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Mine testnet Stacks tokens

Introduction​

For more on the technical details of mining, please review the mining guide

The following is an abridged version of the walkthrough here, written for a Linux system. If you're on Windows or MacOS, there will be some slight modifications needed (PR's welcome!).

If you're interested in mining on the Stacks mainnet, you can find instructions on how to do that here:

Running a Bitcoin Testnet Full Node​

To participate as a miner on testnet, you must have access to a testnet bitcoin node with a wallet (and the wallet's private key). One way to accomplish this is to run bitcoin locally.

First, download a bitcoin binary, or build from source

tip

It is recommened to use a persistent location for the chainstate, in the steps below we're using /bitcoin

Update the Bitcoin Configuration File​

Next, update the bitcoin configuration:

  • optional but recommended: Use a persistent directory to store the Bitcoin chainstate, i.e. datadir=/bitcoin
  • optional but recommended: Update the rpcallowip value to only allow 127.0.0.1, or the stacks miner IPv4
  • Modify the rpcuser and rpcpassword values from the defaults below
  • Store the following configuration somewhere on your filesystem (ex: $HOME/bitcoin.conf)
server=1
testnet=1
disablewallet=0
datadir=/bitcoin
rpcuser=btcuser
rpcpassword=btcpass
rpcallowip=0.0.0.0/0
dbcache=512
banscore=1
rpcthreads=256
rpcworkqueue=256
rpctimeout=100
txindex=1

[test]
bind=0.0.0.0:18333
rpcbind=0.0.0.0:18332
rpcport=18332

Start Bitcoin​

Finally, start bitcoind as follows:

bitcoind -conf=$HOME/bitcoin.conf
note

It will take a few hours for the node to synchronize with Bitcoin testnet.

While it's syncing, you can track the progress with bitcoin-cli or the logfile (will be located where the chainstate is stored, i.e. /bitcoin/testnet3/debug.log):

$ bitcoin-cli \
 -rpcconnect=localhost \
 -rpcport=18332 \
 -rpcuser=btcuser \
 -rpcpassword=btcpass \
getblockchaininfo | jq .blocks
2417570

Running a Stacks Blockchain miner​

First, download a stacks blockchain binary, or build from source

There may be some extra requirements to building, defined here

tip

It is recommened to use a persistent location for the chainstate, in the steps below we're using /stacks-blockchain

Generate a keychain​

First, a keychain needs to be generated. With this keychain, we'll get some testnet BTC from a faucet, and then use that BTC to start mining.

To create a keychain, the simplest way is to use the stacks-cli with the make_keychain command.

npx @stacks/cli make_keychain -t 2>/dev/null | jq -r

After this runs, you should see some JSON printed to the screen that looks like this:

{
  "mnemonic": "exhaust spin topic distance hole december impulse gate century absent breeze ostrich armed clerk oak peace want scrap auction sniff cradle siren blur blur",
  "keyInfo": {
    "privateKey": "2033269b55026ff2eddaf06d2e56938f7fd8e9d697af8fe0f857bb5962894d5801",
    "address": "STTX57EGWW058FZ6WG3WS2YRBQ8HDFGBKEFBNXTF",
    "btcAddress": "mkRYR7KkPB1wjxNjVz3HByqAvVz8c4B6ND",
    "index": 0
  }
}
danger

Do not lose this information - we'll need to use the privateKey and btcAddress fields in later steps.

The above btcAddress (mkRYR7KkPB1wjxNjVz3HByqAvVz8c4B6ND) will then need to be imported into the bitcoin testnet network.

note

Be sure to replace <btcAddress from JSON above> with the bitcoin address in the "Generate a keychain" step

bitcoin-cli \
  -rpcport=18332 \
  -rpcuser=btcuser \
  -rpcpassword=btcpassword \
importaddress <btcAddress from JSON above>

Once imported, we need to get some testnet BTC to that address. Grab the btcAddress field, and paste it into this Bitcoin testnet faucet. You'll be sent 0.01 testnet BTC to that address.

Update the Stacks Blockchain Configuration File​

Now, we need to configure our node to use this Bitcoin keychain. Copy the sample testnet miner config to your local machine in a memorable location like $HOME/testnet-miner-conf.toml.

Now, grab your privateKey from earlier when you ran the make_keychain command. Replace the seed and local_peer_seed field with your private key. Save and close this configuration file.

