As a star project of the IPFS technology faction, Filecoin regained its popularity after 2 years. With the launch of the 4 million token miner incentive plan after the testnet went live, Filecoin has become a favorite among global crypto investors, and is seen as an upcoming "mining feast" and a "new opportunity for wealth". Where are the risks and opportunities for the impatient token investors and mining army? On July 9th, the OKEx Intelligence Agency invited the founder of filecoin.cn, known as the "first person in IPFS mining" in the circle, and Feierke CEO Xie Dapao to conduct an interview and dialogue to interpret what is hidden behind the booming Filecoin market Mystery?

Guest profile: Xie Dapao, formerly known as Xie Jinbin, founder of filecoin.cn, CEO of Filecoin. Participated in Filecoin ICO in 2017, all in Filecoin industry layout, and has in-depth research and understanding of the Filecoin project.

This dialogue lasted for 1 hour. The discussion covered the price of FIL tokens, how to participate in FIL mining, investment risks, future opportunities, impact on the encryption market, etc. The core views of the guests are as follows:

1. The reason why Filecoin became popular mainly lies in its vision and team strength. IPFS technology is well known and recognized by everyone, coupled with the promotion of early evangelists and mining machine manufacturers.

2. Filecoin mining must have AMD CPU, large memory, graphics card, smooth network, stable power supply environment, and certain mortgage coins are also required.

3. Participating in the miner incentive plan may not necessarily get token rewards. It is necessary to consider the proportion of computing power and global ranking, and the rewards will only be released linearly with the blocks.

4. It is not recommended for investors to participate in the purchase of FIL tokens now, and failure to redeem is a possible risk they may face.

5. To verify whether a device can mine, first look at the basic configuration, and then use the running score test software to test the data.

6. The income of Filecoin miners mainly comes from: the income of storage space or mortgage coins; generating random numbers; storing official verifiable data.

7. Filecoin will be launched as scheduled in late August. It will provide a new direction for blockchain innovation, and more distributed storage projects will emerge in the future.

The following is the full text of the conversation:

The following is the full text of the conversation:

OKEx Intelligence Bureau: Filecoin is known as the star project of distributed storage mining. Can you briefly introduce what Fermentation Control is, and what exactly does its project do? Then what is the connection and difference between him and the Ipfs project?

Cannon Xie: You may be confused about IPFS and Filecoin. Let me list a few points below to help you better distinguish.

First, both are developed by Protocol Laboratories. IPFS in Chinese means Interstellar File System, which itself is a decentralized file transfer protocol. It may be like the html hypertext links we usually use to surf the Internet. IPFS and Filecoin are all developed by Protocol Labs. Their investment People include Sequoia Capital, Union Square, and YC, the top US incubator.

The second point is that the two technologies share many technologies, such as Libp2p, IPLD, DHT and so on. IPFS was developed and launched before Filecoin in 2014. The common point between the two is that they share some technical features, such as the Libp2p transmission protocol (developed by the team laboratory), and now ETH2.0 and Polkadot both use Libp2p technology;

The third point is that the common goal is to realize a decentralized file system. IPFS is a decentralized file transfer protocol, not a blockchain project, and Filecoin is a pure blockchain project, but their goal is to realize the blockchain storage of a file. Filecoin joins the blockchain technology and uses the incentive layer to do this.

So what is the difference between IPFS and Filecoin?

First of all, the launch time is different. IPFS technology has been launched in 2014 and has been running stably for many years. While fFilecoin carried out ICO in 2017, the code will be released in early 2019, and the mainnet will be launched in August 2020 (expected).

Secondly, IPFS is just a decentralized file transfer protocol, which is not closely related to the blockchain. Filecoin is the real blockchain project, which includes SDR algorithm, POST copy certificate, zksnark and other encryption algorithms. The core is how to verify that the miners in the decentralized network are continuously storing files.

OKEx Intelligence Bureau: IPFS technology was born in 2014. The Filecoin project completed its ICO in 2017 with a fundraising amount of 257 million US dollars. What was the cause of the fire?

