The current version of the Ethereum Stratum protocol neither supports encryption nor proper server authentication. This fact makes the protocol vulnerable to Man-in-the-Middle attacks that allow an adversary to redirect the hashrate of a miner to his own stratum server. The occurrence of such attacks in the wild is well known since quite some time (e.g. https://www.wired.com/2014/08/isp-bitcoin-theft/).

In order to mitigate such attacks and make Ethereum mining more secure we have collaborated together with the developers of the most used Ethereum mining clients to enable mining via an encrypted and authenticated Stratum SSL connection.

We have rolled out support for encrypted Stratum mining to all our mining servers. In order to connect you can use the following URLs:

EU Server: eu1.ethermine.org:5555

US-EAST Server: us1.ethermine.org:5555

US-WEST Server: us2.ethermine.org:5555

ASIA Server: asia1.ethermine.org:5555

In order to mine via SSL you also have to upgrade your local mining software to at least the following versions:

Claymore: Version 11.1 available at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1433925 (example: -epool ssl://eu1.ethermine.org:5555)

Phoenix Miner: Version 2.7c available at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2647654.0 (example: -pool ssl://eu1.ethermine.org:5555)

Ethminer: Version TBA available at TBA

Please check the relevant mining software guides on the proper connection parameters for SSL enabled mining.