Four keywords take you back to the major events in the mining circle in 2019

In 19 years, the end of 19 years is coming to an end. This is another extraordinary year for miners and all the practitioners in the mining circle.

On the evening of November 26, the solemn CEO of BTC.com and Hu Jing, a guest of COO , visited the ChainNode live broadcast room (formerly Babbitt Live Broadcast Room) and talked with the host of the ChainNode broadcast room Wang Junyao to talk about the major events in the mining circle for 19 years.

In the live broadcast, solemn and Hu Jing gave the four keywords of learning, growth, innovation and diversity as a summary of the 19-year mining circle. Let's take a look at the hot events behind them.

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Learning: mining or ushering in the 3.0 era

Learning is the key word first mentioned solemnly, and he said that whether it is an individual or the entire industry, in today's rapid development, always maintaining a humble and learning attitude should be the most important point.

This year's mining circle is also a year of continuous iterative updates. The most representative is the Braiins company behind Slush Pool announced the second-generation Stratum protocol (Stratum V2) plan, which is inspired by Betterhash. Rather than let the pool operator send (part of) the block template to the pool miners, through the second-generation Stratum protocol, miners can choose to send the block template to the pool operator.

The announcement of Stratum V2 has received support from many people, because its "job selection" mechanism shows a more decentralized trend, and is even expected to bring the 3.0 era of the mining industry, but solemnly expressed when the plan fell into reality , He may be pouring cold water on people who are over-excited about this plan:

It is undeniable that both Betterhash and Stratum V2 are good attempts, but to implement them, first of all, will the mining machine manufacturers be willing to comply, and how will the enthusiasm of the miners be maintained? Of course, these are also set in the plan, but in general, the content is still complex and academic, and practicality is a problem.

As solemnly mentioned, Stratum V2 is still a good attempt as a whole, and it is precisely such attempts and innovations that promote the development of the mining circle.

Growth: Block reward halved

If successful, Bitcoin is expected to implement the next block reward halving in May 2020, which is a destined growth node for Bitcoin. Compared with the previous half of the previous half of the block price of the currency generally rose, this time the market seems cold and abnormal. Zhuang Zhong and Hu Jing also said that, taking into account the current market trends and policy reasons, they are conservative on the currency price after halving.

In addition, when talking about halving, the topic that cannot be avoided is the most "injured" group of miners, but in the long run, some small hash power mining machines may be eliminated because of this, and it may not be an opportunity for the entire mining industry. About Hu Jing said this:

Individual miners need to make hedging risk strategies in advance, such as electricity cost hedging, investment rate of return assessment, etc. At the same time, the mining pool will also make operational adjustments for halving. During the halving this time, some small computing power miners may be eliminated because of this, but with the adjustment of policies and the entry of large computing power, many mine friends will choose to lay out in the trough. So it is a challenge and an opportunity for the entire industry.

The halving once every four years may be the “growth pain” that is arranged, seize the opportunity to meet the challenge, and grow up on time with technology and effort.

Innovation: the first year of cloud computing power

The so-called "buying coins is not as good as buying computing power". For ordinary users, compared to the high mining machine purchase and maintenance costs, investing directly through the purchase of computing power has become a popular way of computing coins. Cloud computing platforms also Rise up. Hu Jing said:

Compared with the previous cloud computing power platforms, the operating models of each platform this year are more Internet-based and are pursuing the ultimate in compliance and legality. Therefore, in terms of quantity and quality, 2019 can be said to be the first year of cloud computing power.

Facing the complicated cloud computing power market, how do users choose the most suitable client? At this time, it is not comprehensive enough to rely on computing power and electricity alone. In this regard, solemn and Hu Jing give the following suggestions:

1. Compliance is the most important and first consideration. For the sale of computing power contracts, there must be corresponding endorsements, such as mine qualification, etc. It is not recommended that ordinary users go through a third-party intermediary;

2. A large number of current platforms have emerged, so users need to pay attention to more details when selecting, such as: the intelligence and monitoring of the software, fine management of the entire mining plant, and the online rate of the mining machine;

3. On the basis of the first two items, to further consider the price of hash power sales, investors need to understand unit hash power costs, electricity costs, maintenance costs, etc. Cloud computing power is still in the initial stage of development. I believe that in the context of increasing market demand, there will be more regulations and policies in the future to make the market more standardized development. Let's look forward to it.

Multiple: PoW, PoS do not require battle

With the development of the industry, diversification is an inevitable trend. Whether it is the rise of cloud computing power mentioned above or new opportunities brought by more markets, diversification is reflected in every detail of prosperity and development.

Here we take Ethereum upgrade as an example. The next iteration of Ethereum "Ethereum 2.0" will transfer from proof of work (PoW) to proof of stake (PoS). For a long time, the debate about PoW and PoS seems to have persisted. Regarding the "centralization" problem that the former has been attacked the most, solemnly said:

PoW algorithm is simple and easy to implement is its biggest bright spot. Many people who support PoS will mention that PoW is easy to cause the concentration of computing power, but in fact, the centralization problem they are most worried about will always exist under any kind of algorithm, such as PoS The accumulation of user wealth here will also lead to centralization, and even the wealth of the entire world is divided. Under any mechanism, someone will do better than you and have more than you. This cannot be said to be a problem caused by PoW.

But at the same time, we must also acknowledge that PoS will be more efficient, lower energy consumption and more friendly, but more centralized, and PoW is definitely more friendly to the mining pool, so both have advantages and disadvantages. The final choice is still It depends on the needs of the market, making choices or finding a balance between decentralization and efficiency. In fact, it mainly depends on the different needs of different currencies. The currencies that have greater demand for coins are more inclined to PoS. This is the market orientation, and it is not meaningful to simply take PoS and PoW out of the working environment and simply use battle. The future trend will also be the diversified development of the integration of multiple consensus mechanisms.

Finally, after reviewing the major events in this year's mining circle and looking forward to the 2020 that has not yet arrived, Hu Jing gave an image and hopeful word like "new life". Whether it is about to face a block halving, Ethereum upgrade, or the self-adjustment of the entire market and the introduction of policies, next year will be a completely different environment. I look forward to everyone in the mining industry with enthusiasm and Strength to meet challenges and grasp opportunities.

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