Cryptocurrency Miner Job Distribution Across Compute Modules
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The winner-takes-all compensation scheme in cryptocurrency mining creates an arms race for more efficient miners, leading to inefficiencies and risks, which mining pools attempt to mitigate by sharing processing power, but this approach can be improved for better resource utilization and efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A cryptocurrency miner architecture with a miner controller that manages compute boards, distributes jobs efficiently, and submits work to a pool server, using a master-slave protocol over SPI buses to optimize compute engine utilization and power management, enabling more frequent rewards for individual miners.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If miners use winner-takes-all compensation scheme, then individual miners can obtain large rewards, but this creates an arms race for more efficient miners leading to increased operational costs and inefficiencies
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the mining pool's computing power into multiple independent compute boards, each further divided into compute engines. This segmentation allows individual miners to contribute smaller amounts of computing power and receive proportional rewards more frequently, rather than waiting for rare large rewards from winning the entire block validation.
2Reliability
If miners join mining pools to share processing power, then risk is reduced, but resource utilization and efficiency can be improved further
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic job distribution where the miner controller continuously monitors and adjusts the allocation of validation jobs to different compute engines based on their current performance and status. This dynamic approach optimizes resource utilization by ensuring that computing power is always allocated to the most efficient engines, improving overall productivity while maintaining the risk mitigation benefits of pool mining.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where compute engines report their performance metrics to the miner controller, which then adjusts job distribution accordingly. This feedback loop enables continuous optimization of resource allocation, ensuring that the mining pool operates at maximum efficiency while maintaining stable risk mitigation through diversified participation.
3Productivity
If miners increase computing power to compete, then chance of winning block validation increases, but operational costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a miner controller as an intermediary that manages and coordinates multiple compute engines. This intermediary optimizes the use of computing resources by intelligently distributing validation jobs, reducing the need for individual miners to continuously increase their raw computing power. The controller acts as a mediator that maximizes the effectiveness of available computing power, thereby reducing operational costs while maintaining or improving block validation success rates.
Data Source
AI summary
Distribution of jobs among compute modules of a cryptocurrency miner is disclosed. A cryptocurrency miner may include a serial bus, compute modules, and a controller. The controller may receive a candidate block, generate jobs based on the candidate block, and distribute the jobs among the plurality of compute modules by issuing a job submit command to the compute modules via the serial bus. The job submit command may comprise block sets that at least partially define the plurality of jobs. The block sets may include a plurality of midstates that correspond to a plurality of message blocks.