Recently, the “World Blockchain Conference” was held in Wuhan. Li Bai, the technical leader of the pomegranate mining pool, delivered a speech titled “How Blockchain Can Stand on the Verge of New Infrastructure”.
He said that new infrastructure in a broad sense includes 5G, big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain and other fields, including blockchain. Many technologies were not applied to the widely used application scenarios today. The widely used scenarios are not what was expected at the beginning of the design.
Regarding the content of blockchain infrastructure, Li Bai mentioned that the bottom layer is the construction of chips, graphics cards, and hardware, followed by the construction of computer rooms and networks, and finally the construction of software and talents. In general, the current early era of blockchain is the timing for the preparation of the entire blockchain infrastructure. If there is good preparation, there will be great gains in the era of blockchain explosion. Blockchain infrastructure is a good opportunity for overtaking in corners.
Core viewpoint:
1. New infrastructure in a broad sense includes 5G, big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain and other fields.
2. The new infrastructure of the blockchain includes the construction of the lowest level hardware, network, software and talents.
3. Under the premise that today’s encryption economic system has been perfected, investing in blockchain and investing in infrastructure systems is very meaningful and strategically insightful.
4. In terms of blockchain infrastructure, the blockchain is very early, and this is the best time for everyone to prepare.
5. Blockchain infrastructure is a good opportunity for overtaking in corners.
The following is the full text of Li Bai’s speech:
New infrastructure is a topic advocated by the state this year. If you enter these three words into Baidu and search, you can see that the new infrastructure includes 5G, big data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain. Such an expression is not exhaustive enough. In my view, the so-called new infrastructure is a kind of invisible house. In the past, our traditional infrastructure built tangible houses, covering the problems of housing, food, housing, transportation, housing, roads, and bridges. What does the invisible house mean today? Traditionally, we say seven things to open the door, firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, but I think in this era, in addition to these seven important things, there is another important thing is the Internet, I believe that everyone in this room has no Internet every day Can’t survive, the eighth thing is to surf the Internet. Even when it comes to the Internet, the first 7 things can be ignored, because I can order takeaways online, I can order fresh boxes of horses, and he can deliver them. I can not only have tea, but also milk tea and coffee. So in today’s era, Internet access is the fifth most important thing after necessities, food, housing and transportation. In such an era, the infrastructure of the network appears to be of epochal and even strategic significance. If everyone is willing to invest, investing in the infrastructure of the network is a very promising thing. This is what we call new infrastructure in today’s sense.
The internal connection between new infrastructure and the blockchain field
What is the relationship between the new infrastructure and the blockchain and encryption system? I can give an example, because our team has been expanding very rapidly recently. We recruited young technicians in this area, all of whom came from prestigious schools, just graduated, that kind of energetic engineering man. The first thing they came was to ask me, he said, what is the point of doing digital currency mining? I will explain to him. I said that there is a product now. You are responsible for the production of the product. Your effort is to improve the efficiency of production. You need to design production tools. After production, this product is sold all over the world. It has a world-class market. This market is very large. People all over the world have demand for these products, and its users are all over the world. These commodities bring up the surrounding industrial chain, including electricity, energy, including hardware, CPU, GPU, such a commodity can be traded all over the world, it can be used as a means of payment, and has a very large market value, even close to The market value of Apple. Then it has futures. Like garlic and sugar, it has futures, and it also has futures. Do you think such a product is valuable? It is very valuable. No matter what the product is, it has a complete industrial chain, and it is valuable. When the new employee listened, he was relieved. So what I want to say is that under the premise that an encrypted economic system has been perfected today, it is very meaningful and strategic to invest in the blockchain and infrastructure system.
To continue, I just said that this product can reflect its value from the side. Is it valuable? When everyone talks about the blockchain, I go to the exchange to trade and to speculate the coins, which is full of a lot of hype and a lot of superficial things. But what I want to say is that many technologies were not applied to the scenes that are widely used today when they were born. Blockchain is the best example. The computer was invented to calculate the trajectory of ballistic missiles. Turing, which everyone is familiar with, was originally designed to crack the German code. So blockchain is the same. At the beginning of its birth, the most widely used application was something like cryptocurrency, but we believe it will have a broader prospect in the future.
From another perspective, the wider application scenarios of many technologies today are not what it originally envisaged. Let me give the simplest example, which is artificial intelligence. What do you think is the most common field in which artificial intelligence is used today? Some people will say driverless cars. As far as I know, the most widely used field of artificial intelligence is beauty, because I have many friends in Toutiao, Baidu, and various AI companies. I found that they are currently recruiting the world’s top AI experts to study beauty. Yan, go to study Kuaishou, study Tik Tok, post a cartoon image to someone, or have a face-lift or thin legs. So now the top artificial intelligence experts, they really put their own technology into the deep network. They just started to use Alpha Dog to play chess, but at most they turned into AI to change faces. Therefore, the scenes that many technologies are ultimately widely used are not what was expected at the beginning of the design. Looking at the blockchain from such a strategic point of view, although the blockchain is still full of speculation today, I believe that in the future, when it is actually applied, it will be too late if it is not fully equipped at this time. Investing in the infrastructure of the blockchain in today’s world may be an investment for the next 5 years or even 10 years.
Components of blockchain infrastructure
What parts do we call the infrastructure of the blockchain? If you say that you are very sure that blockchain technology can be widely used in the future, what can we do now?
