When it comes to the most anticipated projects in 2020, Filecoin must be among the best. Recently, many miners have come to F2Pool to inquire about Fileoin mining, wanting to understand the opportunities brought by Filecoin and the threshold for participation. As early as 2017, F2Pool has been paying close attention to the progress of the Filecoin project. Taking this opportunity, we compiled a filecoin key point for miners, so that we can understand this phenomenal new currency from the perspective of mining.
Although the news of "delay" came again, the general expectation this time is that Filecoin has entered the final debugging stage, and it is very close to the "delivery" of the phenomenon-level mainnet that is expected to "go online and become the mainstream currency".
Whether it is financing, mining machine investment, application development, or cloud computing power products, summit forums, or even "bounced" news, the discussions and hype around Filecoin in all aspects continue to arouse people's curiosity, making a large number of people New forces in the mining circle who have spotted this new opportunity to create wealth will join in.
secondary title
Repeatedly "bounced", how is Filecoin progressing?
Early projects and the long wait
You often hear Filecoin and IPFS being mentioned at the same time, and occasionally the two words are substituted for each other. Although both are developed by Protocol Labs, they actually refer to two things: the distributed storage protocol layer and the incentive layer.
image description
Ecological participants using IPFS Image from https://ipfs.io/
Filecoin is to build an incentive layer on this decentralized network protocol. The first version of the white paper was also released in 2014 with IPFS. In 2017, Filecoin released an updated white paper and completed the largest initial coin offering on Coinlist at that time, including the Pre-sale, raising a total of 275 million US dollars.
Filecoin is built on IPFS, which promotes participants to build a data market and encourages people to store and query data more efficiently. Although IPFS does not have to be "bound" to Filecoin to be used, but backed by the ultra-popular protocol layer and the officially developed "incentive layer", Filecoin is given high hopes for the widespread application of cryptocurrencies.
The design of technical implementation, code improvement, parameter design, hardware configuration, etc. requires a lot of time, and multiple revisions to the expected time of the mainnet also make followers wait even longer. In the second half of 2019, March, May, June, August of this year, until the most recent September, Filecoin's expected launch time has been "reset" many times, becoming the "Ace Pigeon".
image description
image description
https://app.instagantt.com/shared/s/1152992274307505/latest
According to the latest roadmap, Filecoin is currently undergoing technical preparations such as security audits, test verification, and interoperability. The encryption economic structure, proof structure, and main network hardware recommendation settings are also in progress.
The network is expected to conduct a three-week Space Race incentive testnet competition in August, and a total of 4.1 million FIL rewards will be distributed linearly within 6 months of the mainnet launch. Among them, ranked by storage power, the top 100 miners in the world and the top 50 miners on each continent will receive a total of 4 million FIL rewards, and ranked by block rewards, the top 20 miners will receive a total of 100,000 FIL rewards.
secondary title
What are the key points to understand the storage mining consensus?
From "computing power" to "storage power"
When many miners hear the storage mining of Filecoin for the first time, they may first think of some similar projects in the past, such as "hard disk mining" or other distributed storage projects. After a simple comparison, they will find obvious differences:
What is the difference between Filecoin and the previous "hard disk mining" PoC project? Taking BHD as an example, it uses hard disk space to compete for the right to produce blocks, but it is not for storing files. Miners can exit more flexibly after receiving block rewards, while Filecoin has continuous data storage requirements.
What is the main difference from previous distributed storage projects? Taking SC as an example, its token generation process is relatively independent from its use process, and it mainly competes for block rewards with hash power, while Filecoin uses hard disk storage to determine the possibility of obtaining block rewards.
"Expected Consensus + Proof of Replication + Proof of Time and Space" is the core concept of the Filecoin consensus and storage algorithm.
Filecoin's Expected Consensus (EC, Expected Consensus) determines how the network uses and who is selected to obtain block rewards. The more data a Filecoin miner effectively stores, the greater the possibility of being elected as a block node. Unlike Bitcoin, which uses hash power to compete for block power, the core resource of the Filecoin network is storage capacity.
The "effective storage" mentioned here is the size of the storage space. The EC Expected Consensus allows storage miners to submit tickets through non-interactive calculations, and compares the stored data through zero-knowledge proofs to generate block miners. The network can generate multiple blocks at one point in time, reward multiple miners, and record these blocks in a Tipset to form a Tipset chain with a DAG structure.
How to publicly verify storage capabilities? Filecoin sets up two storage algorithms: Proof-of-Replication (PoRep) is used to determine that miners have successfully replicated and encapsulated data in their own devices, and Proof-of-Spacetime (PoSt) is used to verify Miners continue to store data safely and securely as promised. The specific process we will combine the hardware configuration to answer for you.
How to accumulate more "storage power" to obtain greater opportunities for block generation?
The first is early participation. Filecoin mining spells "accumulation". Early players can not only accumulate tokens relatively easily because of the "head mine bonus", but more importantly, start the accumulation process of effective storage earlier. Miners can accept storage orders, and can also store non-specific data to indicate storage commitments, so that they can upgrade this part of storage space to customer data after receiving orders.
secondary title
In terms of income model and risk control, which cognitions need to be updated?
The Rewards and Tests of "Long-term Sustained Participation"
Similar to previous PoW mining, Filecoin's miner rewards or income mainly come from the newly minted tokens of the network and the miner's fees for using the network. The following differences from traditional PoW mining require the attention of traditional miners:
1) There are more roles on the Filecoin network, and miners who provide data storage and data query can get benefits;
2) Filecoin needs to be mortgaged for mining, and the mortgaged tokens need to be sufficient to constrain miners to complete long-term storage according to the contract commitment;
3) A part of the block reward will be put into the locked funds, and all the rewards will be obtained after the storage contract is completed.
