Zhou Huan, founder of IPFS.Fund, visited Computing Power School to explain the Filecoin first mining test network and encourage miners

IPFS has been steadily advancing in 2020, the countdown to the launch of the Filecoin mainnet is on, the testnet has entered the final sprint stage, and 4 million FIL rewards are ready to go. In order to seize the opportunity and prepare for the first mine, the Computing Power School, hosted by Renren Mine and co-hosted by Lieyun Finance, invited Zhou Huan, the founder of IPFS.Fund, to be a guest in the live broadcast room to share wonderful content around "Top Testnet and Preparing for the First Filecoin Mine", and to help and cheer for IPFS miners on the eve of the global competition.

The mainnet is launched. The entry of leading players makes the Filecoin ecosystem more exciting.

"As far as I know, many leading players, including those in the blockchain field such as Golden Finance, Mars Finance, Renren Mine, and F2Pool, have begun to enter the Filecoin field." Zhou Huan said that before the mainnet is launched, the ecosystem composed of the original Filecoin enthusiasts and exclusive miners will undergo a very big change with the entry of leading players. This change will make the project more exciting and there will be more things worth looking forward to.

Seize the window: Three necessities for early participation in the first mine

"The first mine is similar to the earliest dividends of Bitcoin. If you were able to participate in Bitcoin mining in 2009 and 2010, or even before 2015, you can say that you mined the first mine of Bitcoin." Zhou Huan pointed out that Filecoin is a project second only to Bitcoin in terms of attention, and its popularity has far exceeded that of Ethereum. There are three reasons for participating in the first mine at an early stage.

High mining output per unit storage capacity

The first is that the mining output per unit storage capacity is high. Currently, there are already a lot of mining machines and more funds involved in Filecoin mining. The competition for Filecoin mining will be very fierce in the future. However, due to various reasons, not everyone can participate in early mining. Only some mining farms and mining pools that have mastered the cluster operation and maintenance capabilities of large mining farms can participate in the first wave of Filecoin's real head mining competition.

Second, this year's epidemic has had a huge impact on the global supply chain. In the past two months, many domestic mining machine manufacturers have been purchasing Filecoin mining machine-related parts and components, and the price increase of related parts is actually very large. The pressure on the supply chain is actually very large, and the delivery period of some core parts has even reached more than one month. Even if there are 20 billion funds in the market ready to mine Filecoin, the funds that can really grab the first mine may account for less than 10%. Only 2 billion or 1.5 billion funds can participate in the early mining of Filecoin.

Therefore, for the early users, there is a short window period, which allows them to mine 1-2 months ahead of others. It is not until two months later that a large amount of funds will come in to compete. Therefore, in the first few months of the first mining, there is a very high output window period. This is the first value of the first mining, that is, the mining output per unit storage capacity is higher.

· The scarcity of circulating chips gives chips rights

The second value of the first mine is the rights of chips due to the scarcity of circulation. In the early days of Filecoin mining, the chips structure was 70% mining, 20% foundation and team, and 10% early investors. They were all released linearly. The chips of Filecoin in the secondary market are very scarce. Moreover, since most miners are rushing into this track, Filecoin mining requires collateral. The more miners want to mine, the more demand there is for the purchase of collateral coins. Therefore, whoever has chips in the market can have a certain dominant right in the market. The price in the secondary market is just a manifestation of the rights of chips.

·The starting line advantage forms a barrier

The third is the cumulative value of the starting line advantage. Filecoin mining is different from Bitcoin mining. Bitcoin mining starts from 0 for each block, just like a 100-meter race. At the command, a block time starts. Whoever reaches the finish line first wins. But Filecoin mining is different. It is a marathon. If you are 5 meters ahead of others in the first 100 meters, you will be ahead of others at the starting line in the second 100 meters. The first-mover advantage will keep you ahead, and it will be difficult to be surpassed by others for a long time, unless new miners enter later with the advantage of large funds or at a huge cost to eliminate the first-mover advantage. In other words, whoever can enter the first wave of the first mine can maintain the advantage for a long time, which is also a very important advantage of the first mine in Filecoin mining.

The three major aspects of the value of the first mine are relatively clear to the entire market. From the perspective of the supply chain, a large amount of funds have not yet come in, so there is no need to worry about whether the early competition will be fierce. The early miners who bought machines should be grateful that they made a relatively correct decision.

Ranking Guide: Interpretation of the 4 million Filecoin test network reward rules

The activity lasts for three weeks. Miners around the world are ranked in the Filecoin network. The rankings are updated dynamically in real time. The rewards are settled in the end and released linearly over 6 months after the mainnet is launched. These are the three characteristics of dynamic ranking updates, final settlement of rewards, and linear release over 6 months.

According to the activity rules, there are three parts of rewards. The first part is the global reward, and only the top 100 in the world can receive the reward. The requirement for the global reward to be enabled is that the total storage capacity of each continent reaches 1 petabyte. The maximum global reward is 1 million, and the maximum regional reward is 500,000, a total of 3 million for the six continents. In other words, the maximum global reward is 1 million, and the maximum regional reward is 3 million, adding up to a total of 4 million Filecoin.