Dapao Xie: Whether a project is popular or not mainly depends on whether the project is recognized and understood by everyone. In 2017, when Filecoin launched ICO, some people in the community spread the slogan that IPFS surpassed http. The official vision is to be a "solid foundation for human beings". This slogan and vision are simple and attractive. When everyone understands Filecoin, it is easy to think of eMule Download and Youkeyun, so you can quickly understand what this project is for. Many early trailblazers or investors are actually attracted by the vision, so I think the "fire" of Filecoin is actually the result of the community's bottom-up drive.

In addition, in the first half of 2020, the popularity of Bitcoin will be halved, but after the second half of the year, the entire market will lack enthusiasm. When some trading platforms and media start to use Filecoin’s cloud computing power, you may feel that it is getting more and more popular. . Of course, Filecoin mining machine manufacturers are also a big driving force.

So we can conclude that Filecoin has attracted everyone in various degrees. The first is its vision, the second is the background of its investment institutions, the third is the strength of the entire team itself, and the fourth is that IPFS technology is recognized by everyone. Familiarity and recognition, the fifth is the word-of-mouth communication of early evangelists and mining machine manufacturers.

OKEx Intelligence Bureau: Filecoin is known as a phenomenal mining project, but IPFS mining itself seems to be more complicated than mining other currencies. Can you introduce the mining principle and mechanism of Filecoin? How is it different from Bitcoin mining? How to distribute the mining income?

Cannon Xie: Before understanding the mining principle, we must first understand what kind of project it is. Filecoin is a decentralized storage project, which itself solves the decentralized deposit and withdrawal of files. This is its core point . However, a file exists in a decentralized network, which means that it exists in an unpredictable and uncontrollable environment. How do we do it in this case?

Its mining mechanism (basic principle) is like this. When a piece of data is stored in the Filecoin network, the network will match your storage order with the miners. After receiving the order information, the miners will transfer the file from your node ( For example, the mobile phone) is pulled up to other mining machines, and then the first step is to slice the file, and then hash each file (providing basic parameters for subsequent copy proofs), and generate stacked data through the SDR algorithm. Sometimes these hash signatures will generate a Merkle tree, and the miner will take the root and head of the Merkle tree to generate a copy proof, which will be submitted to the chain after the copy proof, and then regularly take the copy proof to communicate with the local miner Compare.

So to put it simply, a miner is actually equivalent to providing a server, but the CPU of the miner server must at least support the hash acceleration capability, otherwise it will be very slow to process it with an Intel CPU. In addition to preparing AMD’s CPU, a large amount of memory is also required, because when Filecoin mining, a large number of files will be cached in the memory for memory acceleration. At this time, the memory requirements will be relatively large, at least 128GB or more.

Therefore, mining must have AMD CPU, large memory, graphics card, smooth network, and stable power supply environment, so as to ensure that our income will be relatively stable.

However, the premise of Filecoin mining is that mortgage coins are required, so even if you have a mining machine and a server, you still cannot mine without mortgage coins. Why do you need collateral? Because Filecoin allows miners to ensure the stable operation of its storage capacity, this mortgage mechanism is like a pledge. If the penalty mechanism is triggered by data damage, downtime, etc. in the later stage, it is likely that your mortgaged coins will be deducted. This is what everyone needs to know.

So what is the difference between Filecoin mining and Bitcoin mining? Let's make a comparison from the token model (allocation model). The total number of Bitcoin tokens is 21 million, and the halving cycle is halved every four years. The total number of Filecoin tokens is 2 billion, 70% are generated by mining, and 30% belong to the team, foundation, early investors, and ICO investors. In the first year of Filecoin's launch, the total amount of coins it produces every day is fixed (400,000), and the halving cycle is 6 years.

The second is the difference in the consensus algorithm. Bitcoin’s PoW algorithm is actually very simple. As long as the miner hashes the nounce with the machine number to generate a corresponding target value, the block can be successfully exploded. However, the consensus algorithm of Filecoin is much more complex than the PoW proof of work. In the Filecoin network, the amount of data you store (that is, storage power) determines the size of your bursting ability. For example, what is the proportion of 100TB in the whole network? The larger the specific gravity, the higher the probability of a block being produced. Of course, there is another point that is more particular, such as how you can complete the rapid distribution of data, which is also a prerequisite for miners to quickly mine coins.

