Node mining is a sector where you can quickly see returns in the community. As long as users act early and can manage multiple accounts, they can earn money. This has been verified in the working years. Today, let's see if there are any new and long-term node mining opportunities.
Content summary:
This article introduces three deployment methods for Flock.io validation nodes, from easy to difficult, including:
Deploy on the one-click deployment platform Akash (paid platform, can open multiple; includes video tutorials)
Use VPS for deployment (can open multiple, includes video tutorials and code explanations)
Use PC for deployment (includes video tutorials and error resolution solutions)
Everyone can choose according to their conditions. Deploying nodes is very simple; following the tutorial will not be difficult at all.
I. Part One: Can node mining make money?
(1) Two popular node mining options in 2024
In the first half of the year, many people deployed nodes on the io.net AI project and earned a lot (as shown below). Due to too many miners, various issues arose with IO, ultimately resulting in a ban on mining from Mac devices.
After io.net, a wave of mining broke out in the community. No one was really playing this in 2022-2023, so when ore mining came out, everyone went crazy. Originally thought it could be mined for a month, but the ore pool collapsed in just 3 days.
From this year's io.net and ore mining projects, it can be summarized that if the access threshold of a project is not set well, domestic users will flock to it, resulting in outcomes like ore's three days of popularity or io.net's incessant modification of allocation mechanisms, ultimately banning Mac users from participating in mining.
So during this period in July, I have been looking for new mining projects. I have high standards for mining projects, and I generally won't share those that seem to ride a wave.
(II) Why do I want to mine Flock.io
(1) From a profit perspective, why do I want to mine Flock.io
Recently, I find the Flock.io AI project quite good, and I think I can mine for a while for the following reasons:
Flock.io is currently in the testing phase, earning zero (once the mainnet is online, if the project does not sell nodes, it will basically be zero);
The project sets a very high threshold for users. Only active GitHub accounts can apply for the whitelist, while studios and batch users are generally deterred.
Flock.io has a strong background and potential that exceeds io.net. Almost all investors in Flock.io's seed round are well-known Western VCs, such as Lightspeed and DCG. Lightspeed is a top VC in web2 that invests in AI and has led many significant deals, such as Musk's xAI; DCG is a top web3 capital, and its subsidiary manages Grayscale, the leading BTC mining company in the West. Although everyone complains about VCs now, the endorsement of top-tier VCs can likely eliminate some purely profit-driven projects.
The Flock team comes from Oxford University and has several related papers published in top journals.
The only AI infrastructure project funded by the Ethereum Foundation.
The above four points, the last two are nonsense to me. Earning airdrops just depends on how many people are competing with us. Flock will scrape GitHub activity to automatically deter a large wave of people, so there are currently less than 800 Flock nodes.
It should be noted that this team is favored by VCs. Based on past experience, there is a high probability that airdrops for such projects may have a lock-up period, and there may be a possibility of linear unlocking in the end. SUI had a 12-month linear unlocking, with only a portion released each month.
(2) From a technical standpoint, why do I want to mine Flock.io
Flock.io is not a shady project. Recently, FLock and io.net developed the world's first AI proof (PoAI) consensus mechanism for validating node integrity in decentralized computing networks. Through an engine that continuously provides challenges and aggregates responses, it provides necessary statistical data (such as latency, score deviation, data correctness) for io.net nodes to compile judgments.
PoAI is a native AI proof-of-work mechanism (POW) mainly used for validating resources and guiding meaningful AI tasks. In other words, PoAI is a mining mechanism that can earn block rewards from DePIN and AI training networks, just like IO.net and FLock.io.
Besides IO.net, FLock is also collaborating in the AI computing power field. Currently, it has reached agreements with Akash, where users can use Akash to become FLock validators/trainers (tutorials are provided below).
Recently, FLock is also collaborating with the open-access AI cloud platform Hyperbolic. By using Hyperbolic, inference and computing services can be provided at a very low cost.
The AI After Hours event co-hosted by FLock and Hyperbolic will be held on Tuesday, September 3: https://x.com/0x7SUN/status/1826270114209264059
(III) Can Flock.io make money?
