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  Graphics cards, once the main tool for mining, are now idle in large numbers. Text | "Chinese Entrepreneur" reporter Chen Genlin Editor｜Yao Yun Header image source｜Visual China The price of graphics cards has been falling, and the "wait party" people have decided to continue to wait. At 14:44 on September 15th, Beijing time, Ethereum The Merge was officially activated. A few minutes later, the first epoch (used to define the time epoch when a specific event occurs on the blockchain) was completed, marking the completion of the transition from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS) on the Ethereum blockchain, and the new era of PoS officially opened. The merger was broadcast live on YouTube, and more than 40,000 crypto people witnessed this history online. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin tweeted to celebrate: “This is an important moment for the Ethereum ecosystem and everyone who helped merge it should be very proud! ” The graphics card is the most severely affected part of this "ecosystem". Before this merger, Ethereum "miners" obtained income through mining with graphics card mining machines, but now by pledging Ethereum, they can obtain income in the form of verification nodes. It is understood that different virtual currency systems have different requirements for mining machines. For example, Ethereum’s mining machines have graphics cards as the core, which were once the main tools for mining. Now they can only be left idle in the corner. From the demand side, with this upgrade, the "financial product" graphics card has returned to normal. Everything has settled. The two-year graphics card mining era has ended. Since March, news has spread that the merger will happen in 2022, and the graphics card market is in a state of imminent trouble. The price of graphics cards has also been falling at the same time. By September 20, the price of graphics cards has begun to be basically the same as the first price, or even fell below the first price. Take the 3070, which was “hard to find” during the mining boom, as an example. The price has dropped from 6,299 yuan on February 28 to 3,899 yuan. "Chinese Entrepreneur" found in a search on second-hand platforms that words such as "mining disaster" and "exercise" often appeared in the resale information related to graphics cards. Many second-hand resale content also specifically marked "not a mining card" or "no exercise" and other information - "exercise" here refers to participating in mining, and "mining card" refers to a graphics card that has been used to mine. Mining is a 007 type of work, which requires the mining machine to run continuously at full load 24/7. If it is exposed to poor heat dissipation, humidity, etc. for a long time, the life of the graphics card will be difficult to guarantee. An ASUS technical engineer told China Entrepreneur: “The mining card can be used normally, but its lifespan is not long. The high temperature generated by long-term and high-load operation will cause damage to the chip. Different mining cards have different operating time and status, and their service life will also be uneven. ” It is difficult for ordinary consumers to pay for the mining cards that have flowed into the second-hand market.  Source: Visual China  You can’t grab the graphics card even with “plug-ins” Dwhite once asked a friend to use snap-up software. At first, this was not a difficult task for him, who is experienced in buying. “I’ve grabbed sneakers, Moutai, and souvenirs. ” The snap-up software is a program written by Dwhite's friend. It is not stable, sometimes useful and sometimes ineffective. However, I have tried to grab graphics cards more than ten times in the past year, but I have never been successful. Dwhite discussed this issue with his friends and came to two conclusions: First, the merchant has set up higher protection, and second, it has been handled internally and it is impossible to grab it. Dwhite, who was born in 1995, previously worked in a 4A advertising company, and later resigned to study abroad for graduate school, but the plan coincided with the postponement of the epidemic outbreak. While waiting, gaming became one of my pastimes, so I came up with the idea of replacing the graphics card and power supply of my computer. After trying many times with the "plug-in" of snap-up software, I still couldn't get the graphics card at the original price. Waiting and watching became the only thing Dwhite could do. Compared to Dwhite, Bi Jun was much luckier in grabbing the full-price graphics card in one go. Bi Jun, who was born in 1985, has already started a family and started a business. He liked to assemble his own computers and study computer accessories since he was a child. As an adult, he worked as an apprentice in a computer repair shop for a period of time. With children, he rarely has time to play games. He enjoys buying and replacing computer hardware more than playing games. Bi Jun's past work experience and childhood hobbies gave Bi Jun a better understanding of other rush-buying channels. In February 2021, he grabbed a 3070 graphics card with an original price of 3,899 yuan in Luo Yonghao's live broadcast room. "At that time, the price of 3070 had risen to six to seven thousand yuan. The moment the countdown ended, I immediately ordered the yellow cart to pay, and I didn't know why I got it." After grabbing the graphics card at the original price, Bi Jun posted the result on the forum. However, faced with such a small probability event, netizens did not believe him, "Others said I was a swindler. ” Bi Jun also told "Chinese Entrepreneur" that he had tried this 3070 for 4 months at the original price, and made 6,000 yuan when it was resold. "In May 2021, the price of 3070 has risen to about 10,000 yuan in the second-hand market. I really can't stand the temptation. ” At that time, he put forward an "excessive" condition to the buyer, "After receiving the goods, no matter whether the card is good or bad, you have to pay and cannot return it, but everyone is rushing to get it. ”Bi Jun did not expect such crazy market conditions. The continued rise in graphics card prices once made many gamers who had been waiting for more than a year completely "give up". According to a 3DCenter report, in December 2021, the premium for Nvidia and AMD graphics cards once exceeded the first suggested retail price by 80%. An RTX 3080Ti with an initial price of 8,999 yuan, the market price was once speculated to more than 20,000 yuan.  