Article | Wu Junyu
Editor | Xie Lirong
Huaqiangbei, once considered the center of China's cottage industry, is in the midst of a different kind of madness: mining-the act of extracting virtual tokens such as bitcoin and ethereum by means of arithmetic power to mine virtual tokens such as bitcoin and ethereum.
"Serving every miner is the first day of the company's first article, and creating higher earnings is the meaning of our existence." Huaqiang North Saige electronics market prominently hung a "professional miner service provider" banner.
The ability to smell and grasp business opportunities, Huaqiang North may be the leading offline electronic trading market in China. Over the past decade, even if the volume of sound is getting smaller and smaller, Huaqiang North also accurately grasp the consumer electronics, servers, and even the net red cosmetics wind.
Now, coin mining services are a favorite here. This windfall first appeared in 2017. That year, the price of virtual tokens skyrocketed in China. In the hands of a large number of high-computing power in the hands of the game graphics card Huaqiang North computer merchants to use the hands of the resources to transform the "mining industry".
The so-called mine, in fact, is a packet of data, these packets need to be decrypted. Earlier, this decryption was done by the CPU (Central Processing Unit), but later it was realized that the GPU (Graphics Processor) on the graphics card was more appropriate for mining.
Why? The most important thing about mining is that the hardware has a lot of power, but simple arithmetic. CPUs are characterized by being able to handle complex arithmetic, but not as much power as GPUs, which are the opposite of that.
An example was given. When it comes to mining, the CPU is a PhD student and the graphics card stream processing is a high school student. High school students can do the job, and there are far more high school students than PhD students.
"Miners" what they need, Huaqiang North will provide what. Miners need "high school students" to mine for them to make money, Huaqiang North "service every miner".
The graphics card market is relatively stable, and if the virtual currency market had stayed hot, it would have been a good business. But today, things are changing.
Six months ago, the global shortage of core wave came. AMD, Intel, Nvidia three upstream graphics chip manufacturers supply shortage. The lack of core wave also spread to the graphics card market, ASUS, seven rainbow, MSI, Shadowrun and other domestic downstream graphics card manufacturers production followed the decline.
At precisely the same time, a new bull market for virtual tokens is emerging, and the demand for graphics cards from "miners" is skyrocketing. In order to solve this problem, a large number of graphics cards that should be used for gaming equipment have been transferred to the "mining" market. "This is the first time I've ever seen a graphics card that was used in a game, and I've never seen one before.
In order to get more potential "miners" into the game, the big merchants in Huaqiang North, in addition to packaging "one-stop service", drawing a bigger pie, and even tapped into another business opportunity - hard disk mining, a new story.
Here, deception, speculation for more than a decade has never changed, just changed the form. For those "miners" who have an obsessive belief in off-the-beaten-path gains, this may not be a scam, but more of an opportunity that others don't see.
They believe that as long as they always "believe", they may be the lucky ones.
The entrance to Huaqiang North is Saige Electronics Market, Huaqiang Electronics World. The two electronic stores gathered computer, communications, networking, security, audio-visual, electronic components sellers.
The third, fourth and fifth floors were originally dominated by computer merchants, with sales, repairs, assembly and accessories as their main business. After the price of virtual tokens skyrocketed in 2017, a lot of sharp-sniffing merchants turned into "mining service companies", selling graphics cards, hard disks, mining machines, and even providing mining machine hosting, operation and maintenance of the "one-stop" service.
Out of the Saige electronics market, you can enter the 72-story Saige Plaza office building. Here is part of the electronic store stall sellers hidden "office area". Office door hangs "XX Mining", "XX Technology" door plate, some of its downstairs stalls have further intention of buyers, will be brought here by the store business "in-depth negotiations".
These are the first time I've ever seen a company like this.
"Real-time quotes, hourly prices are different, but also ask the channel inventory."
"More than 10 pieces of no stock, to buy a deposit, 2-3 days after delivery."
In Huaqiang North, this is very common, selling everything, basically this logic.
However, graphics card prices such a big rise, so that some just want to do computer peripheral business small businessmen suffering, "not a few gamers are willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars to buy a graphics card."
Then Huaqiang North graphics cards seem to be sold only to "miners". But "mining" is risky, and speculative buyers are more likely to ask for quotes than buy when they smell danger. The pressure is almost always transferred to the small and medium-sized sellers in Huaqiang North - hoarding graphics cards lack of funds, the risk is also great; not hoarding, the business came to catch. They have been caught in a dilemma.
Offline small and medium-sized sellers without goods, online e-commerce channels are also without goods. The online channels such as Jingdong, Taobao, Tmall and other brands of RTX3070 series graphics cards can only be purchased 1 piece, or directly prompted out of stock. Asus Jingdong store price tag 13,000 yuan, but the actual unavailability.
Goods concentrated in the hands of channels and big sellers. However, the big sellers are not satisfied with just selling graphics cards, they want to do a one-stop service.
