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 testnet, 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 (there may be some extra requirements to building, defined here).
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 allow127.0.0.1
, or the stacks miner IPv4.Modify the
rpcuser
andrpcpassword
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 (adjust the conf
path to where it was created in the previous step, i.e. $HOME/bitcoin.conf
):
bitcoind -conf=$HOME/bitcoin.conf
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=127.0.0.1 \
-rpcport=18332 \
-rpcuser=btcuser \
-rpcpassword=btcpass \
getblockchaininfo | jq .blocks
2583513
Running a Stacks Blockchain miner
First, download the latest tagged stacks blockchain binary, or build from source (there may be some extra requirements to building, defined here).
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": "spare decade dog ghost luxury churn flat lizard inch nephew nut drop huge divert mother soccer father zebra resist later twin vocal slender detail",
"keyInfo": {
"privateKey": "ooxeemeitar4ahw0ca8anu4thae7aephahshae1pahtae5oocahthahho4ahn7eici",
"address": "STTXOG3AIHOHNAEH5AU6IEX9OOTOH8SEIWEI5IJ9",
"btcAddress": "Ook6goo1Jee5ZuPualeiqu9RiN8wooshoo",
"wif": "rohCie2ein2chaed9kaiyoo6zo1aeQu1yae4phooShov2oosh4ox",
"index": 0
}
}
Do not lose this information - we'll need to use the privateKey
, btcAddress
and wif
fields in later steps.
The above wif
(cPdTdMgww2njhnekUZmHmFNKsWAjVdCR4cfvD2Y4UQhFzMmwoW33
) will then need to be imported into the bitcoin testnet network.
Next, a bitcoin wallet is created:
bitcoin-cli \
-rpcconnect=127.0.0.1 \
-rpcport=18332 \
-rpcuser=btcuser \
-rpcpassword=btcpass \
createwallet "miner" \
false \
false \
"" \
false \
false \
true
Now, import your wif (bitcoin private key) inside the newly created wallet.
bitcoin-cli \
-rpcport=18332 \
-rpcuser=btcuser \
-rpcpassword=btcpassword \
importprivkey <wif from JSON above>
bitcoin-cli \
-rpcconnect=127.0.0.1 \
-rpcport=18332 \
-rpcuser=btcuser \
-rpcpassword=btcpass \
getaddressinfo <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
.
Next, update the stacks 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 theseed
value withprivatekey
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 = "<privateKey from JSON above>"
miner = true
bootstrap_node = "029266faff4c8e0ca4f934f34996a96af481df94a89b0c9bd515f3536a95682ddc@seed.testnet.hiro.so:30444"
mine_microblocks = false
wait_time_for_microblocks = 10000
[burnchain]
wallet_name = "miner"
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 $HOME/testnet-miner-conf.toml
Optional: Running a Stacks Blockchain miner with Docker
Alternatively, you can run a Stacks testnet miner with Docker.
Ensure you have Docker installed.
Generate a Keychain and Get Some Tokens
Generate a keychain:
docker run -i node:20-alpine npx @stacks/cli make_keychain 2>/dev/null | jq -r
Now, we need to get some tBTC. Grab the btcAddress
field, and paste it into this Bitcoin testnet faucet. You'll be sent 0.01
tBTC to that address.
Update Stacks Blockchain Docker Configuration File
Use the steps outlined above to create the configuration file.
Start the Stacks Blockchain miner with Docker
docker run -d \
--name stacks_miner \
--rm \
--network host \
-e RUST_BACKTRACE="full" \
-e STACKS_LOG_DEBUG="1" \
-v "$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:
minikube (Only needed if standing up a local Kubernetes cluster)
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="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.
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