(1) Daily output amount
Currently, Flock generates a total of 1074 FML daily, with 50% allocated to validators and 50% to trainers. Based on the project's current financing situation, coupled with the valuation of existing AI projects, I believe I can focus solely on validator nodes, earning 0.01% daily is enough (after 173 names, it’s all zero, which might be new accounts or those using VPS).
(2) How much can I earn
Based on past AI projects, the TGE airdrop ratio is typically between 2%-5%. The expected FLock TGE airdrop may be around 3%;
If FLock's TGE FDV reaches 500 million, assuming you receive 0.1% of the airdrop, the expected income could reach 15,000 USD, which is very worthwhile.
II. Part Two: What do I need to prepare for mining FLock?
(I) Basic preparation
1. Claim testnet tokens
Regarding claiming water, many bloggers like to throw https://www.alchemy.com/faucets/ethereum-sepolia. Alchemy is not easily accessible for ordinary users, so throwing Alchemy is irresponsible behavior towards fans.
Generally, I use these faucets:
Faucet recommendation I: https://www.infura.io/faucet/sepolia (after registration, you can claim 0.5 ETH and then use the cross-chain tool below to transfer to Base-sepolia)
Base-sepolia cross-chain tool: https://superbridge.app/base-sepolia
Faucet recommendation II: https://www.ethereum-ecosystem.com/faucets
Mining can be fast; you can directly mine Base-sepolia (as shown below). However, this tool requires ENS, which is a domain name on ETH that can be minted at the ENS official site: https://app.ens.domains/
Other faucets:
CryptoDog compilation of airdrop article 237: New faucet collection (updated July 26)
Now many faucets are basically dried up, so today we are updating the faucet collection.
medium.com
2. Claim FML test coins (no whitelist needed)
Before September, applying for the whitelist was required for FLock. Now its AI Arena platform has launched a public beta: no whitelist is needed, anyone can claim.
Previously, to claim FML test coins, you needed to fill out a form to apply for a whitelist, and then claim 1 coin daily in the 'Faucet section' on the official website (as shown below). This interface is no longer available.
New users need to directly verify GitHub and then claim FML on the official website;
Official website: https://train.flock.io/stake
Official Discord: https://discord.com/channels/977200106531082240/1254731167543070831
3. Other preparations
GitHub accounts that are over a year old, newly registered GitHub accounts cannot participate.
(II) Necessary preparations - missing one cannot participate
FLock airdrop 50% allocated to validators and 50% to trainers. Trainer nodes, apart from having higher GPU requirements, will also consider ranking, and deployment is relatively complicated. If using official code, not much token can be earned, so this article mainly focuses on the deployment tutorial for validator nodes.
The steps are as follows:
Step 1: Stake FML on train.flock.io
Related link: https://train.flock.io/stake
Choose a node, it is recommended to prioritize '10', as there are additional rewards (totaling 600 USDT, as shown below)
Note down: ID
https://train.flock.io/tasks
Step 2: Obtain Flock API
Click on the wallet address on the flock webpage
Click API
Retrieve your API key (needed when deploying nodes)
Step 3: Retrieve Hugging Face token
Enter Hugging Face: https://huggingface.co/settings/tokens
Click Access Tokens
Click Create new token
Name in the Token name field
Click Create token
Retrieve API and save it.
III. Part Three: Three methods for deploying nodes
The following tutorial goes from easy to difficult, from simple to complex. Except for Method 1, which is one-click deployment through the platform, the other two methods require a certain level of hands-on ability.
In the following three methods, errors may occur. It's okay to have errors; I have provided solutions in the video tutorial. With the combination of text and video tutorials, even beginners will not feel any difficulty.
Important reminder: Regardless of which of the three methods you use for deployment, it is recommended to select GPU mining, as CPU mining yields very little airdrop.
Method 1: Deploy on the Akash platform (if errors occur, please see the video tutorial)
If you feel you lack the ability to do it yourself and cannot deploy mining nodes on VPS, and you think deploying nodes on a computer will use your computer resources, you can use the online platform Akash for deployment.
Prepares Keplr wallet and $ATOM (as gas) and $AKT tokens.