OKEx Intelligence Bureau: On June 10, Filecoin officially released a miner incentive plan of 4 million FIL on the testnet, which ignited the enthusiasm of miners and miners. Various mining machine manufacturers are scrambling to hold mining machine hegemony competitions and cloud computing power ranking competitions, and many investors are also eager to compete for the top mining benefits. At present, how should investors participate in Filecoin mining in the correct way? What issues should be paid attention to in mining?

Dapao Xie: This competition does not mean that you will be able to get rewards if you participate in it. It depends on your ranking and storage ratio. If your ranking or storage ratio does not meet the standard, it is likely that there will be no return after investing, so Participation does not necessarily pay off. But if the storage power or computing power is enough, there is a chance to divide it up, but it is not necessarily to divide up 4 million tokens, but to divide up the token share of your continent, and then add the global 1 million tokens, that’s it. a distribution mechanism.

For example, if you have a computing power of 1PB, if you can rank in the top 10 or top 100 in Asia, you may be able to participate in sharing 500,000 coins, but the 500,000 coins depend on your computing power, and then The 500,000 pieces will be shared in proportion. At this time, look at the global ranking of your computing power, the ratio of the proportion × 1 million, which is the reward currency you can divide. So the distribution mechanism mainly depends on which continent you are in. If a certain continent is less competitive and there are not many competitors, you may be able to share more tokens.

But how are the 4 million token rewards distributed? It’s not that it will be issued to you immediately after you participate, but you have to wait until the mainnet goes online, that is to say, after the end of August, it will be released linearly with the blocks, and it will be released a little bit over time and conditionally, so even if You may not be able to get the reward immediately after you get the reward. Everyone needs to understand this clearly.

There are many things involved in Filecoin mining, such as the mortgage coin mechanism mentioned above, if you suddenly lose power when distributing data, it is likely that the data stored on your server will be damaged, and the penalty mechanism may be triggered , it is likely to say that you didn't even dig the coins, but you lost yourself.

OKEx Intelligence Bureau: The IPFS mining market is a mixed bag. When Filecoin was on fire in 2018, there were many mining projects under the banner of IPFS and Filecoin to defraud. Now there are so many mining machine manufacturers that it is difficult to distinguish between good and bad. How should mining investors make a distinction?

Dapao Xie: To verify whether a device can mine, first look at the basic configuration. The minimum configuration standard for Filecoin mining itself is quite high, such as 128GB memory, graphics card, and CPU must be AMD. Of course, AMD and Intel can also be used together. , if these basic conditions are not met, then this equipment is actually very difficult to mine.

Secondly, it can be identified through software and data levels. You can use the running score test software to run it first, and use a variety of data indicators to measure the performance of the hardware. The shorter the time spent in each stage, the better the performance of our equipment. For example, in the early data slicing capability, the shorter the slicing time, the better the hardware performance; another example is the pre-packaging stage, which requires some hash processing, and the shorter the processing time, the better the performance.

OKEx Intelligence Bureau: In addition to mining, FIL tokens are also attracting attention. What is the value support of FIL? What is its allocation rule? What do you think of the current statement that "FIL is the next hundred times currency"?

Cannon Xie: The emergence of Filecoin is actually because more and more people pay attention to their data security and privacy, so I think the bottom support of Filecoin is how many people will use its storage network to store files.

The distribution rule of Filecoin is that if you are a miner, there are several sources of income: the first is how much space you have mortgaged and how many coins you have mortgaged. At this time, you will have part of the income; Save some random numbers and make transactions with yourself, similar to the current order swiping in e-commerce, the amount of data generated by swiping random numbers actually becomes a proof of our storage, the proportion of our storage capacity, the token network will be based on our Proportion to compete for blocks, and the winner gets tokens. This is the distribution rule.

In addition, the official also provides verifiable data, which can also generate income. The official will sell a kind of hard disk, which stores some open source public welfare data, such as some public welfare organizations or Google Maps, etc. If you save them for them, your income may be higher.

As for whether FIL is a hundred times currency or not, it still depends on how many people use this thing. The more people use it, I think the natural value will increase accordingly.

