Etherereum Constantinople reward reduction

You are probably wondering what happens on January 16th. Well, here is what to expect:

Constantinople update will bring reward reduction and some more changes

Constantinople is coming!

• What will Transaction/confirmation time be?
  • Block time is now ~15 secs. For Proof of Work to do it's job normally, going to less than 15 seconds will create a lot of Uncle blocks, which are cheaper. That is because POW adds some more latency to the block time. This could decrease the reward. For Proof of Stake (when it comes) it might be quicker. Learn more about ETH uncle blocks.
• Is the block reward reduced after January 16th?

      Yes, reward goes from 3 ETH per block to 2 ETH per block. That is 33% less mining profit for the same power consumption - if the price remains the same. If the block time is also decreased (not by much). This can soften the effect which miners will feel as block will cost only 2 ETH, but should come faster.

• Will the Cost of transaction change?
  • Cost depends on how many transactions there are right now. Constantinople's EIP's are aiming to optimize smart contract interactions, so we should see a decrease in smart contract transaction cost (untill the next Cryptokitties dapp shows up to overload the network and send the price per transaction through the roof).
• Will the number of transactions/second change?
  • No. There will be the same average Tx per second. However EIP-1024 should optimize state channels (a type of side chains) which can cause a small speed increase.
• Will Constantinople bring PoS in Ethereum?
  • No, It's too early. EIP-1234 exists to reduce the block reward so it can cause a delay in the incoming difficulty bomb. It is now delayed for a year. At some point there will be a beacon chain and sharding chains
• Is this going to be a Hard fork or a Soft fork?
• A hard fork. This means there will be a brand new Ethereum blockchain which has all the new upgrades. All current smart contracts on the current chain will be copied on the new chain. 
• The "old" pre-fork ETH will probably have some value initially, but since no development is planned, it should die out.

Here are some more sources of detailed information regarding the upcoming Ethereum Constantinople update:

• Short video which describes the EIP updates 
• EIP number 5: EIP-1283.
• Constantinople progress tracker. (Very technical).

Did you clean the dust off your rigs?

A time comes when you got to do what you got to do.

Christmas, New year holidays, time for your loved ones: family, friends and rigs.

Cleaning the dust off your rigs has several benefits:

1. Increases GPU / ASIC / CPU lifespan.
2. Increases the fans lifespan.
3. Lowers the fan speed.
4. Lowers the noise.
5. Lowers the power draw (lower fan speed=lower electric bill).
6. Lowers the chance for component failure or short circuit.
7. When all works fine, you have more time to spent around human beings.

Tools needed:
An air compressor. Second best is leaf blower, third is a can of compressed air. You can also use hard brush or anything usefull to remove the dust, wet micro fiber towel, vacuum cleaner can help too.

General steps:

1. Power off the rig and disconnect it from power.
2. Take it out at an open space outside.
3. Blow the dust out of the heatsink fins.

*If using a compressor:

Drain the air compressor of moisture - you may have to pressurize it for extra draining power. Moisture gets into the tank when you are filling it with warmer air, that typically has more moisture in it. When the air cools down, the moisture pools at the bottom of the tank - there should be a drain there if you spent enough money on your air compressor. (recommendation by skyroket from Reddit)

If not available, use a can of compressed air. If you want to go full cheap, get a brush, scrape the dust off and then blow it away or collect with vacuum cleaner. Be careful with air compressors. If they are set to too high PSI, they can force tha fans to spin too fast and break them. Either adjsut the PSI to a safe amount or apply compressed air from bigger distance first, so you can find the best distance for your fan. Hold the fans with your hand to avoid spinning them too fast. If you have moist climate, the dust usually forms a black, sticky substance. You can use slightly moist cloth (I recommend a microfiber towel) to clean the sticky dust.

Try not to blow the dust further into the heatsink fins. Blow it OUT. (recommendation by skyroket from Reddit)

Happy holidays and may the dust stay away from you!