Source: Visual China During the surge in digital currencies, graphics cards were purchased in batches by "mining bosses", making it difficult for ordinary players to find a card. Some media reported: "As soon as the spot goods arrive in the hands of regional or even national general distributors, they will be packaged and bought by large mine owners." This makes players can only buy or snap up very few graphics cards at high prices. Ray, a game enthusiast, posted: “The computer equipped with 618 in 2021 has all other parts installed, except for the graphics card. Reading the news every day and waiting for price reductions are exhausting. Sometimes I can't help but want to pay more to go down the mountain. It's really tiring to watch it every day. However, thinking about it again, maybe I can save 3,000 by doing nothing for a month, so I might as well continue to watch it every day.……” In response to the global shortage in October 2020, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said that the main problem with the shortage is not supply, but that demand far exceeds expectations, causing the current shortage. "The volume we expected is already a lot." And said that they are already working hard to increase production capacity, and the current yield and shipping are going very well, but they were sold out immediately after being put on the shelves. If you want to buy a graphics card, you can only buy it at a high price through card grabbing or other channels. And because the price of graphics cards has soared, reminders about the cooling-off period for graphics cards have appeared on second-hand platforms. The Xianyu Index shows that the average transaction price of graphics cards increased by approximately 1,060 yuan from October to December, which was twice that of the same period last year. And in the past five months, the number of graphics card transactions has continued to surge.  Series 30: I couldn’t get it once, but now I just ignore it Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress shouted to players at a Goldman Sachs technology conference: Players must understand that graphics card prices have dropped to almost normal levels. The mining disaster seems to return the graphics card to normal state, but for players, this only affects the next-generation series of new products. Wang Yi is a designer whose hobby is playing games. The original old computer could only support playing some online games and did not have high performance requirements, but AAA game masterpieces were what he had always wanted to experience. “3070 performance is greater than 2080ti, 4000 yuan! ”After seeing the new product release, Wang Yi immediately sent a message to his friends to express his shock. In September 2020, NVIDIA's new 30-series graphics cards were announced. Wang Yi found that the news of the 30-series graphics cards had hit all platforms - this series of graphics cards had twice the performance and half the price. Steam, the world's largest game platform, shows that the 1060 graphics card used most by game players on the platform was released in 2016. The limited performance improvements of previous generations and rising prices have made gamers less eager to replace their computer hardware. However, compared with the previous generation 20 series, the performance of the 30 series graphics card has doubled, and the price has also been halved, which has directly stimulated the nerves of many gamers. “Although I just bought a computer a year ago and don't play much, I was really impressed when I saw the price/performance ratio. ”Wang Yi told "Chinese Entrepreneur" that at that time, the price of 2080ti on JD.com was close to 9,000 yuan, while the 3070 with better performance was only 4,000 yuan. "I never dared to think about it before. ” Wang Yi immediately took action and quickly purchased all the motherboard, CPU, memory, power supply and other accessories on the e-commerce platform. "I had already calculated the prices and was waiting to buy a new graphics card." From then on, Wang Yi watched the instructional video on how to build a computer while paying attention to the price of graphics cards. However, the opportunity to take action has not yet arrived. On the supply side, there is insufficient production capacity after the new 30 series graphics cards are launched.； On the demand side, the mining boom exploded rapidly. As a result, the spectacle of hundreds of thousands of people grabbing graphics cards occurred. Wang Yi told us that several original-price graphics cards listed on JD.com require a rush sale to buy. The number of reservations sometimes exceeds 500,000, but the rush purchase amount is only one.  Source: Screenshot from shopping platform At that time, the 30 series was the most popular mining card, but now it has become the object of disdain. After the news of the merger broke out in March this year, in addition to the gradual return of graphics card prices to the official selling price, a large number of mining cards with prices significantly lower than the original price began to flow into the market. Card seller Kuang Longfei said in the video, “There have been obviously more mine bosses coming to me to sell mining cards these days, but most of them are just for consultation. Some are thinking of ways to mine other coins, but I don’t think I can mine them for more than a few days. Some said to shut down the phone first and check the situation, and some were ready to sell the card. When the mine owners change various currencies and find that the income is equal to the electricity bill, they will sell it at a low price. ” “There is no mercy in the case of a mining disaster. You can bargain for a slow-selling graphics card. Please save us! ” “It’s okay to sell in large quantities, as long as the price is right. ” “There was a mine disaster, so I bought a training card. This card is idle.……” A search by "Chinese Entrepreneur" found that this type of mining card has entered the second-hand market, with a price tag of 3080 yuan to 1999 yuan.； 3090 is 2599 yuan ； 3070 is 1599 yuan ； 3060 is 1099 yuan. There are also many collectors of this type of mining difficulty cards who are purchasing them at a price of 200 to 500 yuan.  