近期，一个名叫Chris McCann外国人发表了一篇《Overview & Landscape of the Mining Industry》文章，全面调研了加密数字货币挖矿产业链全景图，在这里和大家分享。
As of July 2019, Bitcoin miners generate $6B+ in revenues (mining rewards + transaction fees) on an annualized basis.
Mining and the underlying hardware that secures Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency projects is an often overlooked market within the cryptocurrency sector. However in conjunction with the exchange landscape, mining is one of the core markets which generates significant revenues.
In this post I will share an overview of the Bitcoin & crypto mining space, the underlying hardware which powers mining, an ecosystem landscape, and dive into the revenue & market size of the space.
截止 2019 年 7 月，比特币矿工年均创造了超过六十亿美金的收益（挖矿奖励+交易手续费）。
在加密数字货币领域，确保比特币及其它加密数字货币网络安全的基础硬件和挖矿活动是一个经常被人忽视的市场。然而，挖矿和交易，都是创造可观利润的核心市场。
在这篇文章中，我将分享比特币及其它密码学货币挖矿领域的概况、支撑挖矿的基础硬件、行业的生态，并深入探究这个领域的收益和市场规模。
How Cryptocurrency Mining Works 密码学货币挖矿原理简介
Proof-of-work (mining) is the process in which new transactions are added to the Bitcoin blockchain and how the correct order of such transactions are agreed upon (consensus).
One of my favorite analogies of the process is to think of it like a sudoku puzzle. It’s a puzzle that takes a lot of brainpower to solve, but once it’s solved it's very easy for everyone else to verify that you have found the correct answer.
（这里放了一个youtube的一个视频解释挖矿的原理，链接不过来，所以删除了）
Essentially, miners (computers geographically distributed around the world) compete to solve a computationally intensive puzzle which verifies the next block in the blockchain (in addition to the underlying transactions within the block). The miner who solves this puzzle first is the person who is able to claim the reward (the “coinbase reward” + transaction fees). Once the next block is found all of the miners on the network are able to verify that the block is correct, and move onto solving the next block in the chain.
工作量证明（挖矿）是指将新交易添加到比特币区块链上、并对这些交易的合理顺序达成一致（共识）的过程。
关于这个过程，我最喜欢的一个类比就是把它想象成一个数独谜题（译者注：需要在一个 9*9 的盘面上根据已有的数字推演出其它数字，保证每一行、每一列、每一个粗线设置的九宫格内的 1~9 都不重复）。它是一个需要烧死大量脑细胞才能解出来的难题，但是一旦解出来了，其他人就很容易验证你的答案是否正确。
从本质上来说，矿工（地理上分散在世界各地的计算机）相互竞争着解决一个计算密集型的难题，一旦解出来就可以确证区块链上可（连带打包在区块中的交易）产生下一个区块。第一个解决难题的矿工可以获得区块奖励（“coinbase 奖励” + 交易手续费）。一旦新区块被创建，网络中的所有矿工都可以验证该区块的正确性，然后进入到解决下一个区块难题的竞争中。
The Role Miners Play in the Bitcoin & Crypto Ecosystem
矿工在比特币和区块链生态系统中扮演的角色
All of the computers around the world racing to solve the next puzzle are the participants that make up the mining ecosystem. The collective computational resources are one of the core ingredients which provides the underlying security guarantees Bitcoin provides.
Through this network, Bitcoin participants are able to expect:
- Their transactions will be confirmed on the Bitcoin blockchain.
- Their transactions will be in the correct order (protect against double spends).
- The history of the Bitcoin blockchain will stay intact (immutability).
In return miners are compensated both in newly minted Bitcoin (“coinbase rewards”) + the transaction fees associated with each transaction. If participants want stronger guarantees on when their transaction will be added to the Bitcoin blockchain, they can increase the transaction fees they are willing to pay for their transactions.
