Filecoin mainnet launches pledged coins to block miners

Driven by the favorable news, the futures price of the mainnet asset FIL rose. Coingecko data showed that FIL rose from $25.8 at 15:00 today, and rose to $28.96 in 2 hours, an increase of 12%.

The market has expressed its optimism about the launch of the Filecoin mainnet, but some miners who maintain the mainnet are currently facing a situation where they are short of pledged coins and may not be able to mine with their mining machines. This is related to the Filecoin network's special mining access mechanism.

The mainnet has not yet been launched, and miners are facing a dilemma similar to "which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

On October 15, the Fielcoin block browser showed that the effective computing power of the entire network was 566.9PIB, which was 0.17FIL/32GIB. If the computing power of the entire network is normally packaged, 101 million FIL will need to be pledged. The current predictable FIL circulation in the market is far less than 100 million.

The release of early investors, officials and miners also needs to wait until the mainnet is launched. According to the release rules of FIL, this batch of assets must be unlocked 30 days after Filcoin is launched on the mainnet, with a total of 16.474 million FIL. Due to cycle restrictions, distant water cannot quench immediate thirst.

On October 14, the Filecoin community launched the FIP 0004 proposal, proposing that 25% of the storage miners' rewards be released directly after the mainnet is launched, increasing the circulation of FIL and solving the problem of insufficient pledge caused by the scarcity of FIL in the early days.

If the proposal is passed, it will take effect only after the mainnet is launched. It seems that Filecoin miners are still in a difficult situation after waiting for the mainnet.

The support of Filecoin mainnet by supporters was reflected in the market, with Filecoin's mainnet currency FIL rising by 12% in 2 hours. Starting from 15:00 on October 15, FIL rose from $25.8, and by 17:00, it had soared to $28.96, a 12% increase in two hours, but the intraday decline was 12.1%, with obvious fluctuations.

FIL price trend on October 15

In the SR2 "Space Race" officially launched half a month ago, Filecoin officially announced the launch time of the mainnet, which is expected to be officially launched when the block height reaches 148888, which is estimated to be around 22:45 on October 15th, Beijing time. The mainnet, which has been delayed several times over the years, has finally been fulfilled this time.

The optimism of the secondary market is not only reflected in the price trend, but also some exchanges that have not paid attention to Filecoin before have announced the listing of FIL. After the mainnet is launched on October 15, two exchanges registered in the United States, Gemini and Kraken, will open deposits and withdrawals for FIL and support transactions.

Jeremy Welch, vice president of product at Kraken, said in an interview that the reason why Kraken only supported FIL transactions after Filecoin confirmed its mainnet launch was because the platform was conducting compliance and security reviews based on risk reasons. "This does not run counter to the company's regular listing strategy. We have a strong review framework to ensure that the project can pass compliance and security."

Five days ago, OKEx and Huobi Exchange announced that after the launch of the Filecoin mainnet, the platform will open FIL deposit and withdrawal services. It is worth noting that many exchanges in the market have opened FIL futures trading a few months ago. Different exchanges have different redemption periods. There are FIL redemption contracts on the market with a period of 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and even 12 months, which requires the attention of relevant users.

In addition to the secondary market, Filecoin is also promoting the ecological landing of the main storage scenario while brewing the main network. On October 9, Filecoin officially announced that in the Slingshot competition, the Filecoin community stored 170 TiB of data through 200,000 storage transactions on the network in two weeks. Slingshot is a competition for storage clients and developers to encapsulate valuable data to the main network, and these data are contributed by the participants of the Slingshot competition.

Filecoin's token market and application ecosystem are showing signs of life, but for the upcoming mainnet, miners are the key to network operation. However, just before the mainnet went live, some miners reported that they were having trouble starting up their machines to mine due to insufficient pledged coins. This is related to the special mechanism of Filecoin mining.

According to Filecoin's design, for every 1T of effective computing power added to the network, 32 FILs need to be pledged in the initial stage. On October 15, the Fielcoin block browser showed that the effective computing power of the entire network was 566.9PIB, and the amount was 0.17FIL/32GIB. If the computing power of the entire network is packaged normally, 101 million FILs need to be pledged. The current circulation of FIL in the market is far less than 100 million.

