DKP II Testnet Critical Analysis & Future Insights
The second low-power BTC mining test phase DKP II has finally come to an end, and the findings were both surprising and full of new learnings. For those new to the world of the M2 Pro, Das Kaiser Projekt, or DKP, is a testnet phase project initiated by the MXC Foundation in order to revolutionize the crypto mining industry once and for all.
The project allows participants to mine $BTC with the world’s-first low-power, long-reach multi-token miner, the M2 Pro. Consuming an average of 2.9 watts per day. Das Kaiser Projekt, or DKP, is one of the most ambitious and futuristic mining projects in the current industry. Operating on the MXProtocol, it uses LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) to leverage a collective network strength into low-power, Bitcoin cloud mining.
As many are aware, DKP was the first phase of the M2 Pro low-power $BTC mining testnet, lasting for 30 days. The participants were carefully selected to ensure a broad range of test-matter.
In undertaking DKP II, the testnet was extended to a significantly larger participative test-pool when compared to the first DKP testnet. This allowed MatchX engineers to check the load of the mining pool. Moreover, the DKP II test had not stopped like DKP I, which needed to be paused after 30 days due to valuation discrepancies witnessed by the developers at MXC Foundation and hardware engineers at MatchX.
The DKP II analysis output revealed underlying reliability issues, resulting in irregular and unreliable mining rewards both on an overall return basis and on a regularity basis. These issues appeared to be generated by the number of transactions occurring at one specific time. To comprehend this, one needs to understand how the DKP mines Bitcoin, which will be explained in the following section. Besides these issues, the DKP II testnet was still considered a massive experimental success, once again proving the possibility of lower power $BTC mining when the Proof of Participation “PoP” mining model is leveraged through a bridge, letting supernodes carry the weight of the computation efforts rather than placing this responsibility on the individual miners themselves.
How did DKP II mine Bitcoin?
To understand how the DKP II functions, let us first comprehend how DKP as a mining service is designed to function. DKP generates value based on the idea of unified mining, as Bitcoin miners using different computational devices like ASIC or BITMAN along with M2 Pro Miners mine the data blocks on LPWAN as one big pool. The Bitcoin value, in most cases, is denoted in US dollars.
The selected participants are pooled into one group of miners, generating an accumulated mining power or mPower. Each miner’s contribution to this total mPower is denoted in Relative mPower or rmPower. So, let’s say there are 100 participants in one group, and each represents the same mining power of two units: the rmPower for each individual miner is two, and the mPower of the mining pool is 200 units.
Once the required mPower has been generated, MXC and its partners initiate simulated data transmissions from various data sources to the data purchasers. At this point, numerical components are formulated to reflect the real-world case. A data source, which can also be classified as sensors, produces various data sets, carrying various information, such as air quality, heat, and fire detection, or traffic flow.
These data sets are packaged into a data packet and accepted into one of the data blocks to join MXProtocol, thus entering the mining network realm. The mining network comprises the preselected M2 Pro miners based on their signal network, location, and heartbeat.
There is no direct communication between the data packets and the data receiver within the mining network, and thus communication is only possible through an M2 Pro. Two outputs are computed from the activities. The first is rmPower, which acts as a multiplier to measure the contribution of each miner within the mining network. The second output is data transaction record x), which is the machine’s way of performing bookkeeping operations on how data has traveled to data purchasers, creating full transparency and being a decisive factor for data validation.
As soon as the data purchaser receives the data packet, it automatically pulls the data packet into the data validation process, where the dTx of the mining network is cross-checked in order to ensure the origin of the data and to confirm that the data has not been tampered or corrupted along with the transmission.
So, for the transmission of data through the mining network to the data purchaser, a fair amount is needed to be charged for network usage and data packet to the data purchaser. To determine this fair amount, the data packet is put into a data auction. Then, through the MXC Smart Machine Bidding mechanism, an optimal auction price is immediately determined for the parties, data source, and data purchaser.
The auction provides the total valuation of the data and, in turn, the total valuation of the network usage, ensuring that the network usage fee is not more significant than the total valuation of data itself, thus keeping the MXProtocol effective. The agreed value is distributed accordingly, ensuring that the data source receives its settled value of data packet and the network usage settled value is allocated to miners within the mining network based on their miner’s rmPower.