世界各地竞争着解决下一个难题的所有计算机都是挖矿生态系统的参与者。可汇总的计算资源是为比特币提供基本安全保障的核心要素之一。
通过这个网络，比特币的使用者们可以期望：
- 他们的交易将被比特币区块链所确认。
- 他们的交易将按照合理的顺序被打包（防止一笔钱花两次）。
- 比特币区块链的历史将保持不变（不可篡改性）。
作为回报，矿工可以同时获得新挖出的比特币（“Coinbase 奖励”）和区块中每笔交易的手续费。如果用户希望自己的交易被及时打包到比特币区块链上，他们可以自愿增加为自己的交易所支付的手续费。
Hardware Used in Mining用于挖矿的硬件
While in the beginning of the Bitcoin network, it was profitable to mine Bitcoin using consumer grade central processing units (CPU’s), the Bitcoin network has developed to such a scale where it is impractical to do so now.
The Bitcoin ecosystem is largely dominated by application specific integrated circuits (ASIC’s). For most other cryptocurrencies, graphics processing units (GPU’s) and field-programmable gate array (FPGA's) are the dominant form factors. A number of coins also exist with the same hashing algorithm at Bitcoin (SHA256) that are compatible with Bitcoin mining ASICs.
在比特币网络的早期，使用消费级的 CPU 挖比特币还有利可图，然而，比特币网络发展到如今的规模，再这样做已经不切实际了。
目前，比特币生态系统内的矿机由专用集成电路（ASIC）主导。对于其它绝大多数密码学货币而言，图形处理器（GPU）和现场可编程门阵列（FPGA）是主要的矿机形态。还存在许多和比特币使用同一种哈希算法（SHA256）的密码学货币，它们也兼容比特币的 ASIC 矿机。
Mining Ecosystem Landscape挖矿生态系统的景观
Below is a graphic of the mining sector in its totality, from the chips to the end user services:
下面是一张从芯片到终端用户的挖矿生态系统全景图：
Foundry代工厂
Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) and Samsung are the two core semiconductor foundries which produce all of the silicon wafers which go into mining hardware. Taiwan in particular has a dominant share of the chipset supply chain.
For example: NVIDIA, AMD, Xilinx, Bitmain, and Cannan all use TSMC for their core production lines.
台积电（TSMC） 和三星是两家核心的半导体制造商，它们生产了所有挖矿硬件所采用的硅晶片。尤其是台积电，它在芯片组供应链中占据了主导地位。举例来说：英伟达、AMD、赛灵思（Xilinx）、比特大陆和嘉楠耘智全部使用台积电作为其核心生产线。
Packaging, Testing, Assembly打包，测试，组装
Once the wafers are complete you need to test them, cut them apart, package them into the final chip, and retest. This whole process is typically handled by OSAT companies (outsourced assembly and test companies) with the two largest of such being ASE Group (Taiwan) and Amkor Technology.
晶片生产出来之后，你需要对它们进行测试，切分，并把它们封装进最终的芯片中，然后重新测试。整个流程通常由 OSAT 公司（外包封装测试公司）处理，其中最大的两家公司是 ASE 集团（台湾）与 Amkor Technology。
IC Design and Manufacturers 集成电路设计与制造商
* 绝大部分集成电路公司都没有披露它们的 OSAT 供应商。
The companies which design and sell the chips are typically referred to as fabless chip companies (the fabrication itself is left to the foundry and OSAT companies).
For GPU’s, the two top manufacturers are NVIDIA and AMD. For FPGA’s, the top manufacturer is Xilinx. For crypto specific ASIC’s, the top three companies are Bitmain, Canaan, and Pangolin Miner (producer of the Whatsminer line).
In addition to these three manufacturers there are other IC design companies in the space including: Ebang, Innosilicon, Bitfury, Obelisk, and others.
设计和销售芯片的公司通常被称为无晶圆芯片公司（制造本身由代工厂和 OSAT 公司负责）。
对于 GPU 而言，最顶级的两个制造商是英伟达和 AMD。而对于 FPGA 而言，最顶级的制造商是赛灵思。对于专门用来进行密码学货币挖矿的 ASIC 芯片而言，最顶级的三家制造商则是比特大陆，嘉楠耘智，和穿山甲矿机（Pangolin Miner）（神马(Whatsminer)矿机系列的制造商）。
除了这三类制造商之外，这个行业中还有一些其它的集成电路设计公司，包括：翼比特，芯动科技，Bitfury，Obelisk，等等。
英伟达和 AMD 为所有的用例生产 GPU，而不仅仅是挖矿。市场份额来自 Jon Peddie Research 的估算。 表中的估值是在比特大陆和嘉楠耘智赴港交所上市失败后的最后估值。
Miners & Mining Farms矿工和矿场
After the chips have been produced, they can now be used to mine cryptocurrencies. ASIC’s are especially designed to mine one mining algorithm (typically SHA256 & Bitcoin) while GPU’s have more flexibility built in.