There are also sales that say there are tens of millions of dollars worth of stock in the warehouse. If you don't have enough inventory, you can get it through channels by paying a 50% deposit.
The graphics cards that flow into the "mining" market become "residual cards" and then flow back to Huaqiang North. Often, these cards can be used for gaming, but their lifespan is much shorter.
Some small sellers will take the initiative to tell buyers the real situation, but do not rule out the case of "residual card" packaged as "new card" sales.
The "graphics card mining" trend took shape after 2017.
Prior to 2017, some Bitcoiners used their graphics cards to "mine" while holding and trading tokens, with the goal of recognizing their personal identity and expressing their "Bitcoin beliefs".
Players usually mine their games on the fly, without thinking about the benefits. In fact, this kind of "mining" is usually a "lose-lose" proposition. Because a single graphics card is usually not running at full speed, limited computing power "mining" is inefficient, and the cost of personal electricity "mining" is too high.
After 2017, a large number of domestic issuance of digital tokens (ICO) illegal financing phenomenon, bitcoin, ethereum prices, grassroots players began to participate in coin speculation, mining. Graphics card mining ethereum, was explored into a complete speculative industry.
On September 4 of the same year, the People's Bank of China and other seven ministries issued the "Announcement on Preventing the Risks of Token Issuance and Financing", the virtual token market briefly jumped into the underground state, and a large number of grass-roots players are still involved in speculation through the "over-the-counter" mode to avoid regulation. The company's main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers.
In the past, the first choice for "mining" was originally a miner. However, the price of a single mining machine is high and the use of a single. The original price of 1-2 million yuan of mainstream mining machine has been speculated to 50,000 yuan a piece. Mainstream miners are used to mine bitcoins. However, the bitcoin long-term high price hovering, "mining" low efficiency, arbitrage space is not enough, there is a greater risk of loss. The first thing you need to do is to get your hands on some of the most popular and popular products in the world, and then you can get your hands on some of the most popular ones.
Bitcoin miners, for small players, have a high threshold and high cost. High-end gaming graphics cards, which also have high computing power, are gradually becoming an alternative to mining machines.
Compared to miners, graphics cards are common, cheap, flexible, and have a low threshold. Take the NVIDIA RTX3060/3070 for example, in 2020 its respectively 2500 yuan, 4000 yuan a piece. Graphics card miner consists of a computer mainframe plus 4-8 pieces of graphics cards, simple to assemble and disassemble, and can be used in a variety of scenarios.
Graphics card miners can be used to mine mainstream coins like ethereum, as well as cottage coins like dogcoin. The former price is stable and frequently traded, and the latter has a large arbitrage space. Some graphics card sellers have even gone so far as to call out the slogan "graphics card mining, no loss".
The ability of graphics cards to resist risk is also an important factor. The first thing you need to do is to get your hands on a graphics card that you can sell to a gamer.
A purchaser claiming to need 200 graphics cards said that in some universities or research institutes, high-performance graphics cards can be reimbursed for purchases due to their support for big data computing, as well as their scientific research and mining functions, which makes it easy for them to get through the compliance check.
A cryptocurrency technology person recalled, "It started to change flavor, and the graphics card market has been in disarray ever since."
"Graphics card mining" began to spread from players' personal behavior. Huaqiang North computer sellers smelled the flavor of speculation.
These sellers "close to the water tower first get the moon", there are graphics cards, hard disk, host, will be assembled, but also to get the inventory of the upstream channel. In the coin market, mining tide driven, do "mining" has become a natural choice.
"Repair, assembly, sales of a computer, the profit is only 100-200 yuan. Sell a graphics card profit of 100-200 yuan, big buyers sometimes purchase hundreds or even thousands of graphics cards a day."
Huaqiang Electronics World, a "mining" company Cai surnamed person in charge, said the traditional computer business has long been unprofitable, almost all computer sellers in the sale of graphics cards and mining machines.
The company's stall less than 5 square meters, but in the Sage Plaza office building 54 floor office space, the company more than 20 people, channels, sales, warehouses are responsible for.
Seger Electronics Market, another "mining" is a husband and wife store, more than a decade ago in Huaqiang North roots, is the earliest computer wholesalers.
In 2017, the company had a large number of graphics cards, mining machines. September regulatory policy, graphics cards, mining machine prices plummeted, the company lost serious money. The founder of the company will be graphics cards, mining machines into the "mining plant", and ultimately recovered losses.
"Later, the market warmed up, coin speculation to earn money, selling first-hand miners to earn money, selling second-hand miners to earn money, mining also earn money. The boss tasted the sweetness completely decided to do this." The person in charge of the store said that the company later transformed "mining", in addition to the sale of mining machines, graphics cards, but also to provide mining machine hosting, operation and maintenance services, said "to provide a total solution".
