With the disappearance of a small number of sectors on the Filecoin network, the discussion about the duration of the Filecoin network sector and the renewal of the later Filecon sector is getting more and more intense. Next, let’s talk about "sector life." cycle".
What is a sector?
A sector is the basic unit of storage on Filecoin. It has a standard size and a clear commitment time period. It provides digital storage services like containers in global freight. The size of the sector balances security and availability.
According to the white paper "Creating the Filecoin Economy", the life cycle of a sector is determined by the storage market, and the period promised by the sector is specified (that is, if there is a real order, it will be determined according to the requirements of the real order) .
If we compare sectors to containers, containers filled with data (sectors that have been encapsulated) together build a huge Filecoin storage market.
So, what does a sector failure mean?
When the data in the container full of data disappears, the container has no data stored. Analogous to the Filecoin network, that is, if the data originally stored in the sector disappears, the sector becomes invalid, and the sector invalidation means that The computing power corresponding to the sector disappeared.
Thinking about the life cycle of sectors
The sector of the Filecoin network is 540 days by default, but miners can modify the sector time. Therefore, the sector life cycle of the Filecoin network can be automatically set to any value between 180-540 days (the more common ones are 180 days, 360 days, 540 days), because the Filecoin space race and the mainnet are seamlessly connected, the start of the Filecoin sector life cycle is 06:00 on August 25, 2020 Beijing time, which is the time when the Filecoin space race starts.
Calculated on August 25th, a sector with a 180-day sector life cycle has been set. In fact, it has already expired on February 21, 2021.
Why do some miners set a 180-day sector life cycle?
We all know that the disappearance of sectors means the disappearance of computing power, and the disappearance of computing power means that the income of miners is drastically reduced. After all, in the Filecoin network, miners obtain block rewards with effective computing power. No more, where does the block reward come from?
Therefore, from the perspective of miners obtaining block rewards, the sector period must be as long as possible.
Then why do miners set a 180-day sector period?
Because the sector expires, it also means that the pledged coins will be returned to the miners at one time, so the miners will have more FIL.
Does setting a 180-day sector life cycle have more advantages than disadvantages?
For the old miners, most of the sectors were encapsulated during the space race. During the space race, the gas fee and pledge coins are almost zero, and the cost of adding 1TiB of effective computing power to the 32GiB sector now requires about 20 FIL. .
Obviously, for miners, although the life cycle of a sector can be arbitrarily selected between 180-540 days, but the life cycle of the sector is as long as possible, and the high probability is the best choice, because compared to space Competition, the cost of newly packaged 1TB effective computing power is too high!
Can the Filecoin sector be renewed?
In combination with the above, we clearly know that it may be more cost-effective to maintain the original computing power to obtain block rewards than to repackage the computing power of 1TiB.
So, can the Filecoin sector life cycle be renewed?
The sector encapsulated on November 24, 2020 (November 24, UTC time, November 25, Beijing time), that is, the sector of V1, cannot be renewed.
Sectors encapsulated after November 28, that is, V1.1 sectors, can be renewed.
Why is November 24 the demarcation line for renewal?
Because there is an important version upgrade on November 24, that is, Lotus upgrade to v1.2.0 version. The upgrade of this version requires the miners to upgrade before the 265200 altitude. The upgrade content includes:
FIP-5, removes expensive miner reward attribution calculations from PreCommitSector and ConfirmSectorProofsValid, which helps reduce gas consumption, release chain bandwidth and reduce miner costs;
Specs-actors are upgraded to v2.3.2;
proofs are upgraded to v5.4.0 Edition;
re-adjust the gas cost, and the main reduction is in OnVerifyPostBase;
The upgrade of this version fixes certain bugs. Therefore, Filecoin officially set that before the bug is fixed, the sectors of the Filecoin network cannot be renewed. After the bug is fixed, the sectors of the Filecoin network can be renewed.
How to renew the sector life cycle?
Just send ExtendSectorExpiration to the network to renew.
Currently, Space-Time Cloud has successfully renewed some sectors.
What are everyone still discussing in the community?
Filecoin officially opened a FIP proposal, which mainly discusses whether the sector (V1) before November 24 can be renewed.
Official members stated in the proposal:
According to the existing code, some sectors that previously used V1 proof cannot be extended at all. For miners who encapsulate this part of the sector, if the sector cannot be extended, it will cause significant losses and cause calculations and Waste of storage resources. Because miners re-encapsulate these sectors, more mortgage and gas consumption will be required.
In other words, the official consideration is that although the V1 sector has some bugs, if the V1 sector cannot be renewed, then the gas fee, pledge currency and network congestion that the miner needs to repackage the sector need to consume, It is very wasteful of resources. Therefore, Filecoin officially wants to listen to the community's opinions on whether the V1 sector can be renewed.
So, in the community discussion on whether the V1 sector can be renewed, what is your opinion?
Now, there are more and more proposals about the Filecoin network. In fact, the Filecoin network belongs to the community and is a manifestation of each of us. The Filecoin network will definitely become more and more under the support and efforts of all of us. it is good!
Investors who want to know more about IPFS and Filecoin, please contact the IPFS China Community Operations Officer (WeChat ID: chuanzhang129).