Next, update the bitcoin configuration:

  • optional but recommended: Use a persistent directory to store the Stacks chainstate, i.e. working_dir = "/stacks-blockchain"
  • From the make_keychain step, modify the seed and local_peer_seed values with privatekey
  • Store the following configuration somewhere on your filesystem (ex: $HOME/testnet-miner-conf.toml)
[node]
working_dir = "/stacks-blockchain"
rpc_bind = "0.0.0.0:20443"
p2p_bind = "0.0.0.0:20444"
seed = "<keychain privateKey>"
local_peer_seed = "<keychain privateKey>"
miner = true
bootstrap_node = "047435c194e9b01b3d7f7a2802d6684a3af68d05bbf4ec8f17021980d777691f1d51651f7f1d566532c804da506c117bbf79ad62eea81213ba58f8808b4d9504ad@testnet.stacks.co:20444"
wait_time_for_microblocks = 10000

[burnchain]
chain = "bitcoin"
mode = "xenon"
peer_host = "127.0.0.1"
username = "<bitcoin config rpcuser>"
password = "<bitcoin config rpcpassword>"
rpc_port = 18332
peer_port = 18333

[[ustx_balance]]
address = "ST2QKZ4FKHAH1NQKYKYAYZPY440FEPK7GZ1R5HBP2"
amount = 10000000000000000

[[ustx_balance]]
address = "ST319CF5WV77KYR1H3GT0GZ7B8Q4AQPY42ETP1VPF"
amount = 10000000000000000

[[ustx_balance]]
address = "ST221Z6TDTC5E0BYR2V624Q2ST6R0Q71T78WTAX6H"
amount = 10000000000000000

[[ustx_balance]]
address = "ST2TFVBMRPS5SSNP98DQKQ5JNB2B6NZM91C4K3P7B"
amount = 10000000000000000

Start the Stacks Blockchain​

To run your miner, run this in the command line:

stacks-node start --config=$HOME/testnet-miner-conf.toml

Your node should start. It will take some time to sync, and then your miner will be running.

Enable Debug Logging​

In case you are running into issues or would like to see verbose logging, you can run your node with debug logging enabled. In the command line, run:

STACKS_LOG_DEBUG=1 stacks-node start --config=$HOME/testnet-miner-conf.toml

Optional: Running a Stacks Blockchain miner with Docker​

Alternatively, you can run a Stacks testnet miner with Docker.

caution

Ensure you have Docker installed

Generate a Keychain and Get Some Tokens​

Generate a keychain:

docker run -i node:14-alpine npx @stacks/cli make_keychain 2>/dev/null | jq -r

Now, we need to get some tBTC. Grab the btcAddress field, and paste it into this Bitcoin testnet faucet. You'll be sent 0.01 tBTC to that address.

Update Stacks Blockchain Docker Configuration File​

Use the steps oulined above to create the configuration file

Start the Stacks Blockchain miner with Docker​

info

The ENV VARS RUST_BACKTRACE and STACKS_LOG_DEBUG are optional. If removed, debug logs will be disabled

docker run -d \
  --name stacks_miner \
  --rm \
  --network host \
  -e RUST_BACKTRACE="full" \
  -e STACKS_LOG_DEBUG="1" \
  -v "$HOME/testnet-miner-conf.toml:/src/stacks-node/testnet-miner-conf.toml" \
  -v "/stacks-blockchain:/stacks-blockchain" \
  -p 20443:20443 \
  -p 20444:20444 \
  blockstack/stacks-blockchain:latest \
/bin/stacks-node start --config /src/stacks-node/testnet-miner-conf.toml

You can review the node logs with this command:

docker logs -f stacks_miner

Optional: Running in Kubernetes with Helm​

In addition, you're also able to run a Stacks miner in a Kubernetes cluster using the stacks-blockchain Helm chart.

Ensure you have the following prerequisites installed:

Generate keychain and get some tokens​

Use the steps outlined above

Install the chart and run the miner​

To install the chart with the release name my-release and run the node as a miner:

minikube start # Only run this if standing up a local Kubernetes cluster
helm repo add blockstack https://charts.blockstack.xyz
helm install my-release blockstack/stacks-blockchain \
  --set config.node.miner=true \
  --set config.node.seed="replace-with-your-privateKey-from-generate-keychain-step" \

You can review the node logs with this command:

kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/name=stacks-blockchain

For more information on the Helm chart and configuration options, please refer to the chart's homepage.