Editor's Note: This article comes fromDeepChain (ID: deepchain-eva)Editor's Note: This article comes from
DeepChain (ID: deepchain-eva)
DeepChain (ID: deepchain-eva)
, Author: Bu Er Do, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.
In the first two articles, DeepChain has deeply analyzed the characteristics and minefields of the two investment methods of Filecoin futures and cloud computing power for readers. However, for the majority of investors, what you want to know more may be the inside story and traps in the field of Filecoin mining machines.
From the earlier snail interstellar fake mining machine incident to the imminent launch of the Filecoin mainnet, the price of mining machines has risen again and again.
In order to let readers have a deeper understanding of Filecoin investment, DeepChain launched a special column "Crossing the Fog of Filecoin Investment". I hope to work with you to figure out the rules of the game for Filecoin investment, seize opportunities and reduce pitfalls.
This article is the third article of this topic: Filecoin machine.
There are many types of Filecoin mining machines, and this article will take you to understand Filecoin mining machines!
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In fact, the hardware is almost the same, the key depends on the collocation scheme
However, as the launch of the Filecoin mainnet is approaching, major miner nodes and the mining machine manufacturers behind them have begun to exert their strength.
It is difficult for individual combat and low-performance machines to adapt to the intense rhythm, so many people choose to directly purchase finished mining machines from manufacturers.
The above are the product parameters of some of the more common Filecoin mining machine manufacturers currently on the market.
Among them, the performance of the CPU determines the growth rate of the computing power of the mining machine. The more powerful the CPU, the faster the computing power of the mining machine increases.
The GPU is responsible for generating space-time proofs in Filecoin mining.
In addition, in the mining process of Filecoin, since its mining is essentially hard disk mining, the larger the capacity of the hard disk, the greater the potential and ability of mining.
However, as can be seen from the above figure, the gap between the mining machine products of major manufacturers is not large.
This is because, since the beginning of this year, Filecoin has continuously announced the ideal accessory parameters for Filecoin mining machines, such as determining the SDR algorithm, supporting 1080 and 2080 series GPUs, and launching official hard drives. This also leads the major miners to get closer to each other in the hardware configuration of the mining machines. The only difference is that they have their own characteristics in the operation scheme of the mining pool.
Therefore, in principle, if the effective storage speed and hard disk space are the same, the coins dug out by different mining pools are probably similar, and even if there is an error, it will not be very big.
The gap given by industry insiders is about 10%, but it is only limited to the top few major miners.
However, for users, it is not enough to only know the hardware parameters of the Filecoin mining machine, because it is not the hardware that really determines whether you can make money, but the writing efficiency of a single T.
Don't just look at the price, but also look at the write efficiency
Filecoin is a blockchain for storage. To write data submitted by customers, miners must go through a specific process called Precommit and Commit.
Among them, some algorithms included, such as SDR and zk-SNARK, need to consume computing resources.
These computing resources are provided by CPU and GPU. Since the CPUs and GPUs of the machines of major miners are not the same, their writing speeds are also different.
For example, for an 8T hard disk, it takes one day for miner A to write, but it may take three days for miner B to write, so the mining efficiency of miner A is three times that of miner B.
In addition, assuming that the effective storage of mining machine A is 2T, and the effective storage of mining machine B is also 2T, but the effective storage of mining machine B used to be up to 5T, but due to technical failure or other factors, it was fined to only 2T, then, Still, it will be more efficient than a miner with only 2T.
Therefore, what users need to look at is how to select the mining machine through the configuration of the mining machine, from maximizing the performance of the whole machine, and writing the most data in the shortest time.
The more data written per unit time, the faster the effective storage capacity will grow. The faster the growth rate of effective storage capacity, the more the proportion of storage capacity can be increased. Under the expected consensus of Filecoin, the higher the proportion of storage power, the higher the probability of receiving block rewards in theory.
Buying a mining machine requires scheduling, while reselling a mining machine requires consideration of confidentiality agreements
In addition to fully understanding the hardware and parameters of the mining machine, there are a few little things you need to know before purchasing the mining machine.
First of all, unlike cloud computing power, mining machine holders can sell their own mining machines to withdraw funds after a period of time.
At present, many miners provide users with mining machine services for one to two years. However, in the communication between DeepChain and mining machine users, it is found that a considerable number of users' interest in Filecoin is concentrated on the launch of the mainnet. Six months ago.
The main reason is that miners are currently competing for Filecoin's "top mine" rewards, and when the "top mine" is gone, some miners will most likely not devote their energy to mining.
Therefore, many people will sell second-hand mining machines six months to one year after the mainnet goes live, and this is the biggest difference between buying mining machines and buying cloud computing power.
But it is worth noting that many miners will sign a non-disclosure agreement with users during the process of selling mining machines, at least for one year, that is to say, within one year of purchasing the mining machine, users still cannot freely sell their mines. machine.
In addition, the current mining machine solutions on the market largely require users to access the entire mining pool ecology in order to perform normal mining work. This also means that a single mining machine cannot independently carry out mining operations, and how much such a machine will sell for in the future is uncertain now, but there is a high probability that it will not be very valuable.