OKEx Intelligence Bureau: According to our inquiry, some trading platforms have already launched FIL tokens, and the price difference between different platforms is huge. Compared with the private placement price, they have already been fired to a relatively high position. Why is this happening? On the other hand, Filecoin officials strongly advised and warned investors to stay away from investing in FIL tokens before the mainnet went live in their statement. So at the moment, is it reliable for retail investors to invest in FIL now? What are the risks?

Dapao Xie: In fact, here I would also like to declare the investment risks to everyone: Rigid redemption is the biggest issue that needs to be considered. Whether the exchange has the ability to accept, I think it needs to be a question mark.

We can calculate that in the first six months of the first year, 400,000 pieces may be released every month. In the first year, only a few hundred million pieces actually flowed out. However, the amount of coins sold on some trading platforms has far exceeded the current circulation that may be generated and outflowed by mining in the first six months of the first year, so there may be a risk of being unable to cash out. For example, if you bought these tokens, the exchange may not allow withdrawals, or limit withdrawals, and release them to you bit by bit. It is even possible that what you bought is an air, and you can't cash it at all. So I suggest that everyone should be cautious about investing in this form of tokens.

OKEx Intelligence Bureau: What has the Filecoin project team done in the past two years since Filecoin raised funds? Why is there a delay in the launch of the testnet? Do you think the Filecoin mainnet will be launched as scheduled this time?

Cannon Xie: In fact, Filecoin only completed ICO in August 2017, and the technical white paper was just completed in February 2018. The code was only made public in early 2019. In the end, there were various bugs, and the final launch time has not been determined. Because Filecoin solves many technical difficulties. For example, proof of replication is their new and pioneering technology. There are many difficulties in it, and how to control the token distribution mechanism, etc., so many delays have occurred. The problem of bouncing tickets, the main network has not been launched, has been criticized by everyone.

There have been some major loopholes in the testnet several times before, such as unlimited issuance of tokens, or the problem of continuous forking of blocks. But this time we went to observe Filecoin’s github code, and we found that the current stage is actually very complete, mainly because of some optimizations or the repair of small peripheral functions, so we judge that the mainnet will definitely be available in late August. Online as scheduled.

OKEx Intelligence Bureau: The outside world has different views on the prospects of Filecoin. Some people believe that with the growth and application of its decentralized storage network, FIL will become a valuable "hard currency" and will set off a new trend in mining; Jiang Zhuoer, the founder of the mining pool, once expressed his dislike for Filecoin, saying that it has "poor performance" and "not even enough to store small movies". How do you see the future prospects of Filecoin? Is it a "new opportunity for wealth" in the future, as some people say?

Cannon Xie: The outside world’s understanding of Filecoin is actually not deep enough, and there may be some one-sided cognition. Here I will tell you in detail the characteristics of the current Filecoin technology, because we wake up every day to track the update of the Filecoin code, and then experience the testnet. At present, files in the Filecoin test network can be stored and retrieved normally, and it is completely possible to store large files, such as 32GB and 64GB, and some more large-capacity data storage, which can be uploaded and downloaded. These functions are all achievable.

Filecoin is indeed a leading project in the field of combining blockchain and distributed storage, and it is currently the most popular and famous. So it is equivalent to having an effect, just like the original Ethereum smart contract. But we should also be soberly aware that we should not be too blind. Filecoin has just been launched, and there are actually many different deficiencies in itself, which need to be continuously optimized and iterated. Therefore, we need a longer-term perspective to look at emerging things, and we should not make premature judgments based on short-term performance. As for whether Filecoin can be said to be a "new opportunity" in the future, it is still time to test.

OKEx Intelligence Bureau: Different from Bitcoin mining, some people call Filecoin mining "storage mining". After the halving of Bitcoin, the sudden reduction of mining rewards and the combination of multiple factors such as drought and flood in the south, the mining circle is cold, will the Filecoin mining fire attract some miners to turn to storage mining? What impact can it have on the entire mining ecology and the cryptocurrency industry?

Dapao Xie: There are indeed many people who traditionally do Bitcoin mining to learn about Filecoin mining from us, because Bitcoin mining is becoming more and more head-to-head, and there is too little room for everyone to operate. A new track to compete on. However, there are still many bitcoin miners who are still on the sidelines. Filecoin mining is still different from bitcoin mining. For them, entering an unfamiliar field still requires a process of cognitive transformation, so they may observe more Learning, you may not enter rashly, because after all, the main network has not yet been officially launched, and the input-output ratio has not yet been clearly reflected in figures.

