2017 Ethereum mining machinery
do you remember what the consensus mechanism of bitcoin is? The consensus mechanism of bitcoin is pow. To put it simply, the more work you do, the higher the amount of computation you pay, the more likely you will be the first to find the correct hash value, and the more likely you will be rewarded with bitcoin
however, there are some defects in the pow of bitcoin, that is, it is too slow to process transactions, and miners need to constantly collide hash values through calculation, which is costly and inefficient. Friends who are interested in blockchain knowledge should see such a saying:
in order to make up for the deficiency of bitcoin, Ethereum has proposed a new consensus mechanism, called POS (this is the abbreviation of English, which means "proof of equity", also translated into "proof of equity")
POS simply means the same as its literal meaning: equity, equity. The more currency you hold, the more equity you have, the higher your equity
Ethereum's POS means that the more money you hold, the longer you hold it, the less difficult it will be to calculate and the easier it will be to mine
in the initial setting of Ethereum, Ethereum hopes to build a relatively stable system by using POW in the early stage, then graally adopt POW + POS, and finally completely transition to POS. So, it's true that the consensus mechanism of Ethereum is POS, but POS is only a plan or goal at the beginning of Ethereum's release. At present, Ethereum has not yet transitioned to POS, and the consensus mechanism adopted by Ethereum is still pow, that is, the pow of bitcoin, but it is slightly different from the pow of bitcoin
the amount of information here is a bit large,
the first information point is that the consensus mechanism currently adopted by Ethereum is also pow, but it is slightly different from the pow of bitcoin. So, what's the difference between the pow of Ethereum and bitcoin: in short, the mining difficulty of Ethereum can be adjusted, but the mining difficulty of bitcoin can't be adjusted. Just like our college entrance examination, because the teaching situation and the number of students in different provinces are not the same, so the college entrance examination is divided into national papers and provincial independent proposition
Ethereum said that I am in favor of the topic by region. Bitcoin said: No, it must be the same volume in the whole country. The difficulty is the same for everyone
the popular explanation is that bitcoin uses computer computing power to do a lot of hash collisions, enumerate various possibilities to find a correct hash value. The Ethereum system has a special formula to calculate the difficulty of each block. If a block is verified faster than the previous block, Ethereum protocol will increase the difficulty of the block. By adjusting the block difficulty, the time needed to verify the block can be adjusted
according to the Ethereum protocol, the dynamic adjustment method of difficulty is to make the time interval of creating new blocks in the whole network 15 seconds, and the network uses 15 seconds to create blockchain. In this way, because the time is too fast, the synchronization of the system is greatly improved, and it is difficult for malicious participants to launch 51% (that is, more than half) of the computing power to modify historical data in such a short time
the second information point is: in the initial setting of Ethereum, we hope to achieve the transition from POW to
POS through phased upgrade
dating back to 2014, at the beginning of Ethereum's launch, the team announced that the launch of the project would be divided into four stages, namely, Froniter, homestead, metropolis and serenity. In the first three stages, the consensus mechanism adopts pow (workload proof mechanism), and in the fourth stage, it switches to POS (equity proof mechanism)
on July 30, 2015, the first phase "frontier" of Ethereum was officially released. This phase is only suitable for developers. Developers can write smart contracts and decentralized application DAPP on Ethereum network, and miners begin to enter Ethereum network to maintain network security and get Ethereum coins. The leading-edge version is similar to the beta version, proving whether the Ethereum network is reliable or not
on March 14, 2016, Ethereum entered the second stage of "homeland". In this stage, Ethereum provides the wallet function, so that ordinary users can easily experience and use Ethereum. There is no obvious technology improvement in other aspects, but it shows that Ethereum network can run smoothly
in September 2017, Ethereum has reached the third stage of "metropolis"“ "Metropolis" is composed of Byzantine and Constantinople. The goal of this stage is to introce the hybrid chain mode of POW and POS, so as to prepare for the smooth transition from POW to POS. This is the latest popular "Ethereum Constantinople upgrade". In the Constantinople upgrade, Ethereum will make some changes to the underlying protocols and algorithms to lay a good foundation for the implementation of POW and
POS