Deploying an account on Akash requires a cost of 4 AKT (including fees, about 10 USD), as follows:
Go to https://console.akash.network/deployments and link your wallet
Select Deployments and click Deploy
Click See all categories
Enter flock.io in the search bar
Select Flock Validator (deploy validation node)
Click Deploy
In the picture below, fill in your own information in order:
1: Flock API
2: Flock ID
3: Hugging Face API
Then click Create Deployment to let it deploy automatically (if there are errors, please refer to the video tutorial below)
Important reminder: When deploying, it is recommended to choose GPU mining, as CPU mining yields very little airdrop.
Using the one-click deployment platform Akash, deploying Flock nodes, babysitter-level video tutorial:
Method 2: Deploy on PC (if errors occur, please see the video tutorial)
Home computer: 4-core CPU + 16G RAM + 80G SSD
Home computer, even without GPU, can participate in mining using CPU.
Important reminder: When deploying, it is recommended to choose GPU mining, as CPU mining yields very little airdrop.
If using a PC, required software for deploying nodes:
Windows: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9pdxgncfsczv?rtc=1&hl=en-gb&gl=GB
Mac: https://www.anaconda.com/download/success
In addition to the software mentioned above for node deployment, there are many others like Visual Studio. Each can be used according to personal preference.
Specific steps for deploying Flock nodes on a computer
Open the downloaded Ubuntu or Anaconda
Enter sudo -i, press Enter
Enter password to enable root privileges
Enter the following code (official code; if errors occur, please see the video tutorial)
git clone https://github.com/FLock-io/llm-loss-validator.git
If the terminal is unresponsive, you can use the following code:
Domestic users:
wget -O flock.sh https://git.dadunode.com/smeb_y/Flock/raw/branch/main/Flock.sh && chmod +x flock.sh && ./flock.sh
Global users:
wget -O flock.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/a3165458/Flock/main/Flock.sh && chmod +x flock.sh && ./flock.sh
If there are no errors (if there are errors, please refer to the video tutorial below for solutions)
Deployment can be completed in about 10 minutes.
Then the following interface will pop up:
Input Hugging Face API
Input Flock API
Input task ID
Started successfully
Using PC to deploy Flock nodes, babysitter-level video tutorial:
Method 3: Use VPS to deploy Flock nodes
If you feel the above occupies computer resources, you can use VPS mining. For example, many people like to use搬瓦工 (搬瓦工) to mine, which requires 20 USD/month for a 4-core plan.
The general configuration choice for running nodes:
16G RAM
4-core CPU
140G SSD
Public IP
Ubuntu 22.04
Important reminder: It is recommended to choose virtual machines with GPU, as CPU mining yields very little airdrop.
(I) How to connect to VPS
MacOS: If you are using this operating system, you only need to connect with SSH using your device;
Windows: If you're on Windows, there are many tools available, such as Putty, MobaXterm, Xshell
1. Download an application (this tutorial uses Putty as an example; novice users are recommended to use Xshell or Finalshell)
2. Copy the cloud server IP link
3. Click 'Accept', enter the username and password of the cloud server
Note: To paste any command you have copied, just right-click to paste the command.
4. Enter the password again and set a new password.
This is the procedure for combining cloud servers and SSH; all subsequent steps will be performed in the SSH tool (novice users are advised to use Xshell or Finalshell)
(II) Install basic components
Make sure to read everything before deploying; there are many explanations, and some steps are repetitive and can be omitted.
Step 1: Update VPS
First, become root, enter sudo -i, press Enter, enter password to enable root privileges.
(1) Update packages:
sudo apt-get install curl
(2) Continue using the following commands:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
If it doesn't work, use this (choose one of the two):
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y
Step 2: Use the following commands to install the required libraries
sudo apt install pkg-config curl git build-essential libssl-dev -y
Step 3: Install Screen
apt install screen -y
If it doesn't work, use this (choose one of the two commands):
apt-get install screen -y
Step 4: Install PM2
If you find it troublesome, you can skip the above three steps, but it is recommended to install PM2. After installing PM2, you can run programs in the background and easily manage multiple processes.
(1) Download and execute the NodeSource installation script
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_lts.x | sudo -E bash -
If it doesn’t work, please use the following command:
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo -E bash -
This script will add the NodeSource signing key to your system, create an apt repository file, install all necessary packages, and refresh the apt cache.
