What does the 5PB big miner test mean?

1. What is the significance of the large miner test to the entire project?

In general, this is a stress test of the stability, security, and consensus speed of the test network, because when the computing power of a single node grows to the PB level, more new problems will appear on the current single-node computing power of TB level. It can be considered as the largest-scale military exercise before the main network goes online. Specifically, it includes:

1) Encapsulation rate of replication proof in the current version

2) Packaging performance with a computing power of more than 5PB

3) Other mining bottlenecks

4) Major events in the mining process (such as the time taken for key steps in mining)

5) How to optimize mining software (how to optimize mining process)

6) Growth rate of effective computing power per unit cost and per unit time

Such a large test scale and very clear test goals all indicate that both the underlying technology development level and the consensus synchronization and economic model design have entered the final preparation stage. In addition, I don’t know if you have noticed that in the Gantt chart of the latest development progress officially released on March 30, there is only a one-week delay compared to the previous version. The increasingly detailed development timeline also indirectly confirms the development team’s confidence in the project’s on-time launch.

2. What does the 5PB threshold mean?

1) First, let me explain the meaning of 5PB. It does not mean that the total capacity of the hard disk is 5PB, but the effective computing power growth value exceeds 5PB within a 2-month period. For example, you have 100 empty rooms = your total hard disk capacity is 100T, but the number of rooms you rent out = your effective computing power; and the number of rooms you rent out depends on your ability to rent out, which is analogous to the accumulation of effective computing power, that is, the mining efficiency of the mining machine (that is, the faster the effective computing power increases per unit time, the stronger the ability)

2) From the perspective of quantitative data, if your mining machine can increase its effective computing power by 3GB per hour, then if you want to accumulate 5PB of computing power within 2 months, you must have at least 1,213 mining machines of the same model. If your mining machine can increase its computing power by 6GB per hour, the number of mining machines you need will be halved to about 600; therefore, you can see that the higher the mining efficiency of the mining machine, the fewer mining machines are needed to achieve 5PB of effective computing power. This undoubtedly tests the mining technical strength of the miners.

3) From the perspective of operating costs, assuming that a mining machine with an efficiency of 3GB/h has a power of 500W, the electricity fee, network fee, IP, and operating costs of the computer room are about 500 yuan per month. 1,000 machines will cost 1 million yuan in operating costs in 2 months. This is a considerable expense for miners, especially when the coins mined in the second phase of the test cannot be immediately converted into cash. You will find that this not only tests the technical strength of the miners, but also tests the scale of the miners' mining machines, financial strength and operation and maintenance capabilities. It is an early review of the major miners by the market.

3. What is the significance of participation for mining machine companies?

In the previous question, I briefly mentioned the threshold requirements for miners to participate in this large-scale test. It can be seen that miners who can reach this scale can, to some extent, be regarded as leading mining machine manufacturers. They should not be underestimated in terms of scale, technology, and operation and maintenance capabilities.

1) The first significance is that this is not only a stress test for the project, but also a stress test for itself. The larger the scale of the connected mining machines and the more concurrent mining machines, the greater the probability of error. This places high demands on the real-time monitoring and operation system and the timely error response mechanism.

2) The second significance lies in that different miners use different mining architectures, including stand-alone solutions, cluster solutions, mining pool solutions, etc. Large-scale access to mining machines can show where the bottleneck of their own technical architecture is, so as to find a breakthrough solution for their respective mining bottlenecks in actual combat exercises.

3) The third significance is that it is a good opportunity for miners to show off their strength. When the underlying code is closest to the main network, they can demonstrate the company's strength to customers. Of course, there are also many low-key mining machine companies whose purpose of participating is not to "show off their swords" but to "train troops."

4. How should big miners participate?

This large miner test is participated in by "miner registration + official screening". Here I can synchronize with you the latest progress of the communication between the 1475 team and the official:

1) First, interested large miners need to submit a written application to the official before 23:59 Pacific Time on April 15, which includes "the maximum computing power that the large miner is expected to achieve, the technical solution for reaching the 5PB threshold, and the packaging speed and performance tested under various conditions" and other information

2) The official will make the final selection and evaluation based on the "storage capacity of the miner, the technical solution of the node, and the contribution of the experimental conclusions to the community" of the submitted application. If you have a unique technical architecture and a unique evaluation system, you may increase the probability of being selected (the number of miners who will eventually participate in the test has not yet been determined, but the number of miners who have submitted applications has exceeded 20)

5. What is the reward policy for participating in the test?

1) The government will subsidize the operating expenses of 5PB miners during the test period in the form of US dollars/Filecoin, but the specific amount of subsidies has not yet been determined. It is likely that the comprehensive evaluation will refer to the operating cost accounting submitted by the miners when applying. The specific subsidies will be released in 3 times. The first time: the test plan is executed and iterated - 25%; adjust the plan according to official requirements and further experiment - 25%; finally obtain the test results and submit all relevant materials - 50%.

2) Since the big miner test is based on the second-phase test network, in addition to the big miner subsidies, they can also accumulate filecoin test coins, which are expected to be exchanged at a certain ratio after the main network is launched, but whether there will be specific incentives or not, we still have to wait for official news.

6. What is 1475’s opinion on this big miner test?

1) First of all, I can tell you that the 1475 team is already actively preparing for this big miner test plan. On the one hand, it will assist the official in stress testing the chain, and more importantly, it will conduct a practical exercise on its own capabilities.

2) It is recommended that miners evaluate whether it is necessary to participate in this test based on their own needs and input-output ratio.

3) The results of this big miner test will inevitably play a key role in whether the conditions for the main network launch are sufficient, and test the security, stability and compatibility of the chain

4) Finally, partners who wish to participate in the 5PB large miner test can join the 1475 mining pool. The features of the 1475 mining pool are:

① Breaking through the restriction that clusters need to be in the same local area network, the mining pool supports cross-computer room and cross-external network collaboration;

②Support access to massive miners, without computing power growth bottleneck;

③ Low access threshold, supporting access to mining machines without GPU;

④ Enjoy the 1475 efficient mining algorithm to rapidly improve mining efficiency;

⑤ The computing power and coin data are transparent and open;

⑥Provide API data interface for partners.