how much reward will Ethereum get for mining? Miners who win the block creation competition will get the following income:
1. Static reward, 5 ethereums
2. The fuel cost in the block, i.e. gas, we talked about in the last issue
3. As a part of the block, it includes the extra reward of "Uncle block". Uncle is uncle of uncle, and each uncle block can get 1 / 32 of the mining reward as a reward, that is, 5 times 1 / 32, which is equal to 0.15625 ethereums. Here, let's briefly explain the concept of "TERT block". The concept of "TERT block" was proposed by Ethereum. Why should we introce the concept of TERT block? This also starts with bitcoin. In the bitcoin protocol, the longest chain is considered absolutely correct. If a block is not part of the longest chain, it is called a "orphan block". An isolated block is a block, which is also legal, but it may be found later, or the network transmission is slower, and it does not become part of the longest chain. In bitcoin, the solitude is meaningless and will be discarded later, and the miners who find the solitude will not receive mining related rewards
however, Ethereum does not think that isolated blocks are worthless, and Ethereum system will give rewards to miners who find isolated blocks. In Ethereum, isolated blocks are called "Uncle blocks", which can contribute to the security of the main chain. Ethereum's ten second block interval is too fast, which will rece the security. By encouraging the use of tertiary blocks, the main chain can obtain more security guarantees (because the isolated block itself is legal). Moreover, paying the tertiary block can also stimulate the miners to actively mine and actively use tertiary blocks. Therefore, Ethereum thinks that it is valuable.
At the end of March this year, bitmainland launched an ant miner X3 based on ASIC, which is mainly aimed at Monroe coin (XmR) and cryptonight algorithm dependent cryptocurrency. Monroe coin immediately issued a counter statement that it will change the core algorithm to fight against the invasion of ASIC computing power
what would be the result if it appeared in the world of digital cryptocurrency? That is, the wrong calculation results may be brought into the whole network without being discovered
More importantly, if a "calculator manufacturer" monopolizes the calculator market, it can also deliberately proce this kind of calculator with errors to change the mathematical rulesafter all, the "calculation" in the field of crypto digital currency is not as simple as 1 + 2 + 3. You can't compare paper currency with special currency by hand
the practical significance of computing power monopoly in mainland China
we have learned about attacks based on 51% computing power in various articles
but the reality is that although the global power of 78% was in Chinese mainland, fortunately, they were scattered in different pools and controlled by different people. p>
although all POW based cryptocurrencies have the risk of being attacked by 51%, few people can really launch attacks e to the dispersion of computing power
but what if the miners themselves don't want to attack, but the mining machinery manufacturers attack
still using the analogy just now, although each miner subjectively wants to do the problem checking independently, their calculator is manipulated remotely and gives consistent wrong answers. This may pose a great threat to digital cryptocurrency
however, the manufacturer with the absolute voice of mining machinery had such a problem in mainland China
in April 2017, the back door of antbled came out. Although this is described as a "vulnerability" in Chinese, antbled is more like a function that has been implemented and designed
anonymous people found that after an ant miner made by bitmainland was connected to the network, it would communicate with a domain name held by bitmainland on a regular basis and return the miner's serial number, MAC address and IP address to bitmainland's server. If the server of bitcontinent gives a negative signal, the miner will stop running
although bitcontinental responded that they could not shut down any mining machines that did not belong to them. However, the bitcoin core team has proved in experiments that this function has no verification. Anyone can shut down mining machines by forging DNS - but it also means that bitcoin mainland has the ability to shut down any sold mining machines
After, bitcontinent fixed this "loophole", but it caused heated discussion in the community. This has also set the tone that almost all pow blockchain communities are biased against mainland China
a few months later, under the leadership of bitcontinent, viabtc g out the first block and made a hard bifurcation with the blockchain of bitcoin. From then on, bitcoin BCH (bitcoin cash) appeared in the world
will the monopoly of mining machinery destroy the distributed system
facing this problem, we should have a clear answer now. That is, the monopoly of mining machinery will certainly affect the safe operation of pow digital cryptocurrency
