Interpretation of Filecoin's new "non-deleted public beta": the battle for the first mine will begin (POC series 7)

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The Filecoin Space Race is drawing to a close, and the rankings of the computing power of each company have been basically determined. The total network computing power has exceeded 200PiB, which is twice the upper limit of the effective computing power reward set by the original competition. In this space race, Filecion network bugs frequently occurred, and the network version was updated almost every day. Most miners worked overtime and suffered terribly. When the miners thought that the 21-day long race was coming to an end, the official announced that the space race would continue (starting the second phase of the space race) until October 5, which would last for 3 weeks.

The current global computing power ranking is as shown in the figure below. Star Continent merged two nodes and is currently ranked first; Pomegranate Community has 16 nodes and is closely behind; Force Zone has 5 nodes and ranks third; Spacetime Cloud & Xi'an Lingdong are not currently entitled to rewards because their transaction success rate is less than 80% (72%, the specific situation depends on official judgment); Xianhe, which has been leading the way, is now ranked fourth based on single-node computing power.

On the evening of the 12th, Filecoin updated an article titled "Announcement on the Start of Space Race 2" on its official Slack and official website, indicating that the second phase of the space race will begin. Judging from the information disclosed by the official, the second phase of the space race test will be very different from the first phase of the test, but the time node will continue from the first phase of the test for a period of 3 weeks.

Next, we will interpret some key points of the second phase of the space race.

1The second phase of the space race is more like a "pre-mine" before the mainnet launch

If the first phase of the space race is compared to the "deleted data test" before the game is officially launched, then the second phase of the space race is the "non-deleted data public beta". In the second round of the space race, a certain proportion of the packaged effective computing power, staked FIL, and even mined FIL test coins will be migrated to the main network.

This is more like a "pre-mining" before the mainnet launch. It is said to be the second stage of the space race, but in fact the mainnet competition has already begun. Even the accumulation of computing power plays a crucial role in the subsequent FIL distribution.

But why didn’t the authorities launch the main network directly, but held a second phase space race?

The reason is that there are still various bugs in the Filecoin network, and even the key reward distribution parameters are difficult to determine. The number of miners and computing power growth have also exceeded official expectations. After the mainnet is launched, if the network is paralyzed, congested, or even errors in the design of economic model parameters lead to unsustainable mining by miners, this Filecoin project that everyone has been looking forward to for three years will be greatly questioned.

As the leader of blockchain storage projects, if major bugs or stagnation occur after the mainnet goes online, it may even have a negative impact on the entire decentralized storage track.

Therefore, after the end of the first phase of the space race, the second phase of the space race will be launched immediately. Even the effective computing power accumulated in the first and second phases of the space race will affect the initial value of the effective computing power after the main network is launched. This is like giving the FIlecoin main network a room for trial and error, leaving enough run-up and warm-up stages before the Filecoin main network.

"I can have bugs because I'm still in the testing phase; I can modify economic parameters because I'm still in the testing phase; I can have message congestion because I'm still in the testing phase."

Once the Filecoin Space Race has made everything run smoothly, the frequency of bug fixes has been reduced, and the parameters have been basically finalized, the mainnet will be much more stable and there will not be major errors.

2The second phase of the space race was very different from the first phase of the space race

The goals of the first and second phases of the space race are very different. The main purpose of the first phase of the space race was to "stress test" the Filecoin network to see if the Filecoin network can accommodate high-intensity effective computing power increments; while the purpose of the second phase of the space race is to "fully simulate the mainnet launch scenario and prepare for the mainnet launch."

Therefore, the reward rules for the first phase of the space race are "Within 3 weeks, miners will compete with each other to provide as much storage as possible to the network. The top 100 miners in the world and the top 50 miners in each continent will share the Filecoin rewards based on the proportion of storage they have achieved for the network during the test."

Judging from the rules of the first phase of the space race, the amount of coins per T, the block explosion rate, mining efficiency, etc. are meaningless for miners to obtain rewards, because the final reward only depends on the accumulation of effective computing power. Therefore, for miners, they only need to ensure an 80% order success rate and increase their storage computing power as much as possible, so that they can obtain as many competition rewards as possible after meeting the reward ranking.

The accumulation of effective computing power became the core goal for all miners to obtain rewards in the first phase.

In the second phase of the Space Race, in addition to conducting a "stress test" on the network, the core goal is to determine the parameters of the main network economic model, simulate the Filecoin circulation model, and make the transition from the Space Race to the main network as smooth and stable as possible. This is the goal of the second phase.

Therefore, the rewards for the second test are likely to be based on the FIL test coins you actually mined, mapped to the FIL main network coins in a certain proportion. This simulation is more realistic, and there is no regulation on unlocking rewards based on the amount of effective computing power. In terms of penalties, it will be more lenient than the main network in the initial stage (only continuous mistakes will result in the storage being deemed invalid).

At this stage, we cannot just focus on the growth of effective computing power as we did in the first stage, but we need to pay attention to detailed mining parameters such as the amount of coins per T, luck value, and block explosion rate.

3 The significance and value of the second phase of the space race

The reward model of the second phase of the space race has been close to the reward model after the main network is launched. Even the effective computing power obtained can be proportionally mapped to the main network. This means that for miners, the significance of the second phase of the space race is far greater than that of the first phase of the space race. It can reflect the input-output ratio of FIL mined after the main network is launched.

It is no exaggeration to say that in the "hidden" second phase of the space race, the battle to grab the "first mine" in Filecoin mainnet mining has begun.

The initial accumulation of effective computing power is of great significance to the proportion of effective computing power in the entire network in the future. It is not just as simple as getting more FIL per unit of effective computing power in the early stage, but also determines the miners' income in the future. The FIL points of miners are based on the proportion of FIL effective computing power accumulated in the entire network.

The second phase of the space race is crucial for all FIL miners. However, the specific reward parameters for the second phase of the space race have not been officially disclosed. We will analyze them one by one for readers after the official announcement of the detailed competition rules. (Special author: Bu Meng Editor: Wu Shuo Blockchain)

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