script at whatever interval you feel comfortable with. I think 10 minutes is optimal. cron entry example: */10 * * * * cd /home/itsme/idena-mining-monitor/ && ./minewatch.py, you will continue receiving alerts every 10 minutes until identity has activity again.
6. If you want to test the script, set the ALLOWEDTIME in config file to something really low, and run the script manually

If you encounter any issues please double-check the configuration as no error checks are performed on the configuration parameters

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Found this script useful? I accept iDNA donations to address 0x8dc26a6fbdbe2fdb8b5284ab55f56e720b3c42ad