the problem is not whether bitcontinental and its founder Wu Jihan are trustworthy, but that one of the values of any blockchain system is to operate safely without trust in any single company or indivial
even if the ASIC miner is not monopolized by bitmainland, the ASIC miner itself will increase the concentration of computing power
the ASIC used for mining has great requirements for ventilation, power and site, and has no use except for mining. At the same time, the calculation difficulty of the whole network is increased e to the powerful computing power
as a result, it is very difficult for external players to start mining in the next software on the computer as they did five years ago. And the recent centralized exchange is caused by frequent black incidents, which also proves that concentration in this unregulated market will definitely lead to insecurity
assuming that the bitcoin network runs on top of one million miners, no one can shut it down. And if the bitcoin network runs on 20 large mines, it's much easier to shut it down
and by the end of 2017, 78% of the effort was concentrated in mainland China, which led to a real possibility of Chinese mainland regulators' launching a deadly attack against the special currency. p>
moreover, most of the scenarios of using digital cryptocurrency are related to "decentralization". Once centralized, it means that these scenarios no longer exist. It turns a project that might have value into a pure waste of computing power
Then, what measures should we take in the face of this situationfirst of all, as the project side, it may be time to give up the pure POW mechanism. In fact, in many projects of issuing cryptocurrency, especially in asset securitization projects. Similar to the concept of stock in the real world, POS itself is more reasonable than pow
in the media that don't know about blockchain, we often hear such words as "bitcoin wastes a lot of computing power and has no value", which is reasonable to some extent. It is difficult for a POW based blockchain to bind the value of the project itself to the issued digital cryptocurrency - because the real value behind the price of the currency does not come from the project, but from the cost of maintaining computing power
and the hybrid mode of pow + POS is more like the future. In the hybrid mode, both coin holders and miners can participate in the major decisions of this community. If a decision is widely accepted, the blockchain will be soft forked to the latest state without excessive intervention of developers, and there will be almost no private resistance of miners or mining machines
secondly, as a retail miner, if you are still digging a pure POW mechanism currency, you should unconditionally support the bifurcation activities initiated by the community to resist the ASIC mining machine, even if it will lead to the failure of your mining machine
this may sound contradictory, but in the long run, it is better to promote the reform of the community and get more benefits in a currency controlled by the monopoly of computing power. Because in many conflicts between computing power and community in the past, the ultimate result is that the computing power owner will forcibly keep the old algorithm to hard fork the blockchain
just like Eth and etc, the classic Ethereum (etc), which belongs to the computing power master, has lost the support of developers and become an air coin with no vitality and impossible to develop applications
as a retail leek, you should be careful to trade the non mainstream digital currencies (except bitcoin) supported by bitmainland mining machinery, so as to avoid falling into a blockchain in which bitmainland controls the computing power completely
finally, if you are bitcontinent, what should you do
bitcontinent's goal is to become Intel, AMD and NVIDIA, make greater contributions to the whole computer instry, and become a great company, not just entangled in the immediate interests of mining
Wall Street financiers have long seen through the violence brought about by NVIDIA's video card mining. The rise and fall of the company's stock price has been consistent with the price of bitcoin, and even affected by the digital currency market. Citron, a well-known short seller, has recently been bearish on NVIDIA, arguing that the company has focused too much on providing services for digital currency miners rather than on serious businesses such as artificial intelligence, games and driverless driving
the mission of chip manufacturers is to provide more powerful chips to drive more intelligent services, and finally contribute to the real world, rather than become monopoly tycoons in the virtual world. When we no longer enter the gate of the virtual world, the only thing left is a deserted land
in an interview with US media last year, Wu Jihan disclosed that he would make an IPO with a market value of billions of dollars. As a company about to go public, bitmainland should not only be responsible to investors, but also accept investors' questions about the sustainability of its business. "If your mining machinery goes public, it will encounter a fork, what should you do?"