Miners include: people using one machine to mine, small mining operations (5-10 machines), medium sized mining farms (10-100 machines), large scale mining operations (100-1,000 machines) to industrial scale mining farms (1,000+ machines). Some of the largest operations I’ve heard of so far are in the range of 100,000’s of machines across multiple geographies.
In addition to designing the chips some of the manufacturers mine themselves as well (Bitmain, Canaan, Pangolin). Bitmain, for example, publicly discloses their “self-mining” monthly.
Any sized mining operation can be pointed at a mining pool (more on these later) or if large enough they can self mine - aggregating all of their hashpower to find blocks directly, without commingling their hashrate with other miners.
*It is quite controversial that the mining chip producers potentially use their own machines to mine before selling them. However if you really do have a device that generates revenue, there is no reason why you would leave it unused in inventory, but rather you would utilize it until you could sell it.
芯片被生产出来之后，就可以用来挖密码学货币啦。ASIC 芯片被设计成专门挖一种挖矿算法（通常是 SHA256 或者说比特币），而 GPU 则更具灵活性。矿工包括：使用一台机器进行挖矿的人，小型挖矿作业（5-10 台机器），中等规模的矿场（10-100台机器），大规模矿场（100-1,000台机器）到工业规模的矿场（1,000 台以上机器）。迄今为，我听说过的最大规模的矿场在多个地区运行了多达 100,000 台矿机。
除了设计芯片以外，一些制造商自己也参与挖矿（例如比特大陆，嘉楠耘智，穿山甲）。举例来说，比特大陆每个月都公开披露他们自己的挖矿状况。
大大小小的矿工都可以加入到一个矿池（将在后文详细介绍）中，如果矿场的规模足够大，他们还可以 solo 挖矿—— 只汇集自己的哈希算力来直接寻找区块，不与其他矿工混合算力。
* 一个颇有争议的地方在于，挖矿芯片的制造商在出售芯片之前，可能会提前使用它们进行挖矿。然而，如果你真的有一台能产生利润的设备，你也没有理由把它闲置在仓库里，你也可能会在卖出去之前用它来挖矿。
Pools (Single and multi-currency)矿池（单币种和多币种）
For individual to non-industrial miners it is more economically rational to join a pool rather than to self mine. Pools aggregate the hashpower of many miners together to smooth out the reward curves for each individual miner. The pool is in charge of optimizing all of the hashpower, running the mining notes, collecting & distributed rewards, and taking a fee on top for the service.
There are some pools that specialize in specific cryptocurrencies (Sparkpool: Ethereum & Grin) and other pools which have setup various pools covering all of the top cryptocurrencies (Antpool, F2Pool, Poolin, Slushpool, etc). All of these pools started by specializing in one cryptocurrency (typically Bitcoin) and have thus expanded to cover all forms of cryptocurrencies.
One of my favorite analogies of how mining pools work is to think of it like the office lottery pool. By pooling together all of the lottery tickets, all of the individuals (miners) have a better chance of winning the reward (block reward).
However with mining pools you are both trusting the service to both report the correct earnings and the correct number of tickets everyone in the pool has. To bring transparency there are services like PoolWatch that try to track and compare the reporting across various mining pools.