If you need another version of Node.js, such as 16.x, just change setup_18.x to setup_16.x.
(2) Once the NodeSource repository is enabled, install Node.js and npm
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
If it doesn't work, use this:
$ sudo apt install nodejs
The nodejs package includes node and npm binaries. You can also use this line of command to perform the above two steps:
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_lts.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
(3) Verify the aforementioned installations:
node -v
npm -v
Or directly use the command below to verify:
node --version
npm --version
For reference, you can skip this step: To compile native add-ons from npm, you need to install development tools:
sudo apt install build-essential
(4) Install PM2
sudo npm install pm2 -g
The following text is for reference:
The main functions of PM2 include:
Process management: It can start, stop, and restart Node.js applications and manage multiple processes.
Load balancing: It can automatically distribute the load among multiple CPU cores.
Log management: Provides logging functionality for easy debugging and monitoring of applications.
Cluster mode: Allows running multiple instances on multi-core CPUs to improve performance.
Hot restart: When the code is updated, PM2 can automatically restart the application without losing connections.
After installing PM2, you can use the following commands to manage your Node.js applications:
pm2 start app.js - Start a Node.js script.
pm2 stop all - Stop all processes managed by PM2.
pm2 restart all - Restart all processes managed by PM2.
pm2 list - List all processes managed by PM2.
If you encounter issues when executing this command, such as insufficient permissions or package not found, you can try the following steps:
Make sure you have installed Node.js and npm. If not, you can install them via sudo apt-get install nodejs npm (on Debian/Ubuntu systems).
If you encounter permission issues, you can try running commands without sudo, or check your user permissions.
If packages are not found, it may be due to network issues or npm repository problems. You can check your network connection or try installing later.
(5) Verify PM2 installation
pm2 -v
Or
pm2 --version
(III) Deploy validator nodes
Pre-install Git tools
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git
Verify whether Git installation is successful. Enter the following command to check the Git version.
git -v
(1) Use the official cloned validator repository (if it doesn’t work, please see the video tutorial)
git clone https://github.com/FLock-io/llm-loss-validator.git
If the official validator repository cannot be pulled, you can use the library cloned by Big Gambler:
Overseas users
wget -O flock.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/a3165458/Flock/main/Flock.sh && chmod +x flock.sh && ./flock.sh
Domestic users
wget -O flock.sh https://git.dadunode.com/smeb_y/Flock/raw/branch/main/Flock.sh && chmod +x flock.sh && ./flock.sh
After using the above code, the following interface will pop up:
If using overseas nodes, please continue to follow the steps:
Input Hugging Face API
Input Flock API
Input task ID
Deployment completed:
The above is the process of pulling and deploying using commands for overseas users.
(2) View all processes managed by PM2
pm2 list
It will display 'llm-loss-validator' (this is the running username, please double-check when entering the stop command).
The following commands are not necessary to use, provided for reference:
Stop process (for reference)
pm2 stop llm-loss-validator
Restart process (for reference)
pm2 restart llm-validator
Check the logs
pm2 logs llm-validator
(9) Set pm2 to start automatically on boot
pm2 startup
pm2 save
That's how to deploy a node using VPS.
Using VPS to deploy Flock nodes, babysitter-level video tutorial:
Query node information
Enter your ETH address on the official website to query, updated daily at 1 AM.
https://train.flock.io/dashboard
Official documentation: https://docs.flock.io/flock-products/ai-arena/quickstart/validator-guide
Other activities
If you find the above particularly difficult, there is another relatively simple task you can participate in - the Wukong GPT event.
This task is relatively simple; just contribute knowledge or chat with GPT.
🔸Activity Name: Wukong GPT on FLock.io
🔸Activity Location: FLock.io
🔸Activity time: To be determined
🔸Activity link:
https://beta.flock.io/points/wukong?ref=4Q8SH5
🔸Prize pool: 20 game activation codes for (Black Myth: Wukong) (worth $59.99) or equivalent USDT.
Summary
Flock is an AI project. Due to its high access threshold and strong background, I believe it is necessary to mine nodes, as this is a free project that can earn money with diligence.