The second part is the regional rewards, which are for the top 50 in each region and each continent. The highest reward is 500,000 coins in each continent. Based on your ranking in your continent and your global ranking, you can receive both global rewards and regional rewards.

The third is the bug bounty. There are some relatively good technical teams that are not involved in Filecoin mining or testing, but they have prepared many Filecoin-sized vulnerabilities and plan to attack them when the mainnet goes online to gain some extra revenue. If they report bugs to the official during the test, the official will give a reward of up to 250,000 coins depending on the severity of the vulnerability and the degree of impact on the mainnet.

Collaborative Operations: How to compete to maximize profits?

For many large mining pools, they can use the test network rules to gain greater profits for themselves, and it is very necessary to interpret the relevant strategies in detail.

Mining pool clusters compete to gain first-mover advantage

The first strategy is to use mining pools to compete in groups. Even if a single miner is very efficient, it is difficult for him to get a relatively high position in the global or continental rankings. It is difficult for one person to compete with 100 people, and the storage capacity of a machine is also difficult to compete with 100 machines. Therefore, everyone must join a mining pool to compete in a cluster. It is an advantage to use mining pools to compete in groups.

Reasonable use of rules, allocation of nodes, and grabbing rankings

The second strategy is to reasonably allocate multiple nodes to grab ranking places. Mining pools that have not studied the rules deeply may not pay attention to this point. Everyone is thinking about who has more machines. For example, the profit of 1,000 machines is higher than that of 800 machines in relative value, but if a better strategy is used to compete, then these 1,000 machines can play a greater value.

For example, if 1,000 machines are used as a mining node, and this node ranks first, then it only occupies one place in the ranking of 100. If there are 50 mining farms, each with 1,000 machines, then these 1,000 machines are the top 50, and the bottom 50 will be occupied by second-tier or third-tier miners. All second-tier and third-tier miners, although they have less storage data and weaker strength, as long as they are before the top 100, they can still share the 1 million rewards.

Therefore, for the top 50 large mining farms and mining pools, they can adopt the second method, which is to turn the 1,000 machines in each mining pool into 500 machines. Then each mining pool has two nodes, and both nodes can be ranked in the top 100. In other words, 50 mining pools occupy the top 100 positions, and the last 50 small miners are squeezed out of the top 100. If this strategy is implemented, it will be almost difficult for many small mining pool companies to get the test network rewards. The test network rewards may be completely occupied by the top 5-10 mining farms and mining pools. This is the use of rules.

·Deployment in different continents and cross-border competition

The third strategy is to appropriately deploy cross-border competition for resources in different continents. Currently, most machine mining farms are in Asia, and competition in Asia is very fierce. At this time, if you have channels and resources in other states, such as IDC data centers in Australia, and you can quickly get some very low-priced machines to deploy, then you can participate in the Australian ranking competition. The prize money for the Australian ranking competition is actually very considerable. Because each continent has 500,000 coins, if I am in a remote continent and I occupy these 500,000 coins by myself, then it will even far exceed the reward I get for the top 10 in Asia, and it may be even more. At this time, those who have resources, conditions, and capabilities can obtain more benefits through the deployment of other states.

In short, the first thing is to integrate the small miners into a whole. All small miners should gather together to form a mining pool to compete in a group. The essence of the test network reward is a ranking competition where the majority bullies the minority. The second thing is to reasonably allocate multiple nodes to grab quotas. According to the dynamic ranking on the test network, the strength of the current test network should be evaluated, and the number of existing machines should be appropriately divided. The top mining pools are not necessarily just in a competitive relationship. They can also unite and squeeze all other small mining pools and mines out of the top 100. It is also very possible to monopolize the entire 100. The third is to appropriately deploy resources in different continents and compete across borders.

Filecoin has a wide track , so you can participate based on your core advantages

The core advantage of some leading players is the influence of market consensus, the core advantage of some leading players is strong financial strength, and some leading players have strong strength in machine supply chain. Different leading players may adopt different strategies when entering the Filecoin track. Each mining pool must play its strongest advantage to participate in the competition. Competition is not a single dimension. You may not be able to compete with others in mining, but you can gain some advantages in the secondary market, or control the supply chain, which can actually bring great benefits. For a track like Filecoin, there are many opportunities to participate, and you need to participate according to your own positioning.

Future Market · Growth Space for IPFS Commercial Landing

Through the development in recent years, the IPFS project has formed a very strong market consensus. From 2017 to now, regardless of whether the blockchain circle has gone from bull to bear or from bear to bull, the Filecoin project has always been very popular.

After the strong entry of the leading players, the popularity of this project and the strength of consensus will be further promoted. In the future, Filecoin and IPFS will have a more exciting ecosystem. Once the commercialization of distributed storage technology such as Filecoin is promoted, it will form a very solid support for expectations. It will give the entire market more confidence and a stronger consensus, rather than a consensus based on expectations.

In short, the future growth space and long-term value of Filecoin are actually very worthy of everyone's expectations. At the same time, it also requires all of our ecological enthusiasts and participants to work together to make Filecoin more stable, more down-to-earth, and more sustainable in the long run.