对于从个体到非工业级别的矿工来说，在经济上更加合理的做法是加入一个矿池，而非自己单独挖矿。矿池把许多矿工的哈希算力汇集了起来，使得每个矿工的回报曲线能够更加平滑。矿池负责优化所有的哈希算力、运行挖矿程序、收集并分配奖励，并对这些服务收取额外的费用。有一些矿池专注于挖特定的密码学货币（例如星火矿池，专注于以太坊和 Grin），而其他矿池则设置了多种矿池，覆盖了所有主流的密码学货币（蚂蚁矿池，鱼池，币印矿池，Slushpool，等等）。所有的这些矿池一开始都是专注于挖一个密码学货币（通常是比特币），后来才扩展到涵盖所有形式的密码学货币。
关于矿池的运行方式，我最喜欢的一个类比是将它想象成办公室的彩票池。通过把所有人买的彩票汇集到一起，每个人（矿工）都有更大的机会赢得奖励。
然而，使用矿池就意味着要信任矿池 —— 每个人拥有的准确算力份额以及合理的收入，都由矿池来记录并分发。为了提高透明度，有一些类似 PoolWatch 的服务会跟踪和比较各种矿池的报告。
Hashrate Marketplaces算力市场
As a miner in addition to using your own hashrate for mining, you also have the option to sell your hashrate to someone else. Often, this is done in a marketplace - the biggest of such marketplaces is NiceHash. A smaller, peer-to-peer marketplace is Mining Rig Rentals.
On these marketplaces, people can both sell their hashrate and/or purchase hashrate on any given set of mining algorithms across any kind of cryptocurrencies. Although there are a lot of reasons why someone would want to buy hashrate, one of the top reasons is buying hashrate is used as a form of onramp into cryptocurrencies.
Often times people are using hashrate to speculate on various cryptocurrencies — e.g. want to purchase SHA256 hash rate and use it for Bitcoin SV instead of Bitcoin. (a terrible trade…)
矿工除了直接挖矿以外，还可以把自己的算力卖给别人。现实中也是有这样的算力买卖市场的——目前最大的市场是 NiceHash。除此以外，还有一个更小的点对点的算力市场：Mining Rig Rentals。
在这些市场中，人们可以同时出售他们的算力 和/或 购买算力——任何密码学货币的任何算法都行。尽管人们购买算力的原因很多，然而其中最主要的一个原因就是购买算力是一个拥有密码学货币的入口。
很多时候人们使用算力来炒作各种密码学货币——例如，想要采购适合 SHA256 的哈希算力来挖 BSV 而不是比特币（实在是一笔不划算的买卖···）
Cloud mining云挖矿
Cloud mining are services where consumers can purchase hashrate contracts directly, instead of operating any hardware themselves. It’s similar to the hashrate marketplaces above the cloud mining services typically are operated by one central supply.
Two of the biggest companies in this space are Genesis Mining (US) and Bitdeer (Asia). Again similarly to above one of the top reasons is buying hashrate is used as a form of onramp into cryptocurrencies. Through this method, people can use fiat to purchase Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies directly without going through an exchange.
云挖矿即直接买卖的算力合同，消费者无需接触任何硬件。有点类似于上面提到的算力市场，通常是由一个中心化的供应商来运营的。这个领域中最大的两家公司是 Genesis Mining（美国）和 Bitdeer (亚洲)。也与上面提到的类似，人们使用云挖矿服务的一个主要的原因是购买算力被当成获取密码学货币的一种入口。通过这种方式，人们可以使用法币来直接购买比特币或其他密码学货币，而不用通过交易所。
Smart Miners智能矿工
Smart miners is a new category that has emerged. Mining is a complex endeavor in which participants need to have an understanding of hardware, networking, energy, forecasts of hashrate, optimizing for specific algorithms, etc. On top of this, all of these inputs are constantly changing on a daily basis with new long tail cryptocurrencies constantly coming and going.
Smart Miners, like Honeyminer, aim to optimize all of these factors to allow miners, both consumers and professionals, to earn as much as possible with the hashpower they have. Two other similar products are HashFish and Cudo Miner.
In a short period of time these products have aggregated a considerable amount of the supply side hashpower of the marketplace.
智能矿工是最近出现的一个新的品类。挖矿是一个复杂的任务，它要求参与者了解硬件，网络，能源，算力预测，以及针对特定算法的优化等等。此外，随着新的密码学货币不断涌现以及旧的密码学货币的消亡，所有的这些因素每天都在不断地变化。像 Honeyminer 这类智能矿工软件，旨在同时优化上述所有的因素，使得普通的消费者和专业人士都可以通过拥有的算力尽可能多地挣取收益。另外还有两个类似的产品——HashFish 和 Cudo Miner。
在短时间内，这些产品在供应端聚集起了可观的算力。
Size and Revenue of the Mining Market挖矿市场的规模和收益
The crypto mining industry generates over $8 billion in revenue on an annualized basis.