In order to ensure the dTX value is measured in BTC and is reflective of the volatility of BTC, a process called Automated Value Bidder (AVB) is used. The AVB allows a fair exchange for the dTx value from the data auction within the $BTC network. As these mined $BTC have to move and be distributed to multiple parties in the mining pool, it seems to be more preferable to perform bidding for the fees that occur during the movement of these freshly mined $BTC, ensuring that the transaction size will be smaller and being able to target many fee occurrences at a rapid rate.
Since the dTx valuation is predominantly done in $MXC, the AVB will pool the dTx valuation and conduct a fair swap with a portion of the fees in $BTC that occurred during the $BTC movement. This new amount is accepted as Wrapped $BTC, or WBTC and $MXC will be paid. This new WBTC will travel back within the mining network to miners, and once WBTC is withdrawn, they are automatically unwrapped into $BTC using custodial solutions. This is how Das Kaiser Projekt aimed to make low-power Bitcoin mining spread phenomena.
What were the significant discrepancies and their causes in DKP II:
The issues discussed regarding the first testnet were resolved thanks to the tireless work of the MatchX and MXC Foundation development teams. This process was essential to both analyze and fix before the DKP II test could start. The significant difference between the first two testnets was that the second test had significantly more participants, thus increasing the pool of miners in the mining network and allowing for the teams to find any potential irregularities in terms of mined $BTC rewards vs. the number of transactions occurring during the bidding for the fees and current stated price of the token, in this instance $BTC. Implementing the automated market maker between AVB and $BTC fee pool did significantly streamline the process. In addition, it also drastically reduced the workload of AVB. Still, the increased number of participants in the second testnet did reveal that changes were needed to increase the efficiency of the AMM and, once again, allow for processes to further streamline the process.
What are the potential solutions:
To resolve the issues highlighted in DKP II, the team is working intensively to come up with potential solutions that are both viable and sustainable in the long-term. The team has decided that another testnet will need to be conducted to test the validity of the current findings and their solutions; the new testnet will be referred to as DKP III. Before the final rollout of low-power Bitcoin mining, it is essential to ensure it’s error-free and flawless. One of the potential solutions, which seems to eliminate the drawbacks and mitigate the future concerns, will be to stagger mining, thus ensuring that it is based on more participative PoP mining principles, making the mining validation process unique and taking into consideration individual miner factors. The development team believes this will be the proof required to completely validate proof of participation mechanics on a multi-token mining platform. This keeps the mining and the mining rewards more individual and decentralized, depending on the users’ specific participation. Having more elements of participation, which has always been the central tokenomics for the M2 Pro miners, is expected to ensure that the $BTC mining is more stable and secure.
One of the significant concerns and criticisms from the community was that the DKP II testnet was again only available to a “preselected test-pool” of miners. Thus, to eliminate such concerns, the DKP III testnet will be open to everyone who qualifies, meaning everyone who has an M2 Pro miner and engages in an introduced element of PoP, ensuring $BTC mining and profits can be enjoyed by all of our mining community.
How the M2 Pro community can participate:
The developers on our end have been keeping a close eye on the participative influence of the miners; that is, how active are they on the network, and with the results of the first two test analyses, they were able to configure the DKP III test for the whole global widespread network, and it is a world-first! However, as part of the analysis, it has been revealed that the reliability and rewards for individual miners are still influenced by PoP factors, including accessibility, location, and uptime of miners. The DKP III test will be open to everyone. It will be all-inclusive, thus allowing the participants to choose whether they wish to be a part of it or wait to participate in the final live rollout of the project after the analysis of DKP III results. In order to join the future DKP III testnet, which is expected to roll out in Q4, 2021, one must have an M2 Pro miner linked to their DataDash account. Additionally, there will be the introduction of a few and very achievable participative aspects, thus ensuring improved elements of PoP and a more robust and successful mining network.
About MXC
Based in Berlin, Germany, the MXC Foundation is a purpose-built IoT Foundation with the mission to inspire fast, efficient, decentralized data exchanges using LPWAN, Blockchain, and Token technology. The MXC Foundation is pairing “MXC” — the pioneer IoT cryptocurrency — with advanced LPWAN technology, developing the next, vital step in the fourth industrial revolution, enabling secure, vastly scalable, lightning-fast transactions. Learn more at: www.mxc.org
For further information, media requests or comment, please MXC can be contacted directly at hello@mxc.org or via the www.mxc.org website.
