DDAM’s sPoC Mining — Hard disc space mining 101
Over the years data has been dubbed the new oil or fuel that will drive the AI economy. If we if may look at it that way then consider yourself lucky. You collected all this data, and then it turned out you were sitting on an oil reserve in terms of data economy. The “data is oil” analogy does have some truth to it. Like internal combustion engines with oil, AI needs data to run. AI takes in raw data and converts it into something useful for decision making. Want to know the weather tomorrow? Let’s use data on past weather. AIs are prediction machines driven by data.
The data you have now is training data. You use that data as input to train an algorithm. And you use that algorithm to generate predictions to inform actions.
So, yes, that does mean your data is valuable. But it does not mean your business can survive the storm. Once your data is used to train a prediction machine, it is devalued. It is not useful anymore for that sort of prediction. And there are only so many predictions your data will be useful for. To continue the oil analogy, data can be burned. It is somewhat lost after use. Scientists know this. They spend years collecting data, but once it has produced research findings, it sits unused in a file drawer or on back-up disk.
PoC (Proof of Capacity)
Proof of capacity allows the mining devices (nodes) on the blockchain network the ability to use empty space on their hard drive to mine the available digital assets. Instead of repeatedly altering the numbers in the block header and repeated hashing for the solution value, POC works by storing a list of possible solutions on the mining device’s hard drive even before the mining activity commences. While most coins use proof of work or proof of stake in block generation, there is DDAM currently utilizing stake proof of capacity.
PoC — Simplified Explanation
Rather than constantly changing numbers in the block header and hashing for the solution, proof of capacity involves plotting your hard drive — the act of computing and storing solutions on your computer before the mining even begins. Some solutions are faster than others. If your hard drive happens to have the fastest solution to the most recent block’s puzzle, you win the block.
The mining algorithm is too complicated to calculate in real time, and the block times are so short (an average of 1 block every 4 minutes), that solutions must be saved on the hard drive ahead of time. Ultimately, the more solutions, also called plots, you have on your hard drive, the greater your chance of having the best solution for the most recent puzzle.
Technical Explanation
Proof of capacity involves two parts. There is the plotting of the hard drive and the actual mining of the blocks. Depending on the size of your hard drive, it can take days or even weeks to make your unique plot files. Plotting uses a very slow hash known as Shabal. This is different from the SHA-256 hash used earlier in the article, which Bitcoin miners use rapidly. Since the Shabal hashes are hard to calculate, we precompute them and store them on a hard drive. This process is known as plotting your hard drive.
Plotting
When plotting, also known as creating a plot file, you create something called nonces. Nonces are created through repeated hashing of data, including your account ID. The more hard drive space you allocate to plotting, the more nonces you can store.
Advantages
You can use any regular hard drive so other miners won’t have gained an advantage from buying specialized equipment, such as with ASIC mining for Bitcoin. Using hard drives is 30 times more energy efficient than ASIC based mining. Proof of capacity is more decentralized because everyone has a hard drive. You can even mine from your Android phone’s hard drive. Miners don’t have to continuously upgrade equipment. Older hard drives can store data just as well as new ones.When you are finished mining, you can clear your hard drive and use it for its original intended purpose.
DDAM’s Consensus Algorithm
In 2014, Proof of Capacity (PoC) was first introduced in Proof of Space (PoS) white
paper. PoC is not that different from the PoW consensus algorithm. In fact, PoC
can be regarded as having integrated the aspect of Memory Hard Function (MHF) of PoW. MHF is a hashing algorithm based on memory space. Unlike PoW, where
miners find nonces to solve ever-changing block headers, the PoC MHF process
is completed by generating random solutions also known as “plot documents”,
using the “Shabal” cryptographic algorithm, in advance and stores it on the hard
drives. In this instance, the heavy computation work is known as “Plotting”.
Thereafter, miners will match their solutions to the most recent puzzle and the
node with the fastest solution gets to mine the next block. Thus, the computation
work done by miners are determined by the storage space of their hard drives.
The process is completed through Plotting. Plotting utilises a slow
hash function known as the Shabal cryptographic algorithm. Unlike SHA-256
(Bitcoin’s cryptographic algorithm), the Shabal Cryptographic algorithm is harder to
compute. Prior to computation, miners needs to enter a stage of “Precomputation”.
Therefore it is harder to utilise an ASIC for mining.
DDAM will use Shabal256.
DDAM public chain utilises sPoC (Staking Proof of Capacity) as its consensus Upon
reaching 100% of staking requirements, all corresponding block reward will be
distributed.
Within these plot documents contains a precalculated hash. Each plot document will
contain multiple 8192 hash groups, also known as random numbers (Nonce). Each
nonce is exactly 256 KB (Hash is 32 bytes and 8192 hash group size will be 256 kb).
Additionally, each nonce is divided into 4096 pairs of hashes.
Conclusion
Availability of extra storage space is more common and is cheaper than
dedicated mining machines. Thus, the competition cost is lower. This will allow
more people to participate in SPoC mining process, resulting in a more
decentralised and flexible network.
This article is written by one of of our valued community members : Kerwin
Interested to find out more about DDAM? Check out the links below to get access to our community right now!
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