Revenue comes from both the block rewards + the transaction fees included in every single block on all proof-of-work blockchains. Based on the most recent CoinMetrics data on June 25th, 2019 the mining rewards, here is the weekly, monthly, and yearly revenue run rates of mining in total.
以年为单位计算，密码学货币挖矿行业每年创造超过 80 亿美金的利润。
在所有基于工作量证明的区块链中，利润来自区块奖励和每个区块中包含的交易手续费。根据 CoinMetrics 在 2019 年 6 月 25 日公布的最新的挖矿奖励数据，下面是挖矿行业每周，每月，以及每年的挖矿收益。
比特币占到所有加密数字货币挖矿领域的75%
However the overall revenue the mining sector generates is directly tied to the price of the underlying cryptocurrency, so it is highly reflexive back to the underlying cryptocurrency market (hence why Wall Street will have a tough time understanding the companies in this sector). More on this below.
这也与今天（2019 年 7 月 1 日）比特币占据主导地位的市场份额相符合。根据 CoinMarketCap 的数据，比特币占据了 60% 的市值。
然而，挖矿行业创造的整体利润与其所挖密码学货币的价格直接挂钩，所以它会反过来直接影响密码学货币市场（因此，华尔街很难理解这个行业里的公司）。下面将详细介绍。
Understanding the Profitability of the Mining Sector理解挖矿行业的盈利情况
The overall revenue, cost, and profitability of participants in the mining sector is hinged on a few key factors.
挖矿行业参与者的整体利润，成本，和盈利情况受到少数几个关键因素影响。
Capital Expenditure (Capex)
The main capex expense for miners is the cost of the mining machines themselves + any facilities/buildout which are needed to run the operation.
For example if you wanted to purchase 10,000 of the most recent Bitmain S17 models, this would cost $16M at retail price. Large miners can get special pricing; however, when machines are highly in demand it’s hard to even secure supply much less negotiate on rates.
This does not take into account the cost of setting up the facilities which have turned from hobbyist activities into real professional industrial scale operations.
资本支出（Capex）
矿工主要的资本支出是挖矿机器本身的成本加上运营该机器需要的所有 设施/建筑物。举例来说，如果你想要按照零售价采购 10,000 台最新的比特大陆生产的蚂蚁矿机 S17，需要花费 1,600 万美金。大型矿工可以特价采购。然而，当矿机的需求很高以至于很难保证供应时，价格的优惠力度会很小。
这还没有把建设设施的成本考虑进来，这些设施将挖矿从业余爱好变成真正专业的工业规模项目。
Operational Expenditure (Opex)运营成本（Opex）
The main opex expense for miners is the cost of electricity to power the machines on a daily basis.
For example. if you were running 10,000 Bitmain S17 miners 24/7 this would cost you $36,000 per day (~$13M per year) in energy cost at $0.05 per kilowatt hour (kWh) - just to power the miners alone.
The average cost of electricity is highly variable based on where you live and what electricity source you are using:
对于矿工来说，主要的运营成本是每天运行矿机所需的电费。举例来说，如果你 7*24 小时地运行 10,000 台比特大陆的 S17 矿机，按每度（kwh）电 0.05 美金计算，每天将会花掉你 36,000 美金（每年大约 1,300 万美金）的电费——仅仅是支撑矿机运行而已。
电费的平均支出视矿机所在地域和所用电力来源而定，差别很大：
Miners are inherently incentivized to find the cheapest sources of energy around the world, which is why Coinshares estimates that 75% of the energy that powers the Bitcoin network comes from renewable sources, largely hydroelectric energy.
In addition to the energy costs to power the mining machines, the other ongoing opex costs include: cooling, staff, maintenance, security, and general facility operations. A general rule of thumb is to 1.5x the energy cost to give a rough estimate on the ongoing opex costs.
Following our example above for a mining operating of 10,000 Bitmain S17 a rough estimate on the cost side would be:
- $16M Capex + $3M (import tax) + $4M (Facilities + security)
- $20M Opex (yearly)
- $67M Revenue potential (based on today’s Bitcoin price).
This is a rough estimate just to show the scale of factors miners are dealing with. The true cost would be highly dependent on your geographic location, buildout, etc.