When the network is widely used and there is not much query demand, the main income from mining still comes from the new minting rewards issued to the "storage" miner network.
In terms of block rewards, among Filecoin's total 2 billion FIL tokens, 70% can be obtained through mining. The rest is the share of the development team (15%), investors (10%), and foundations (5%). In terms of block rewards, 50% of the minable tokens will be mined within 6 years.
The specific parameters of the rewards have not yet been finalized. Judging from the current design of the test network, Filecoin block rewards are composed of "simple supply + network baseline supply". Before the network reaches a certain target storage scale, miners' rewards will be delayed. After reaching the network baseline, the reward mode into a simple exponentially decreasing model.
In terms of risk, it is necessary to focus on the uncertainty in the "long-term participation" process. The mortgage before mining and the lock-up of network rewards both sacrifice the current liquidity. Not only that, but if the time-space proof submitted by the network cannot be completed, disconnection or delay occurs, the mortgaged tokens will be subject to a certain percentage. At the same time, the "storage power" will also be lost.
secondary title
How high is the threshold for high-performance equipment competition?
text
image description
image description
https://stats.testnet.filecoin.io/
text
text
According to the recently released official mining guide, we summarize the following table to show you the high-level configuration requirements of CPU and GPU in Filecoin network activities, especially in the process of data packaging and generation of certificates:
It can be seen that although it is competing for storage power, high-performance CPUs and GPUs, coupled with larger memory, will still widen the gap in packaging speed. The most time-consuming "packaging pre-submission phase 1" has become one of the key points for optimizing configuration.
secondary title
Filecoin, is there much room for traditional miners to participate?
A brand new mining ecology
I believe that miners who have read the above about the progress of the Filecoin network, consensus features, network rewards, and hardware configuration have already made their own basic judgments about Filecoin. Whether you can enter the game depends on whether you are ready for large-scale mining, or whether you have done enough homework to judge and choose a reliable partner. Don't rush to act until you fully understand.
Miners who have been working in traditional mining fields such as Bitcoin and Ethereum for many years, before exploring the new blue ocean of Filecoin, the adjustments that need to be made include understanding the new ecology brought by Filecoin.
Since the mining of Filecoin is different from the real-time process of "digging, selling, and withdrawing" mining such as Bitcoin, miners are unlikely to switch on and off the mining machine at any time according to the current currency price as usual, similar to "wet season" equipment Relocation has also become unrealistic.
Filecoin requires that mining machines must be continuously online, and mining machines are not easy to replace each other. Mining farms, mining pools, mining machine manufacturers, and various ecological participants in the industry need long-term fixed cooperation and close contact. More stable IDC computer rooms need to be used for clustering Mining, the mastery of the whole process of all aspects of mining, all these are new forms different from traditional mining.
Regardless of the currency and mining rules, avoiding "stepping on the pit" and finding a relatively suitable time are all issues that potential miners need to think about.
"The core influencing factors of Filecoin mining are cost-effective hardware + deeply customized mining system + stable operation and maintenance. The requirements in terms of hardware, software, and operation and maintenance will be higher." Yang Xiao, COO of Panda Miner & Niubit Introduction said.
He believes that the current industry is very mixed, with crazy sales and vicious PK between competing products, which makes traditional miners discouraged when they first enter the circle. Avoid stepping on the pit, and do a good job of cognitive update, "It is the hardest for miners who understand a little about hardware and mining." As for the timing of participation, he believes that it should wait until the mainnet is launched to avoid being "selling expectations".
Brother Lang, the co-founder of Wolfshen Mining Machine and a senior graphics card miner, said, "It is difficult for ordinary miners to participate, because Filecoin has strict requirements on the network environment and power stability, and it also involves the optimization of the underlying software. It’s a bit late to enter the market. But for small miners, although it is difficult to participate in the first batch, it is still possible for small miners to assemble their own hardware to participate in the later stage with software optimization.”
He also reminded miners to be wary of products such as capital preservation and short-term return of capital, and advised that "mining itself is a high-risk and high-yield type of project."
In the introduction, the old K of Bixia Research Lab also reminded that miners need to think about risks and benefits before participating. He believes that for ordinary people, even if they participate in some "cloud computing power" products, paying attention to the relevant expressions of the "mortgage mechanism" of Filecoin mining is the key point to enhance their identification ability. "For the cloud computing power you purchased, have you mentioned the liquidity cost of the mortgage currency, who needs to pay it, and if the mortgage currency is confiscated, who will bear the loss", only promises benefits, does not talk about risks, small-scale participants Potential problems should be considered.
Although the code and parameters of the network are still undetermined, and there are too many pitfalls and noises in the industry, on the whole, people in the industry are very optimistic about the long-term prospects of the network.
Panda Miner & Niubit COO Yang Xiao analyzed, "According to its distribution mechanism, 70% is dug out by miners, and 1.4 billion is used to motivate miners. According to the daily output of 400,000 tokens, the daily output value is indeed expected to exceed 400,000. Tens of millions, equal to Ethereum graphics card mining. This mining track does have the possibility to match or even exceed the scale of graphics card mining.”
Today, Filecoin's clearer network parameters and industrial ecological pattern will be presented before our eyes. Let us wait and see how stable the network will be and what kind of pattern the mining industry will form.
