Introduction: The 'exploitation dilemma' of the traditional computing power market
In the traditional computing power market, the relationship between miners and platforms has long been imbalanced. Centralized platforms like AWS, Google Cloud, etc., exert price pressure through economies of scale, reducing miners to 'computing power tenants' with little bargaining power. Earnings are highly volatile; Bitcoin halving and fluctuations in AI computing power demand lead to extremely unstable miner income. Resource wastage is equally severe; according to IDC statistics, the average resource utilization rate of global data centers is less than 40%, with idle computing power failing to be effectively monetized.
In this model, computing power providers are always in the most vulnerable part of the industry chain. The UBI (Universal Basic Income) mechanism introduced by Swan Chain is reconstructing the production relations that have persisted for decades through a token economic model, creating differentiated advantages in GPU computing power/DePIN projects.
For more information about UBI, please visit the official documentation: https://docs.swanchain.io/core-concepts/token/swan-universal-basic-income-ubi
1. UBI mechanism: From 'computing power slaves' to 'ecological shareholders'
1. Dynamic UBI formula: Algorithm-driven fair distribution
Swan Chain's UBI is not simply handing out money but achieves dynamic adjustments through precise algorithms:
Core UBI formula
y_UBI(x) = A · xᴮ · e^(-Cx) · (1 - u(x))
Parameter description
A = 20,000 (scale factor, controlling the total magnitude of UBI)
B = 0.31 (growth index, controlling early UBI growth rate)
C = 0.0017 (decay constant, controlling the long-term decay rate of UBI)
x = Operating days (calculated from day 1)
u(x) = Resource utilization rate (0-1, 0 means completely idle, 1 means fully loaded)
Where u(x) represents resource utilization rate, this formula ensures:
Cold start phase (u(x)<30%): UBI accounts for over 80% of total earnings, ensuring miners' basic income.
Growth phase (30%<u(x)<70%): UBI and paid task earnings have a linear substitution relationship.
Maturity phase (u(x) > 70%): UBI proportion drops below 20%, and market pricing dominates.
Example analysis: Taking the RTX 4090 device as an example, it currently receives a basic UBI income of about 3,700-4,400 SWAN per month (approximately $74-$88, calculated at $0.02/SWAN), ensuring a return on equipment investment even without any task allocation. In contrast, Akash's earnings approach zero at the same utilization rate.
Official earnings calculator: https://provider.swanchain.io/calculator
2. Computing power confirmation: The value anchoring of CU (computing unit)
Standardization of hardware capabilities: CU values quantify the contribution of different devices (e.g., RTX 4090 = 2.9 CU, A100 = 5.1 CU).
Staking inverse model: As the total network computing power CU_total grows, the staking requirements for individual devices decrease:
Staking amount calculation formula:
C = C_base * (1 + W_FCP/5) / (1 + CU_total/CU_0)
Where C_base = 3533
Dynamic adjustments of economic parameters:
UBI parameters (A, B, C) will be dynamically adjusted according to the stage of network development.
The total amount of computing units in the entire network (CU_total) will affect the staking requirements of individual CPs.
Practical evidence shows that early participants, 4090 miners (2.9 CU), needed to stake 10,245 SWAN, but during the later stages of network expansion, as CU_total increased to an expected 10 times, the staking requirement for the same equipment would drop to about 3,533 SWAN, reducing the entry barrier by approximately 65%, while retaining the advantages for early participants.
For more information about CU and staking, please visit the official documentation: https://docs.swanchain.io/core-concepts/token/computing-provider-collateral/collateral-requirement-and-earning-multiplier#about-collateral-requirement
2. Reconstruction of production relations: Three revolutions triggered by UBI
1. Revolution in power relations: From 'platform vassals' to 'protocol co-builders'
Traditional model:
Akash: Miners passively accept free bidding rules, lacking pricing power; in 2023, the hourly volatility of RTX 4090 reached 380% (source: Cloudmos data).
Aethir: Node operators need to pre-purchase expensive licenses (1.17 ETH), and there are no channels for governance participation, creating a 'node tax' style of exploitation.
io.net: Adopting a fixed-rate model, miner earnings are decoupled from network development, making it impossible to capture ecological value appreciation.
Swan Chain's UBI model:
Dynamic parameter adjustment rights: Miners can obtain governance voting rights by staking SWAN, allowing them to propose modifications to core parameters such as the UBI coefficient (A/B/C), CU calculation rules, etc.
Instant feedback mechanism: The UBI distribution ratio is automatically calibrated once according to resource utilization rate u(x), ensuring that earnings match the network status in real-time.
2. Revenue structure revolution: From 'gambling-style mining' to 'composite assets'
Income diversification:
Case study: A miner operating an RTX 4060 five months after Swan Chain's mainnet launch had earnings composition: UBI income accounted for 99% (12,146 SWAN), paid task income accounted for 1% (77 SWAN), totaling 12,223 SWAN (approximately $244, calculated at $0.02/SWAN).
In contrast, miners of equivalent scale on the Akash platform have a rental price of 0.05 USDT/hour; to achieve $244 in earnings, they would need to rent out for at least 4,880 hours (approximately 203 days, close to 7 months of continuous operation).
In fact, there are no takers for rental orders on Akash, and reaching equivalent income seems far off.
FCP cooperative network: FCP obtains a 20% earnings boost through the W_FCP=1.2 parameter. This means that under the same hardware configuration, FCP earns 20% more than ECP (Edge Computing Providers). This mechanism works in synergy with the f_k growth factor in the UBI distribution curve, ensuring that network resources are directed towards high-quality services.
Case study: A miner running 2080Ti as FCP completed 2,499 computing tasks and earned 7,242 SWAN; while the same configuration running 2080Ti as ECP completed 10,450 tasks but only earned 5,611 SWAN. This proves that although FCP undertakes more important tasks with a smaller volume, it achieves a higher overall return.
Earnings of miners running 2080Ti as FCP:
Earnings of miners running 2080Ti as ECP:
Cooperation support: CPs can also mortgage their nodes through Swan Chain's partner Parasail for lending, with the obtained funds usable for expanding new nodes or for broader applications such as DeFi.
3. Strategic advantages: The economic flywheel driven by UBI
Swan Chain's UBI mechanism constructs a self-reinforcing growth loop:
Cold start period: UBI attracts early miners, ensuring basic earnings even with a utilization rate as low as 20%.
Expansion phase: Increased diversity of miners, enhanced network capacity and risk resistance.
Maturity phase: High-end computing power attracts AI/metaverse tasks, utilization increases, earnings automatically shift to market-based pricing, while a deflationary mechanism (20% of paid task income is used to destroy SWAN) boosts token value.
Key indicator comparison:
*Note: Based on actual operating data of RTX 4090 devices in Q1 2025, see details at: https://www.binance.com/en/square/post/24134688296729
4. Future vision: The computing power equity movement initiated by UBI
Swan Chain's UBI mechanism is rewriting the rules of the computing power market:
The role of miners is elevated: From computing power providers to protocol co-builders, participating in decision-making regarding the network's development direction through governance voting rights.
Resource allocation optimization: Preliminary data shows that the computational power utilization rate of the Swan Chain network has reached 35%, and it is expected to further improve as paid tasks increase in the future.
Join the tutorial: https://github.com/swanchain/go-computing-provider/discussions/200
The value of this experiment far exceeds the technical level - it is validating that through sophisticated token economic design, blockchain can not only reconstruct financial systems but also reshape the distribution mechanism of computing power resources. Swan Chain's UBI model provides a new path that balances efficiency and fairness, creating unprecedented opportunities for miners to capture value.