However even these factors are always in flux, due the the market factors which will we will cover below.
矿工的本性激励他们去寻找世界上最便宜的能源，这就是为什么 Coinshares 估计支撑比特币网络运行的 75% 的电力来自可再生能源，主要就是水力发电。
除了维持矿机运行所需的电费以外，其它不间断的运营成本还包括：散热，人工，维护，安全和普通设施运营。一般来说，可以粗略地估计不间断的运营成本是电费的 1.5 倍。
根据我们上面关于运营 10,000 台比特大陆的 S17 矿机的例子，可以粗略地估计其成本为：
- 1,600 万美金的资本支出 + 300 万美金（进口税）+ 400万 美金（设施+安全）
- 2,000 万美金的运营成本（每年）
- 6,700 万美金的潜在收益（基于今天的比特币价格）
以上只是一个粗略的估计，仅仅是为了展示矿工需要付出的各种成本的规模。真正的成本将完全取决于你所处的地理位置和所用建筑等。然而，由于我们下面将介绍的市场因素，上述成本将不断变化。
Market factors
While opex and capex are two factors miners can control, there are market forces at play which greatly determine the profitability of mining.
市场因素
尽管资本支出和运营成本是两项矿工可以控制的因素，但市场的力量在很大程度上决定了挖矿的盈利情况。
Miner costs & available supply矿工成本 & 可见的供给
Unlike many traditional products, the mining producers (Bitmain, Canaan, Whatsminer, etc) will vary the price on the mining machines based on the profitability (the Bitcoin price) of the machines.
During big pull runs the price swings of the underlying cryptocurrencies + the mining machines themselves can swing wildly. In crazy periods there are whole secondary markets dedicated to just purchasing more hardware, and older machines can even become profitable again too.
In general I would always expect the price of machines to be priced close to the fair value the machine can generate at that point in time.
On top of this mining hardware tends to be supply constrained, especially with the newer machines. In keeping with our Bitmain S17 example, these machines are entirely sold out. Talking to some of the people on the team they don’t expect to have supply available until November at the earliest.
与很多传统的产品不同，矿机制造商（比特大陆，嘉楠耘智，神马矿机等等）会根据矿机的盈利情况（比特币价格）来调整矿机的价格。当密码学货币的价格出现大幅拉伸时，矿机本身的价格也会随之剧烈波动。疯狂时期，整个二级市场都在抢购更多的矿机，即使是老的矿机也能咸鱼翻身。总的来说，我总是希望机器的定价能接近在那个时间点可以创造的公允价值。除此之外，矿机的供用往往是比较受限的，尤其是比较新的矿机。继续拿上面提到的比特大陆的 S17 矿机为例，这些机器已经被抢购一空了。与团队中一些人交流时，他们告诉我，他们并不指望在 11 月初以前能保证充足供应。
Hashrate
The chance of a miner solving the next block is directly proportional to their hashrate relative to the hashrate of the total Bitcoin network (using Bitcoin as an example for simplicity).
An oversimplifying example to illustrate this is if you as a miner controlling 1% of the Bitcoin hashrate (compared to the overall Bitcoin hashrate) then you would expect to earn 1% of the total rewards from the Bitcoin network.
算力
矿工获取下个区块打包权的机会与他们的算力占整个比特币网络算力的比重成正比（为了简单起见，使用比特币来进行说明）。用最简单的例子来说明，如果你作为一名矿工，拥有的比特币算力占全网算力的 1% ，那么你就可以期望自己从比特币网络获得总奖励的 1%。
However, the overall hashrate of the Bitcoin is always changing so the profitability of each miner depends on how many miners enter or leave the ecosystem. The Bitcoin protocol does have an internal method on adjusting the difficulty level .
不过，比特币网络的总算力总是处于不断变化之中，因此每个矿工的盈利情况取决于有多少矿工加入或离开这个生态系统。比特币协议有一套内部的方法来调整挖矿难度。
Bitcoin Price
Since the block reward is paid out in the underlying cryptocurrency. For example if you are mining Bitcoin, the block reward you earn is paid out in Bitcoin itself. Given this the reward amount is directly tied to the price of Bitcoin itself.