After September 2020, the "cryptocurrency market" ushered in a new round of bull market, the computer business "transformation" process accelerated. The original computer main business has become a side business, sellers have changed the name of the "mining". There are scruples of the seller half-half cover, the left sign shows the computer assembly, the right sign shows the sale of mining machine.
Graphics card "mining" is not suitable for home operation. Because of the high noise and power consumption, 2 graphics cards running at full speed at the same time, the noise is up to 100 decibels. When the seller helped the buyer test the graphics card, a dramatic scene appeared: the graphics card caught fire.
In fact, a 200-day payback is ideal. "The mining cycle is generally three years, mining plants are difficult to find, there may also be the phenomenon of stealing computing power. Currently, the mainstream practice of mining plants is to take away the miner after 3 years. This practice is the "king's clause", but in the cryptocurrency circle has become an unspoken rule.
He reminds us that we can't see the miners from the beginning to the end, and that there can be problems at any step of the way, even from the purchasing and transportation process, and that there are too many holes.
Mining machine hosting also has prerequisites, according to the head of its stores, "procurement of more than 100 pieces of graphics cards to host". To the day the store seven rainbow RTX3070 9700 yuan a piece, host 1600 yuan a quote calculation, this investment will reach a million dollars.
While the buyer promises "no loss", the reality is that the loss is still lost.
The clerk said that in 2020 he speculated on the coin earnings of more than 100,000 yuan, these days speculation "Shiba Inu coin" and tens of thousands of dollars, and said he regretted to sell too early, because "today and up ten times."
Another shopkeeper unfortunately lost money. Because of the high price of purchasing graphics cards, "mining" earnings can not cover the cost. "If you don't sell it, you won't lose money, and it's bound to go back up, so you'll still be able to make a profit."
When further questioned about the state's policy on "mining" regulation, the person in charge of the above store promised to be legal, formal, and nobody's business, and even said that in the new legal provisions, "mining" is recognized.
The fact that the opposite is true, in February this year, Inner Mongolia released "on ensuring the completion of the "14th Five-Year" energy consumption dual-control target task a number of safeguards (draft)", mentioned to speed up the elimination of backward excess capacity, which includes "iron and steel, titanium alloy, calcium carbide, coke, graphite electrode, thermal power and virtual currency mining". The company's main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers," he said.
In order to sell as many graphics cards and mining services as possible, the seller has spared no effort to draw an unrealistic picture for some of the less specialized customers who are eager to get rich. And the pie is expanding to attract more people.
The speculators in Huaqiang North have created a lower threshold "on the car" way to use the hard disk to dig a cottage coin called "Chia Coin".
In January 2020, the price of a single Ether was less than $1,000, and the price of a single RTX3060 graphics card was less than $2,000. In May 2021, the price of a single Ether was $27,000, and the price of an RTX3060 graphics card tripled, and it was considered by the miners to be the most cost-effective RTX3060 graphics card. The RTX3070, which is considered by miners to be the most cost-effective, has already reached $10,000 in price.
Graphics card mining has become a game for big players, and the space for small and medium-sized players is narrowing. In April of this year, NVIDIA announced that it would eliminate the possibility of graphics card "mining" from the hardware level. In the policy, technology, and cost factors, the graphics card "mining" threshold is becoming higher, and the risk is getting bigger.
In this case, the combination of "Chia coin - hard disk" in the Huaqiang North debut. A number of stores directly hanging out the "Chia" door plate, in the field to train bystanders "open field mining".
If "graphics card - Ether" is "mining machine - Bitcoin" alternative, then, "hard disk - Chia coin" is the "Graphics card - Ether".
Hard disk mining is quieter and uses less power than graphics card mining. Once the computer is running, the mining program uses the idle space on the hard drive to repeatedly erase data and generate virtual tokens.
This type of store usually claims to be "specializing in Chia computing services". New words like "cloud computing power" have replaced old words like "graphics card" as their marketing tool. Some sellers even promised to help buyers use the Ali cloud, Huawei cloud, Tencent cloud computing power access to the mining pool for "mining".
Because of user privacy protection, cloud vendors in some cases can not check the "mining" behavior. However, cloud vendors are trying to use technology to block the mining phenomenon, and once the mining process is detected, they will directly warn and stop the service.
As with graphics cards, the story of hard drive prices skyrocketing and sellers running out of stock is back. The Western Digital HC320 6T hard drive, for example, was priced at just $1,000 in 2020, and this year prices are already above $2,000.
The office building is still brightly lit, large and small "mining" companies still continue to operate here, and some of the offices even gathered more than ten people stopped.
In the virtual token market, the "*** knowledge mechanism" is seen as an important driving force behind the rising prices. The company's main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers, and the company's goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers, and the company's goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers, and the company's goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers. You don't believe, how can it go up?"
"The price of the coin is going up so well, the industry is booming, everyone is happy. What do you care about so much? It's a worldwide, revolutionary change."