There is also a part of FIL owned by early investors, officials and some miners. However, according to the release rules of FIL, this batch of FIL can only be released 30 days after Filcoin is launched on the main network, and the cumulative unlocking amount is 16.474 million. These FILs cannot help to deal with the miners' pledge gap.

According to the current average futures price of FIL at $30, this means that before miners start up their machines and go online to do their job of sealing data for the main network, they must obtain FIL coins for staking. Purchasing is one of the channels, but it also increases the cost of miners. "The main reason is that there is no detailed release details yet. I am confused about what the output will be after the main network goes online," said a miner.

On October 14, the Filecoin community initiated the FIP 0004 proposal, which involves token release rules, including that 25% of storage miner rewards will be released directly after the mainnet goes online, and the remaining 75% of block rewards will be released linearly within 180 days according to the original rules. The purpose is to increase the circulation of FIL and solve the pledge and other problems caused by the scarcity of FIL in the early days.

It should be noted that if the FIP 0004 proposal is passed, it is expected to be implemented after the mainnet is launched.

The latest proposal of the Filecoin community focuses on adjusting the economic model to meet the needs of miners, which also indirectly reflects the dire situation of miners.

On October 13, Li Haotian, CEO of cloud computing service provider Diancun Technology, said in a live broadcast that customers need to solve the pledge coin problem themselves. The miners it serves need to purchase 350 FIL themselves and submit them to the platform as pledge coins to maintain normal startup.

At present, other cloud computing service providers have not made such requirements, and the service provider’s practice has caused dissatisfaction among some users.

The next day, Diancun Technology’s official WeChat account responded that the “problem with pledged coins” was due to the economic parameter settings of Filecoin, which resulted in insufficient release. Without pledging, mining cannot be started normally.

Diancun Technology also explained in its response that Filecoin stores real data of users and has high requirements for stability. It designs a pledge economic mechanism to prevent miners from shutting down after receiving block rewards, which would affect the security of user data. Based on the data calculated on October 14, the pledge amount of each sector in the Filecoin network is 0.23FIL/32G. Taking Diancun Technology's M9 mining machine as an example, the actual committed space that can be submitted is 60TB. If it is sealed at full speed for 90 days, 60TB can be sealed. About 682GB needs to be sealed every day, which is equivalent to sealing 21.3 sectors every day. A total of 4.9 FIL pledges need to be submitted, and a total of 440 FIL pledges need to be pledged in 90 days.

At the same time, the official response stated that their customers can use the reward coins of Space Race SR1 for pledge. Due to the limit on the number of pledged coins, the platform cannot advance all the pledged coins for customers, and customers need to solve part of the pledged coins themselves through borrowing or purchasing.

According to Mars Cloud Mining, miners encapsulate 331,250 sectors every day at a rate of 10.6PiB/day. According to the current mortgage demand of about 0.4FIL/sector, the entire network needs to mortgage 133,000 FIL every day.

According to the current policy, during the 180-day unlocking period, miners unlock 21,000 FIL on the first day, 30,000 FIL on the 10th day, and 50,000 FIL on the 30th day. The FIP 0004 proposal, which has not yet been passed, will unlock 25% first, which is 1/4 of the 173,000 FIL, about 43,250 FIL.

However, the FIL released by the two economic policies cannot meet the demand for pledged coins.

The shortest sector life cycle defined by Filecoin's economic parameters is 180 days and the longest is 540 days. The shortest period for pledged coins is 180 days before they can be redeemed. As of October 15, Filecoin's total network computing power is 565.74PIB, and every 32GIB requires 0.17FIL to be pledged, which is lower than the 0.23FIL/32GIB calculated by Diancun Technology.

Filecoin testnet mining data on October 15

The FIP 0004 proposal also reflects the problem of insufficient pledged coins. If this problem cannot be solved in time, a large number of miners may rush to buy FIL from the market to obtain sufficient storage rewards, which may also drive up the price of FIL. This is a short-term positive for the investment market, but it will also increase the cost of Filecoin miners.

The market will also wait and see how the long-awaited Filecoin mainnet will solve the miners' problem.