Great job @arhag on the patch! Also thank you @alphabeta who I noticed was active in promoting the issue https://steemit.com/steemit/@alphabeta/warning-supercomputing-has-taking-over-witness-queue
So to confirm:
steem/programs/steemd/witness_node_data_dir/config.ini
no longer needs the active key for any specified miners? I had actually wondered why that ever was required since steemd is already in the background.
You do still need the active key as usual. It is necessary to sign the final transaction that holds the PoW you submit to the blockchain in order to get into the miner queue. The reason for this signature in even the new mining algorithm is so that someone cannot force an account they do not control into the mining queue without the account owner's permission.
Good work all. I would also like to know however if we are meant to be making changes to our mining configs, especially those with multiple miners?