and this question, which needs to be asked after the listing, has already appeared: the current price of the split coin xmo after the Monroe team split is $7.50, while the current price of the real Monroe coin XmR is $194, and the split coin is completely abandoned by the Monroe community
before bitcontinent becomes the name of all blockchain communities, we can rely on the huge amount of capital accumulated in recent years to transform into an artificial intelligence chip company along the previous plan, rather than continue to develop a variety of digital currency mining machines to extract the last drop of oil before the ecological collapse
content source: phoenix.com
The wealth myth of "one coin, one villa" is still widely spread in the currency circle, and new investors are eager to try. But in fact, a stable power structure has been formed in this small circle, from mining machinery manufacturers to large mine owners, and then to mining pools
manufacturing and selling mining machines, mining, building mines and building ore pools, the "mining circle" has become another way to get rich in the blockchain world, and mining machines have also become a little-known "big business"
according to the imagination of Nakamoto, the inventor of bitcoin, the ideal state should be "decentralized", with computing power scattered all over the world. However, contrary to decentralization, the mine pool is absolutely centralized, and more and more mining machines are connected to the mine pool
this article was first published in the Southern Weekend
"if speculation is a road of no return, then investment in mining machinery is a business that can make a steady profit without loss, and it is only a matter of time before the cost is recovered." Zhong Xi, general manager of Shenzhen Aibo times Technology Co., Ltd., calculated an account. A miner earns 200 yuan a day, which can be recovered in 120 days, and then the profit
in October 2017, in addition to his main business, Zhong Xi joined the mining army and quickly became a big boss in the mining circle. He operated many large mines in Jiangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou and other places
in fact, the business of "steady profit without loss" still depends on the continuous rise of currency price. In the past two months, the price of bitcoin has dropped from US $15000 to about US $10000, or even below US $6000 at one time, which has extended the cycle of mining machinery return. If it keeps falling, the profit will be far away
in 2012, four years after the advent of bitcoin, mass-proced mining machines appeared. Before that, mining was mainly a private activity, which could be completed by a home computer“ At that time, the home computer was the money printing machine, and a lot of bitcoin could be g up every day. " Huang Shiliang, a senior digital currency player who sold mining machines in his early years, recalled to Southern Weekend reporters
after the emergence of mining machine, mining began to be "socialized", with the emergence of mines and pools, and mining became a collective work. The indivial miner is entrusted by the mine, just like the workers on the proction line, as long as they are there, they can get paid every day
manufacturing and selling mining machines, mining, building mines and building ore pools, the "mining circle" has become another way to get rich in the blockchain world, and mining machines have also become a little-known "big business"
China has become the world's largest procer of mining machinery. Since 2012, a number of miner manufacturers have been born in China, such as Shenzhen bitquan Co., Ltd., which proces cat roasting miner, bitmainland, Jianan Yun and Yibang communication, which are now famous. In Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen, foreigners can be seen everywhere asking about the price of mining machinery with translators
recently, in an interview with the media, the CEO of bitcontinental, Mr. Zhan Ketun, said that this startup company, which has been established for only four years, had a revenue of about US $2.5 billion in 2017. Bitcontinent is known as the world's largest miner, whose ant miner has always been the hard currency of the coin circle and miner world
just like the coin circle, the mining circle also needs belief that the mechanical mathematical operation of mining machines every day can create great wealth
However, contrary to the "decentralization" advocated by bitcoin, the miner's world is moving towards "centralization". Miner dealers build their own mines. After the investors buy the miner, they are entrusted by the seller; The procers build their own mines and manage themthis process of "centralization" made the wealth of the mining circle snatched by a few people, and it was not easy for Zhong Xi to enter the core circle
calculation force "centralization"
the main function of the mine is to provide a place for scattered mining machines to operate. But it is the "ore pool" that really plays the role of integration
the so-called "mine pool" can be simply understood as "cooperative mining". The miners and the mines give the calculation power to the mine pool, and the mine pool is used as the only address to access the digital currency network for mining, and then distribute dividends to the miners according to the calculation power of the mining machine