Filecoin's change to the mining circle, I think, may lie in its requirements for the operation and maintenance level or management level of the entire mining circle to rise to a higher level. The entire operation mode of Bitcoin mining may be relatively rough, because the Bitcoin mining mechanism is relatively simple and not so complicated, while Filecoin mining needs to consider how to ensure the stable operation of the machine and how to ensure a low failure rate. It means that what miners need to consider is a very high requirement for the entire mining team and the entire operation and maintenance capability management level.

The impact on the entire cryptocurrency industry is to provide a new innovative direction for the blockchain. Now many mainstream public chains are making efforts to DeFi, but I think that besides DeFi, this field of combining blockchain with distributed storage may also be a new direction, and more distributed blockchains may emerge. Store items out. In fact, there are already some benchmarking projects in China, which are some signs that we can clearly see.

OKEx Intelligence Bureau: You entered the currency circle in 2013, and later entered Filecoin to start a business, and established IPFS and Filecoin domestic communities. How did you pay attention to the Filecoin project at that time? Why do you resolutely devote yourself to the promotion and promotion of Filecoin?

Cannon Xie: I participated in Filecoin’s public ICO in 2017, and I was one of the early investors. Why was I attracted by this project, because I am doing technical development myself, and I have been imagining what kind of world web3.0 is. When I came into contact with IPFS, I felt that this is what the Internet should be like in the future.

And Filecoin is also a very good project in 2017. So I deduce it through the judgment of technical logic, and I think the development route of future technology should be towards this kind of privacy security and more decentralized route. I think Filecoin is a project that is bound to become popular in the future, and I hope it can become a project comparable to Ethereum. So at that time, I chose the all in Filecoin track to start a business. We are also the first to promote the Filecoin project in China.

OKEx Intelligence Bureau: I heard that you have completed your wealth accumulation in 5 years, and the return on investment has been tens of thousands of times. Can you share your investment story and experience in the currency circle? Do you have any other advice for ordinary investors?

Dapao Xie: Let me introduce how I entered the blockchain industry. I majored in communication engineering in college. In fact, communication engineering majors must have a deep understanding of computer software programming and hardware programming. When I was a junior in 2013, when I was surfing the Internet, I suddenly saw an article about mining with computers, so I entered the blockchain industry because of my knowledge of computer mining. At that time, I tried to use my second-hand laptop to do bitcoin mining, but it failed because the configuration was really too low.

Later, I bought my first (0.3) bitcoin on an exchange. At that time, the living expenses of college students were very limited. At that time, one bitcoin was 900 yuan, and then I bought 1/3 of it for 300 yuan. So, from then on, I entered the blockchain industry, and I entered the blockchain for technology development.

The high return on investment is actually mainly a matter of timing. In 2017, ICO happened to be hot. I had just graduated and worked for two years. In early February of 2017, I took a month's salary (7,000 yuan) to do ICO. So it was good luck at the beginning, and the popularity of ICO stimulated the continuous influx of hot money. Later, it was also based on our own judgment on technology. We bought EOS when it was more than 3 yuan, and sold it at around 140, which made a profit of tens of millions.

So I think I'm not particularly good at investing personally, because I'm a technical person myself. But to sum up a few points, it is necessary to know the basics of the investment project and have sufficient analysis. Because in fact, I am also very cautious, and I will judge whether its technical logic is smooth. In addition, there is another suggestion, which is to realize cash in time and keep it safe. Because I sold EOS to buy other coins, but I got stuck.

Additional questions from fans:

Q: Is it appropriate for ordinary investors to purchase computing power or mining machines?

A: For ordinary people, it is mainly based on their own investment ability. In fact, Filecoin may be more suitable for centralized mining pool mining mode, because now we can see that the main network of Filecoin may require 100TB of data to produce blocks. So if it is an individual, it may take a long time to refresh 100TB of data, but if everyone's machines are placed in one place and run with the same account, it may be possible to quickly achieve this goal.