As a small number of sectors have disappeared on the Filecoin network, discussions about the duration of Filecoin network sectors and the subsequent renewal of Filecon sectors have become increasingly heated. Next, let’s talk about the "sector life cycle". Sectors are the basic unit of storage on Filecoin, with a standard size and a clear commitment time limit. They provide digital storage services similar to containers in global freight. The size of sectors balances security and availability. According to the white paper "Creating the Filecoin Economy", the life cycle of a sector is determined by the storage market and specifies the duration promised by the sector (that is, if there is a real order, it is based on the requirements of the real order) . If we compare sectors to containers, it is those containers filled with data (packaged sectors) that together build a huge Filecoin storage market. So, what does sector failure mean? When the data in a container full of data disappears, the container no longer stores data. Analogously to the Filecoin network, if the data originally stored in a sector disappears, the sector becomes invalid. The failure of the sector means that the computing power corresponding to the sector disappears. Thinking about the sector life cycle The default sector period of the Filecoin network is 540 days, but miners can modify the sector time. Therefore, the life cycle of the Filecoin network sector can be automatically set to any value between 180-540 days (the more common ones are 180 days, 360 days, and 540 days) . Since the Filecoin Space Race and the main network are seamlessly connected, the start time of the Filecoin sector life cycle is 06:00 Beijing time on August 25, 2020, which is the time when the Filecoin Space Race starts. Calculated as of August 25, the sector with a 180-day sector life cycle actually expired on February 21 , 2021. Why do some miners set a sector lifecycle of 180 days? We all know that the disappearance of sectors means the disappearance of computing power, and the disappearance of computing power means a sharp drop in miners' income. After all, in the Filecoin network, miners obtain block rewards based on effective computing power. If there is no effective computing power, how can they obtain block rewards? Therefore, from the perspective of miners obtaining block rewards, the sector cycle must be as long as possible . Then why do some miners set a 180-day sector cycle? Because the sectors expire, it also means that the staked coins will be returned to the miners at one time , so the miners will have more FIL. Does setting a sector lifecycle of 180 days have more advantages than disadvantages? For old miners, most sectors were packaged during the space race, when gas fees and staked coins were almost zero. Today, the cost of adding 1TiB of effective computing power to a 32GiB sector is approximately 20 FILs. Obviously, for miners, although the life cycle of a sector can be selected arbitrarily between 180-540 days, it is most likely the best option to make the life cycle of the sector as long as possible, because compared to the space race, the cost of newly packaging 1TB of effective computing power is too high! Can Filecoin sectors be renewed? Combined with the above, we clearly know that compared to repackaging 1TiB of computing power, it may be more cost-effective to maintain the original computing power to obtain block rewards. So, can the Filecoin sector lifecycle be renewed? The sectors packaged on November 24, 2020 (UTC time November 24, i.e. Beijing time November 25), i.e. V1 sectors, cannot be renewed. Sectors packaged after November 28, that is, V1.1 sectors, can be renewed. Why is November 24 the renewal deadline? Because there is an important version upgrade on November 24, that is, Lotus is upgraded to version v1.2.0. The upgrade of this version requires miners to complete the upgrade before the height of 265200. The upgrade content includes: FIP-5, removes expensive miner reward attribution calculations from PreCommitSector and ConfirmSectorProofsValid, helping to reduce Gas consumption, free up chain bandwidth, and reduce miner costs; Specs-actors upgraded to v2.3.2; proofs upgraded to v5.4.0; Re-adjust the Gas cost, mainly reducing the cost in OnVerifyPostBase;
This version upgrade fixes certain bugs. Therefore, Filecoin officially sets that sectors of the Filecoin network cannot be renewed before the bug is fixed. After the bug is fixed, sectors of the Filecoin network can be renewed. How to extend the sector lifecycle? Just send ExtendSectorExpiration to the network to renew it. At present, Spacetime Cloud has successfully renewed some sectors. What are people discussing in the community? Filecoin officially launched a FIP proposal, which mainly discussed whether sectors (V1) before November 24 can be renewed. Official members stated in the proposal: According to the existing code, some sectors that used V1 proof before cannot be extended. For miners who package these sectors, if the sectors cannot be extended, it will cause significant losses and waste of computing and storage resources. Because miners need to re-package these sectors, more collateral and gas fees will be consumed. In other words, the official took into account that although there are some bugs in the V1 sector, if the V1 sector cannot be renewed, then the gas fees and staked coins consumed by miners to re-package the sector and the resulting network congestion are a waste of resources. Therefore, Filecoin officials want to hear the community's opinions on whether the V1 sector can be renewed. So, what is your opinion in the community discussion on whether V1 sectors can be renewed? Now, there are more and more proposals about the Filecoin network. This actually shows that the Filecoin network belongs to the community and to each and every one of us. The Filecoin network will definitely get better and better with the joint support and efforts of all of us! |