the history of ore pool is longer than that of mining machine. In November 2010, the mine pool named slush appeared. Today, its official website says "the world's first mine pool", which is also recognized by the coin circle. Compared with the mine, the construction of the mine pool needs certain technology, and the threshold is relatively higher
the person in charge of a well-known domestic mine pool explained the principle of the mine pool to the Southern Weekend reporter. He compares mining to buying lottery tickets. If you dig alone, the probability of winning the lottery is very unstable. You may win 100000 today, but you won't in the next six months
"gather the people who buy lottery tickets together and buy them in a unified way. No matter who wins, they will be divided according to the proportion of money they pay. In the coin circle, the mine pool plays this role. " The person in charge said
it's not complicated to connect the mining machine with the ore pool. According to the operation guidelines of the major ore pools, it can be completed in a few steps, and then according to the calculation power provided by ourselves, we can get benefits from the ore pool. The miner is like a worker standing on the proction line, receiving a fixed salary every day
the mine pool with huge computing power and many mining machines has an absolute say in the coin circle and the mining circle. For example, if you want to issue a new digital currency or dominate the bitcoin bifurcation, you generally need to get the support of the mine pool. Without the support of the mine pool, no one will dig the new currency, so it is meaningless
in addition, when a hot new coin comes out, the mine pool can also use its own miners to pack it quickly and take the lead in the rush purchase of these new coins
in June 2017, when SNT and EOS were issued, Southern Weekend reporters witnessed the scene of minchi snapping up tokens. Because there are too many investors, many indivial investors can not put their funds into the designated position, but the person in charge of a mine pool can easily complete this operation
according to the imagination of Nakamoto, the inventor of bitcoin, the ideal state should be "decentralized", with computing power scattered all over the world. However, contrary to decentralization, the mine pool is absolutely centralized, and more and more mining machines are connected to the mine pool
on January 18, 2018, Emin Yun silash, a computer professor at Cornell University, and other five people co authored a paper pointing out that there is an implicit power structure behind bitcoin and Ethereum, the two major digital currencies, and mining is too centralized, in which 50% of bitcoin's computing power is controlled by the four major mines
In fact, this problem has always existed. Four years ago, the founder of Ethereum, vtalik, noticed this problem when he wrote Ethereum white paper. He wrote: "this problem can be said to be very serious. At the time of writing this article, the two largest mines indirectly controlled about 50% of the computing power of the whole network." Up to now, this problem has not been solved. An early translator of the Ethereum white paper told the Southern Weekend reporter, "this is not a technical problem, but a human problem."5
recessive power structure
in the mining circle, the top of the food chain is mining machinery manufacturers. At present, the three recognized mining machinery manufacturers are located in China. Through the proction and sales of mining machines, they get a lot of profits. At the same time, they also set foot in the construction of mines and pools, and have the right to speak in the whole coin circle
ant mining pool is one of the top two large mining pools in the world, and its computing power accounts for 17% of the total network computing power. However, according to instrial and commercial data, it was founded by bitmainland; Several investors of Jianan Yun are also investors of Hangzhou mining Pool Technology Co., Ltd., which has its own mining pool hash and mining platform, but the mining pool has ceased operation at the end of 2017
Yibang communications has set up three blockchain companies in Hohhot, Wuhai and Zhundong Economic Development Zone in Inner Mongolia. A salesperson of Yibang communications told reporters at Nanfang Weekend that they have mines and mining businesses in these three places, but these mines have been operating at full capacity, and there is no machine space to host new mining machines"we are building a new mine in Irkutsk, Russia, where electricity charges are much lower and new mining machines can be hosted there." The source said
above the mining machinery manufacturers, it is the harvest of chip giants“ The core technology of mining machinery lies in the chip. Whoever has the chip can proce more mining machinery. " Ding Yang told reporters at Nanfang Weekend that the chips are mainly in the hands of several giant manufacturers, such as TSMC, NVIDIA, AMD, etc
since 2015, TSMC has always been the largest chip supplier of Jianan Yun. In 2015, the chips purchased by Jianan Yun from TSMC accounted for 69.62% of all the chips purchased by Jianan Yun. Since then, this figure has been maintained at about 60%. Most of the profits of Jia Nan Yun Zhi were made by TSMC
