Observation | Comparison between new and old IPFS mining machines: Has the old mining machine from 2 years ago become scrap metal?

After the Bitcoin halving, IPFS, which has entered the countdown stage for the mainnet launch, has become one of the hottest topics at the moment. I will not go into details about the characteristics and broad application prospects of IPFS here. This article mainly wants to talk about the Filecoin test network and IPFS mining machines.

When the Filecoin project was just launched in 2018, there was a period of mining fever, and many IPFS mining machines appeared on the market. But as we know, the Filecoin mainnet has been delayed again and again, and the mining algorithm has not been officially announced, so the early IPFS mining machines could not really mine, and FIL tokens only had futures, so there were many IPFS mining machine scams.

In May this year, the Filecoin test network was launched, and some detailed requirements for mining were also announced. Judging from the mining machines currently participating in the test node configuration, their hardware configuration has changed greatly from the IPFS mining machines two years ago. The most significant is that the test network not only requires storage capacity, but also has high requirements for computing power. The CPU and GPU also use high-end configurations such as AMD Threadripper and GTX 2080Ti.

A public mining hardware solution on the Internet :

CPU: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X

Memory: 256G

SSD hard drive: 2 2TB NVMe

Hard disk: 8TB

GPU: NVIDIA GTX 2080Ti

The mining cluster composed of such configuration of mining machines reached a computing power of 300GB in the Filecoin large miner node test (the computing power of IPFS mining machines is calculated based on effective storage over a period of time, and the 300G here refers to the effective storage calculation accumulated in 1 day of 300G), which was ranked in the top ten in the test network ranking at that time. In addition, today a node announced that its computing power has exceeded 512GB .

After reading this latest mining hardware solution, Golden Finance also dug out the IPFS mining products from 2 years ago today. Here is a brief review and comparison to see whether the old mining machines from 2 years ago have really become scrap metal.

The brand model of this mining machine is "Hummingbird H1", which was pre-sold around April 2018. Hummingbird H1 adopts a lightweight design, similar to a home NAS, with a small size and low power consumption, and can be expanded with 2 3.5-inch hard drives. It is equipped with the IPFS OS system developed based on Linux.

Now, the Hummingbird H1 has been discontinued, and it can be seen from its official website that the manufacturer is no longer making IPFS mining machines, but has turned to its own edge storage applications.

This mining machine was launched in August 2018. After two years, the packaging box has become a little warped.

Xinjiang is one of the main distribution areas of Bitcoin mines in my country, and this mining machine is also produced in Xinjiang.

Black host and accessories box

Accessories include a power adapter and a network cable. The power supply specification is 13V/5A and the rated power is 65W. It can be seen that the power consumption of the Hummingbird H1 mining machine is roughly the same as that of a regular laptop.

The appearance of the Hummingbird H1 is very similar to home NAS, network hard disk enclosures and other products, and the black matte texture of the body is still good looking. The author believes that if the Hummingbird H1 can be expanded in terms of functions, such as adding a network hard disk function, then its vitality will be longer.

There are functional interfaces and cooling holes on the back of the fuselage

In terms of interfaces, the Hummingbird H1 provides an RJ45 network cable interface and 2 USB3.0 interfaces. In addition to the built-in hard drive, it should also be able to expand the mobile hard drive.

Bottom cooling fan design

Cooling hole design

There is a power switch on the top, as well as a brushed dust cover covering the hard drive.

The Hummingbird H1 provides two 3.5-inch hard disk slots, and currently has a 16T mechanical hard disk, so its maximum capacity should be expandable to more than 30T. In addition, it must be said that the QR code on the top of the Hummingbird H1 has expired, indicating that Interstellar Bit has stopped the mining service of the Hummingbird H1.

Pull-out hard disk rack

The hard disk controller circuit of the Hummingbird H1 is neat and the overall workmanship is acceptable.

The main circuit board is hidden on the side, and the whole picture cannot be seen without disassembling the machine. However, based on the functions and the style of the radiator, the author speculates that the Hummingbird H1 should use Intel ATOM or the newer Apollo Lake platform, and may be equipped with a dual-core Celeron processor and 4G memory. Such hardware is generally used for NAS, soft routing, and low-cost mini PCs. Its performance is far different from the IPFS mining machine assembled by 6Block at the beginning of the article.

After testing, the binding QR code on the Interstellar Bit Hummingbird H1 has expired, indicating that the manufacturer has stopped its mining service. In other words, the Hummingbird H1 can no longer meet the current mining needs. I believe this situation is not an isolated case among IPFS mining machines of the same period. This is not just because the manufacturer is unwilling to provide services, but because Filecoin has officially changed its requirements for mining machines, and the old mining machines can no longer meet the needs.

Here are some changes during the Filecoin mainnet testing phase:

1. Cancel 1GB sector and change to 32GB sector

2. Change the SDR algorithm to the NSE algorithm

3. The requirements for CPU are increased, and supporting SHA extension can accelerate mining efficiency, making AMD processor the best choice.

4. Mining requires GPU, and may lean towards GPU in the future.

5. In order to ensure network stability, security and reliability, it may tend to favor large miners and collective mining.

6. The official launch of Filecoin Discover, the hard drive sales model caused controversy.

It has to be said that the Filecoin network is far more complex than the Bitcoin network. Mining not only needs to consider the operation of the network, but also needs to meet the needs of commercial storage. But like Bitcoin, IPFS mining machines can actually be done by ordinary computers, but in order to improve mining efficiency and revenue, hardware configuration must be strengthened. For example, the mining machine solution at the beginning of the article is a high-performance gaming PC with enhanced storage performance, and the overall cost is about 40,000 yuan.

Therefore, in the future, IPFS mining machines should gradually move towards specialization and scale. If ordinary users want to use their home computers' idle computing power and storage space to mine, I'm afraid the benefits will be minimal. But the advantage of professional mining is that professional large miners can guarantee sufficient network bandwidth, latency, storage capacity, and always be online, making Filecoin have actual commercial value. After all, if it is like P2P seed downloading movies, there will be no resources and no speed after the popular period, and no users will be willing to choose such storage services.

Currently, Filecoin is undergoing Testnet phase 2 testing. It is estimated that there will not be any major adjustments to the official mainnet, so what is left for miners to study is to further adjust the configuration of mining machines in order to achieve the best input-output ratio.