Secondly, the publicity effect of mining machines is often discounted in practice.
According to the communication between DeepChain and industry insiders, there are often differences between the data parameters of various mining machines we see on the market and the actual operating results. To put it bluntly, it is impossible to achieve expected.
On the one hand, it is because some of the parameters advertised by miners are independently tested under ideal conditions, and when connected to the entire cluster, the mining environment often does not allow the full effectiveness of the mining machine to be brought into play.
On the other hand, in some mining pools on the market, the mining machine models are not exactly the same. To make all the mining machines work synchronously, it is often necessary to unify the mining machine start-up standard.
Just like the current hot new energy vehicles, many new energy vehicles claim that they can run 500 kilometers on a full charge, but in real operating environments, considering road conditions, load, temperature and other factors, the actual maximum mileage is often around 390 kilometers.
The same goes for Filecoin miners.
Finally, the whole mining machine cannot be purchased immediately, and it often needs to be scheduled.
Since all Filecoin mining machines are inseparable from AMD processors, for major mining machine manufacturers, competition for AMD orders has actually formed.
Many industry insiders told DeepChain that due to the sharp increase in user orders, it is difficult for AMD chips to fully meet the supply demand of mining machines.
For large order holders, it often takes 20 days to a month after the order is placed to complete the payment of the purchased mining machine, while for retail orders, the delay is 45 days or even two months.
Having a mining machine does not mean that you can mine
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Although cluster mining requires a lot of extra overhead for internal coordination, and intranet data transmission may also cause bottlenecks, the computing power accumulates quickly, at least quickly reaching the officially set block computing power threshold.
In the cluster system, there are different roles such as Storage, Miner, and Worker, and these roles are indispensable.
In the Filecoin mining process, the storage server, that is, the ordinary mining machine, is used for data storage, while the supercomputing server is responsible for data compression.
The Filecoin mining steps can be simply split into two steps: Miner and Worker.
Miner is responsible for creating tasks, publishing tasks, and receiving sector results processed by Workers. After the results are submitted to the chain for verification, they become effective computing power, that is, storage contributions. Effective storage is directly related to the block rate of Filecoin.
The Worker is responsible for encrypting and writing the initial sector transmitted by the Miner, and sends it back to the Miner after completion.
Worker is responsible for the calculation. The original data is calculated through the SDR algorithm, and then the calculated data is written into the sector of the hard disk, and submitted to the chain to generate a copy certificate. Return to Miner after completion.
Finally, a written data will be stored on Storage.
In short, Miner is responsible for receiving data, Worker is responsible for writing data, and Storage is responsible for storing data.
In a miner’s solution, the mining machine purchased by the user only assumes the function of a worker, and when the user’s mining machine is connected to the mining pool, the official is responsible for the functions of the graphics card cluster, storage and miner.
In addition, the solutions launched by most miners like Space-Time Cloud are a set of mining machines, which take into account the responsibilities of Miner and Worker.
But on the whole, no matter which method is used, it is difficult for users to mine independently from the mining pool of the miner. On the one hand, some mining machines cannot mine by themselves after leaving the mining pool; After the mining machine is separated from the mining pool, the strength of a single mining machine is difficult to compete with the large mining pool.
Why do mining machines with similar hardware have different prices?
Currently on the market, the price of Filecoin mining machines is composed of two parts, one is hardware and the other is software.
If you just look at the cost of hard drives or other hardware, it may not be so high. Just like a mobile phone or a computer, it is also worth thousands or even tens of thousands, but this includes not only the cost of hardware, but also the cost of research and development for many years.
What's more, the technical threshold of Filecoin mining is very high, which requires professional hardware equipment, software, operation and maintenance services, etc.
Industry insiders once provided a data that hardware only accounts for 30% of the total price of mining machines. What really determines the price of mining machines is the software technology of major miners. This part accounts for 70% of the total price.
After all, Filecoin mining software is similar to a SaaS cloud system to a certain extent, and the investment in developing such a system software is expensive.
It is precisely because of this that during the second-hand resale of Filecoin mining machines, miners often agree with users on a confidentiality period of 1 to 2 years to prevent their software technology from being released to the world prematurely.
The above reasons are also one of the reasons why the prices of mining machines vary greatly among different miners. After all, software technology is the core of a company, which is why some unranked companies sell their mining machines cheaply.
In addition, the difference in supporting services is also a factor that affects the price of mining machines.
Generally speaking, miners with strong rankings will generally provide users with three-year free software and hardware upgrade and replacement services. In addition, the pledged coins of customers participating in the first mine will be paid by the company, while some miners do not pay much attention to supporting services in their plans.
If you see this and still decide to buy a mining machine, it means that you are very clear about Filecoin mining machines and very rich. After all, the Filecoin mining industry has become a game for big players just like traditional ASIC mining. The threshold for miners to sell to the outside world starts at one million yuan, and the Xianhe system is even more blunt, not doing business with retail investors, and the threshold for cooperation starts at 3 million yuan.
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