On January 18, 2018, at the presentation meeting of TSMC's fourth quarter financial report, chairman Zhang Zhongmou said that although the mobile business prospect this year is weak, the company's revenue will still grow by 10% - 15%. One of the key factors is the demand for chips e to the continuous and steady development of cryptocurrencyunder the mining machinery manufacturers, there is another power structure. Jianan Yun disclosed this secret in its 2017 prospectus. In the first four months of 2017, four of the top five customers of Jianan Yun were "indivials". According to public information, three of them are well-known "wrists" in the currency circle
Wu Gang, the largest customer, was the first group of miners, and later founded haobtc, which has one of the world's top ten mines; Lin Zhipeng, the second largest customer, is the founder of Xiaoqiang mining machinery. He has been engaged in the proction and sales of mining machinery for a long time. He has been cooperating with Xie Weiqin, the sixth largest customer; Wang Jin, the third largest customer, founded bitbang, a coin circle information websitethese big customers are not simple miners, they all have their own influence in the coin circle. Mechanical operation of the mining machine to bring them income at the same time, also brought the right to speak
according to an insider in bitmainland, most of the big customers in bitmainland are big guys in the currency circle. However, bitmainland officials declined an interview with the Southern Weekend reporter. The company's Public Relations Department responded that it was not convenient to disclose the content because it signed a confidentiality agreement with its customers
"one coin, one villa" wealth myth is still widely spread in the currency circle, and new investors are eager to try. But in fact, a stable power structure has been formed in this small circle, from mining machinery manufacturers to large mine owners, and then to mining pools
most of the new entrants can only make the harvested "leeks"
- - talking about the mining cost of bitcoin -
the first thing to consider is the cost if you want to make money. If the profit is greater than the cost, it is worth doing. We all know how much bitcoin costs, so let's calculate the cost
1. Mining machine cost: the "number" of bitcoin is a problem-solving process, which can't be calculated by human brain alone. Therefore, mining people need to buy mining machines and keep calculating. The more mining machines, the stronger the computing power
2. Electricity charges: mining machines are big consumers of high power. How much electricity does it consume? Let's put it this way. At present, the electricity consumption of bitcoin and Ethereum mining has surpassed Jordan, Iceland, Libya and other small countries, ranking 71st among all countries and regions in the world. You want to cry when electricity is expensive
3. The rent of the place where the mining machine is placed: because the mining machine consumes a lot of electricity, the power supply load of ordinary residential buildings can not be guaranteed at all, so the mining must rent a commercial site separately, and the rent is much more expensive than that of ordinary residential buildings
4. Operation cost: in order to ensure the computing power, the high-power mining machine needs to work 24 hours, which requires someone to maintain it at any time. When the mining machine is in trouble, the cost of hiring someone is required; At the same time, the mining machine is very delicate. If it is too hot or too cold, the vegetables will be stopped. Therefore, the measures of cold air and cold water insulation are needed to help the mining machine run. This is another expense
5. Mining machine update cost: because bitcoin is becoming more and more difficult to dig, the machine that was able to dig a month ago may not be able to dig anything today, and the market will also launch mining machines with greater computing power. The original mining machine is not worth money immediately. If you want to maintain computing power, you need to buy mining machines again
the above bitcoin mining costs all have a marginal effect, that is, the larger the volume is, the lower the corresponding cost will be. Therefore, some super large mines have been built
bitcoin g in the mine will enter the mine pool and be distributed by all participants. Large mines will be built in places where labor and electricity are cheap, such as Venezuela, the legendary miner's paradise, or Iceland, where the climate is favorable and electricity is cheap
as for the cost, everyone will be different. Let's take a look at an average: in 2017, according to the data of elite fixtures, a research institution, Venezuela is the cheapest of 115 mining countries, which is 513 US dollars, while South Korea is the most expensive, which is 26170 us dollars
China's mining cost is US $3172, which is relatively low among 115 countries. However, the cost is an average value. Large mines with low electricity prices must be much lower. If you are a lone ranger, the cost will rise sharply
in a word, if you really want to make money by mining, first of all, unless you are rich enough to build a mine with thousands of machines, you'd better join a mine to dig together. Although you have to share the money, it's still appropriate in the long run because it can greatly rece costs and improve computing power
secondly, whether you dig by yourself or join the mine, you must choose the place with low electricity cost, and the city with abundant hydropower resources is preferred, because hydropower is the cheapest source of power generation in China at present.