Source: Second-hand platform screenshot On second-hand platforms such as Xianyu, the current price of graphics cards is less than 1/5. As of September 23, the selling price of the 3070 mining card is only 1,400 yuan. Senior player Gao Bo told "Chinese Entrepreneur": "The price will continue to decrease and may exceed 1,000 yuan. ”The original price of this graphics card was 3,899 yuan, but it once sold for over 10,000 yuan when the price was at its highest in April last year. The impact of mining cards has entered the market, and the entire ecosystem has been affected. A graphics card dealer in Zhongguancun told "Chinese Entrepreneur": "Many dealers around are selling mining cards, but it is not impossible to sell new graphics cards now. The quality of the mining card is difficult to guarantee and may break down quickly. It all depends on personal luck. But now the price of graphics cards has indeed dropped to rock bottom. ” Players are also skeptical about mining cards. Bi Jun said that he had seen a player post: "The 3090 graphics card purchased on Xianyu for 5,900 yuan did not pass the TimeSpy stress test. ”It is understood that TimeSpy is a graphics card measurement software, mainly used to measure the stability of graphics cards running for a long time. Graphics cards that fail the test may experience black screen, blurred screen, crash, etc. An Asus graphics card dealer told China Entrepreneur, “The new 30 series graphics cards currently sold are all graphics cards with locked computing power and cannot be used for mining. There is no impact on game and work performance. ” At the press conference on September 20, "virtual human Lao Huang" appeared with a new 40-series graphics card. The 4090 doubled the performance of the 30-series 90 graphics card, but this time the price has increased.  Say goodbye to the era of graphics card mining Vitalik Buterin realized early on that proof of work was not a long-term solution. In March 2015, Ethereum formulated four development stages to merge from proof of work to proof of equity, and planned to implement proof of equity in the fourth stage "Serenity". Starting in 2017, Vitalik Buterin proposed to shift from proof of work to proof of stake in 2019 to achieve ETH (Ethereum) 2.0. However, due to factors such as difficulty and security, the plan has been suspended. In December 2020, staking testing began on the beacon chain, marking an important step in Ethereum's shift from PoW to PoS. After this test, each node validator needs to stake 32 ETH, which can be withdrawn in batches after the merger is completed. Data shows that as of April 25, 2022, the total number of ETH pledged on the beacon chain is 11,387,194. The upgrade of the Ethereum London hard fork EIP-1559 completed in the second half of 2021 and the upgrade of the Ethereum beacon chain Altair also prepare for the merger. Until September 15 this year, the merger was officially completed, which also marked the merger of Ethereum from proof of work to proof of equity. Why is this merger so important? To put it simply, the proof of work in the past was mainly based on distribution according to work. The more you worked, the more you would get. The performance behavior of doing it is "mining", and the current proof of equity mainly relies on staking.  Source: Visual China “The act of “mining” actually includes two actions. First, keep accounts. Bitcoin is a distributed virtual currency. Its records are not stored in a certain institution or center, but in the computers of all users. Therefore, network data operations require the support of users. A Bitcoin transaction is a process in which signed data is broadcast to the network, so the resulting data operations need to be performed on the computers of users everywhere. Bitcoin generates a block every ten minutes, and miners participating in mining package the transaction data within these ten minutes. A block contains transaction details, timestamp, signature and random number. Second, after miners package, they must compete for accounting rights, that is, they must perform hash operations to calculate a random number. Whoever calculates it first will get the block reward, and the block reward is Bitcoin. Because it is a completely random calculation, there are cases where the calculation will succeed once. But generally speaking, the greater the computing power of a miner, the more hashes performed per unit time, and the more likely it is that the calculation can be successful in a short time. This means that the more devices involved in the calculation, the greater the workload, and the more digital currency can be obtained. At the same time, due to the different algorithms used, Bitcoin mining can only produce benefits by using professional mining machines such as ASICs. Ethereum only requires the use of a graphics card to mine, which greatly lowers the "entry threshold" for mining, which is one of the reasons for the rise of the mining boom. The sharp increase in the price of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin has caused more and more people to participate in "mining", and graphics cards have become a tool for "mining bosses" to get rich. When supply and demand were originally relatively balanced, they purchased them at high prices to form "mines." However, upstream interception made it difficult for ordinary consumers to purchase graphics cards. As the number of people participating in mining continues to increase, the consensus mechanism of Proof of Work (PoW) has led to huge energy consumption. According to reports, Bitcoin consumes about 150 terawatt hours of electricity per year, which is more than the annual electricity consumption of 45 million people in Argentina. ； Ethereum consumes about 62 terawatt hours of electricity per year, which is close to the annual electricity consumption of 9 million people in Switzerland. After merging, the graphics card can also be used to mine other mines, but only a small part. Nowadays, a large number of graphics cards have been sold by miners. CITIC Securities research said that the subsequent demand for new GPUs for ETH mining will basically disappear, and it is expected that the number of graphics cards that will eventually flow to the secondary market will be about 4 million to 5 million. News hotline & submission email: tougao@iceo.com.cn  Follow the "Chinese Entrepreneur" video account See more opinions and behind-the-scenes stories [Recommended Reading]   |
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