Filecoin founder: future or no ASIC, the use of commercial hardware is the main goal

In BlockBeats news, Filecoin founder Juan Benet conducted a mini-ama on Slack to answer the miners' questions after testing the online line. Here are some questions and answers.

Q: is the customer data stored directly on the node or distributed in slices?

Answer: the client data is sealed directly in the sector stored by the mining node, and it is up to the client to split the data into blocks and/or store multiple copies in different providers. We want the Filecoin client software to automate redundant long-term storage.

Q: how to define valid data? If a third party is used to audit my data, there is the possibility of manual operation. How to solve the cheating problem?

A: this is a question related to validating the client -- we haven't explained it very well yet. I will publish an article in the coming days that will explain these mechanisms in detail. To answer this question simply, validation does not mean validating the data itself, but validating the client and trusting the client with a certain amount of data. This is a practical solution to the very difficult problem of distinguishing between malicious fake transactions and real customer transactions, as well as being able to motivate the right operation of the network.

Please note that the data from the unauthenticated client is still good and profitable, and an acceptable network. It's just that they may not make as much money mining as the data they get from the authentication client.Cheating is solved by an incentive network :(a) there must be a large number of verifiers, (b) the verifier must trust the real customer based on the customer's application (not infinite) until a certain amount of data is available, and (c) the verifier himself is checked to see if he is doing an accurate job. If they don't, they lose the ability to verify.

Q: will ASIC chips be officially supported? If so, when? Will the need for GPU in packaging technology disappear?

A: as far as we know, no one is developing ASICs. We specifically selected the PoRep algorithm to match good commercial hardware, we did not select ASICs. The only ASICs we're considering developing in the future is VDF ASIC with Ethereum 2. Note that PoRep and consensus algorithms may change and evolve after the main network, so ASICs will not work, that is, ASICs ; It will be scrapped - we are targeting commercial computer hardware (com)Modity the hardware)

Q: when will I transfer to NSE?

A: NSE is ongoing and we are still evaluating it. We hope to complete the evaluation as soon as possible (before the test net 2 award). We don't want anyone to waste money, so be careful not to buy a lot of hardware in one way or another.

Q: in the current test network, we can see that there is still some code that needs to be improved. When will the test network be reset? Will the main network be launched as scheduled?

A: yes, there is still some work to be done before the main network protocol is frozen. We're moving on to performance and UX issues, and the final sprint of protocol work. You can check out our latest roadmap updates, but these are just routes, and the final release date needs to be official.

Q: about data drives, how much data do they currently have? How many did you sell in the first batch? How many sales plans are there?

A: Filecoin Discover has been very well received -- so far, the data represented by the orders we've received takes years to send directly over the Internet. We are excited that it will be able to support the preservation of so much important data. It is important to note that Discover is only one of many authenticated clients. In the coming days, we will announce several small changes to find ways to reinforce the point that participation is not mandatory and should not be the main focus of mining.

Q: how many full-time developers are in the lotus and go-filecoin projects?

A: the core team of about 50 engineers and researchers working on the Filecoin project is dedicated to implementing various components, not including those working on supporting protocols such as libp2p and IPFS. In addition to the core team, there are many people from outside the team responsible for all parts of the protocol -- from building developer tool protocols, security audits, performance improvements, and so on. Finally, there are hundreds of external contributors in the open source community who have made meaningful contributions to the project.

Q: if I store files on the Filecoin network and no longer need to store them, how can I delete them?

Answer: there is no mechanism for planning to request or require the storage provider to delete data.

Q: when will the detailed economic model parameters be determined? & have spent

Answer: detailed parameters will only be published after all the core features have been completed and thoroughly tested on the test network. The current parameters in the test network are temporary. & have spent

Q: will the test network restart next? & have spent

A: we'll restart when we're ready to launch more functional tests. It is not yet certain when. & have spent

问： 如果矿工的硬盘之前存储了他自己生成的数据，那么在从认证用户那里获得交易后，原始数据是否应该被覆盖?

A: & have spent The storage market distinguishes between the "commitment capacity" part (no customer transactions) and the part that stores customer data. The promised capacity sector will be scalable to replace zero data with client data (this mechanism has not yet been fully implemented). However, the sector of any transaction, whether the customer is the miner itself or not, cannot be replaced by a "proven transaction". Only idle "committed capacity" can be upgraded.

问： 如何理解承诺容量部门的确切含义？以及如何避免我仅仅为了报酬而犯了错误的承诺能力？

A: good question! When there is no storage demand on the network, miners can choose to prove "commitment capacity" departments, which can then be upgraded to departments with actual transactions to earn transaction payments (unlocked). For miners without storage needs, it makes more sense to seal the capacity sector than to trade on their own.

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