The bottom layer is still hardware, including chips, including graphics cards. As you all know, in such a technical scenario, the underlying hardware of the blockchain and the hardware used by artificial intelligence are very similar, requiring a large number of graphics cards, and traditional CPUs can no longer support large-scale calculations. In the field of artificial intelligence, the calculation of neural networks, but in the field of blockchain, in addition to common hash calculations. Recently, more and more popular is the calculation of zero-knowledge proof. The zero-knowledge proof technology proves a large number of facts and generates a proof result on the blockchain. Recently, it has been increasingly used in the blockchain. The more extensive. With its widespread use of GPUs and even more professional FPGA chips, it is also widely used in blockchain. Recently, it has received more and more attention and attention in the mining field. This research and production will become a trend in the future.
After talking about the hardware, talk about the blockchain network, including the construction of the computer room. If you have participated in these mining, you may know that Bitcoin and Ethereum mining are close to electric facilities, and you can mine with cheap electricity. With the development of blockchain technology, computer rooms and networks will require specialization. For a network like Filecoin, we must not be powered off, otherwise it will be punished by the entire network. It can be seen that as the entire industry and the entire blockchain technology continue to develop, such requirements become more and more common. At this time you have a mature computer room and a mature network, which means that you can stand at the top of the next era. When the demand comes, you can truly meet the demand immediately and invest immediately. This is the second layer of infrastructure. .
The next step is software. In the field of blockchain and mining, it is also very important. Software determines your performance. Whether the same hardware and the same facilities can outperform other peers. The domestic team research is still relatively small, and there were more in 18 years. As the entire blockchain industry had a low period later, some software gradually lost. For example, our team is also relatively small in the industry. , Is still a team engaged in research and development in this area. According to our observations, the mining industry of blockchain in the future will have higher and higher requirements for software, especially operation and maintenance. It will change from the traditional stocking type, putting the machine there, and turning it into more detailed work. , Monitoring whether the network and your hardware facilities are operating normally and whether there is a failure, software and operation and maintenance work, including familiarity with the underlying principles, will become a vital factor.
Further up is our talent. It can be seen in China that the number of talents engaged in blockchain research may be far less than the talents of big data and artificial intelligence, but I think this is a trend, because every time I have a meeting, I will find more and more audiences listening to the audience. The more, even more than the two fields just mentioned, talents are very important.
To sum up, in terms of blockchain infrastructure, in this era, blockchain is very early. This is the time for everyone to prepare. It is time to prepare for the entire four-tier pyramid. At this time, there are not many people entering the entire industry. If everyone believes that the blockchain is the future, it will be very good at the present time. If the preparations are made, very good achievements will be made in the next 5 years.
Our team is on the upper level, software and talents, and our cooperation is related to the two levels below, so if everyone needs it later, we can talk more. Generally speaking, if you invest in such a blockchain-related infrastructure construction, it will not be a one-time investment in general. You can see that GPUs, graphics cards, and computer rooms have become part of the conventional new infrastructure. The universal ones are not only used in the field of blockchain, but also in fields such as privacy computing. They are common and will not waste your investment equipment because of the popularity of the blockchain. At present, with the development of blockchain technology more refined, there will be almost no such problem. This is our interpretation and definition of blockchain infrastructure.
Blockchain infrastructure is a good opportunity for overtaking in corners
What I want to say is that an infrastructure such as the blockchain is actually a good opportunity for overtaking in a curve. Why? We said that if you are chasing a person, you can never catch up if they run in front and you are chasing behind, such as mobile phone chips. I personally have a point of view. In China’s current situation, if you want to develop chips, it is better to start with blockchain mining. If you want to study a mobile phone chip or a computer chip, you will need to spend huge human and financial resources for 5 or 10 years. Catch up. In the blockchain research chip, one year is likely to be mass-produced and sold directly in batches. You will only study it when you have enough interest in the trend. Blockchain is an opportunity for overtaking in corners. How do we compare the development of domestic and foreign countries? It can be seen that in many areas of the blockchain in China, corner overtaking has been achieved. Everyone knows that Chinese exchanges are very comparable to foreign exchanges, and the number of users and some scales and technical levels have exceeded. In terms of production, there is a tie between domestic and foreign countries; in terms of nodes and mining, or in terms of chip sales and production, domestic and foreign countries are evenly divided. This area has ample opportunities, markets, and prospects.
As for design, software and technology, China is still relatively backward. At present, the technological innovation in blockchain comes from some foreign teams. There should be a lot of space in it, so our team focuses on this The reason for this work. Most of the time we are PK with foreign teams. We are not alone. Many times we will feel lonely. In the future, I think we should not be too lonely.
The last thing I want to say is that our blockchain infrastructure should be prepared for today and on the battlefield tomorrow. why would you said this? I read a Huawei news two days ago. It was said that President Ren had summoned the principals of nine major engineering colleges and universities in China. President Ren said that we should leave the matter of chips to us, and that you should not study the matter of chips. We, as universities, research the technology of the future and let us win the battlefield in the future. If I keep chasing and fighting the fire, I can only save the fire today, and there will be fire tomorrow, right? Therefore, investing in such an infrastructure as the blockchain is not the battlefield of today but the battlefield of tomorrow. In the next 5 years, as the current blockchain becomes more and more popular, it is a trend that cannot be turned back. Regardless of the price, scale, or number of people entering the industry, it will increase year by year. 18 and 19 are in the low period, but The overall trend is rising. What everyone can expect is that after five years, the scale of this industry will become even bigger for those engaged in this industry, so we are prepared today so that we can win on the battlefield tomorrow. So the whole of your investment, your plan is to prepare for the future battlefield. We can’t stay in the fire fighting forever. Only by preparing to meet the future, this is the relationship between blockchain and infrastructure.