The more Bitcoin is worth, the more mining rewards are worth. To engage in mining you have to be inherently long the cryptocurrency you are mining, because your profitability is dependent on it.
One of the major reasons why Bitcoin is the dominant cryptocurrency (outside of being first) is Bitcoin’s transparent, open, and fair supply schedule. From the genesis block, Bitcoin has a fixed supply schedule with a fixed supply - there will only be 21M Bitcoin ever created.
Mining is the way new Bitcoin are created and emitted into the world. Today each Bitcoin block reward is 12.5 Bitcoin; however, this amount decreases every 210,000 blocks. At block #630,000 (estimated around May 24th, 2020) this reward will drop to 6.25 Bitcoin - this is referred to as the halvening event.
To see how halvening events have affected the Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency networks before, check out this great post by CoinMetrics looking at prior halvening events.
If you would like to go even further into the supply schedule of Bitcoin and what happens after all of the Bitcoin is created, see these two posts about Bitcoins supply and overall security budget (shoutout to Dan Held for covering this topic throughly).
TLDR - The price of Bitcoin and underlying supply schedule of Bitcoin greatly affects the profitability of mining itself.
比特币价格
因为区块奖励是直接以底层的密码学货币支付的。举例来说，如果你在挖比特币，那么你赚到的区块奖励就是用比特币来支付的。因此，奖励的价值与比特币本身的价格直接挂钩。比特币越值钱，挖矿的奖励就越值钱。要从事挖矿行业，你必须发自内心地看好你所挖的密码学货币，因为你的盈利情况取决于它。
比特币在所有密码学货币（除第一名之外）中占据主导地位的主要原因之一就是它透明、开放而公平的发行计划。从创世区块开始，比特币就有一个固定的发行计划，规定了它发行的上限——最多只会有 2,100 万枚比特币被创造出来。
挖矿是创造比特币并将其流通到全世界的一种方式，今天每个比特币的区块奖励是 12.5 个比特币；然而，这个数量随着每挖出每 21 万个区块就减少一次。当第 63 万个区块（估计是在 2020年 5月 24 日左右）被挖出来时，区块奖励将减少到 6.25 个比特币——这也被称为减半事件。
想要了解之前的减半事件是如何影响比特币和其它密码学货币网络的，请查看这篇来自 CoinMetrics 的非常棒的文章，他们梳理了以前的减半事件。如果你想更进一步了解比特币的发行计划，以及当比特币都被挖完以后会发生什么，请参阅这两篇关于比特币发行和总体安全预算的文章（为 Dan Held 带来的全面报道打 call）。
一句话总结 —— 比特币的价格和比特币的基础发行计划极大地影响了挖矿本身的盈利情况。
My Key Takeaways
After diving deep into the cryptocurrency mining space here are my biggest takeaways:
- While often overlooked the mining industry & underlying hardware plays a very important role in blockchain networks.
- Hashrate = cryptocurrency = money. For many people hashrate is the key on-ramp into the crypto world.
- Just like we see the financialization of Bitcoin, I predict we will see a similar financialization of hashrate.
If you are an entrepreneur working in this space building marketplaces, exchanges, financial products, or any related services within the mining industry I’d love to chat with you. My contact info is listed on our fund website: Proof of Capital.
A big thank you to Edith Yeung. Noah Jessop, Jane Wu, and a few other large miners who prefer to stay anonymous for providing feedback on this writeup.
我的主要收获
在对密码学货币的挖矿领域进行深入研究之后，以下是我最大的收获：
- 我们往往忽视了挖矿行业和基础硬件在区块链网络中扮演的重要角色。
- 算力 = 密码学货币 = 金钱。对于许多人来说，算力是进入加密世界的关键。
- 正如我们看到比特币的金融化一样，我预测我们将看到算力也会类似地金融化。
如果你是在这个领域内开办算力市场，交易所，提供金融产品，或任何与挖矿行业有关服务的企业家，我很乐意和你交流。可以在我们基金的网站上找到我的联系信息：Proof of Capital。非常感谢 Edith Yeung，Noah Jessop，Jane Wu，以及其他几位愿意匿名为这篇报道提供反馈的大矿工们。（完）
原文链接: https://www.chrismccann.com/blog/crypto-mining-101-overview-and-landscape-of-the-mining-industry
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