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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 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).

{% hint style="info" %} Tip: It is recommended to use a persistent location for the chainstate, in the steps below we're using /bitcoin. {% endhint %}

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 (adjust the conf path to where it was created in the previous step, i.e. $HOME/bitcoin.conf):

bitcoind -conf=$HOME/bitcoin.conf

{% hint style="info" %} Note: It will take a few hours for the node to synchronize with Bitcoin Testnet. {% endhint %}

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).

{% hint style="info" %} Tip: It is recommended to use a persistent location for the chainstate, in the steps below we're using /stacks-blockchain. {% endhint %}

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
  }
}

{% hint style="danger" %} Do not lose this information - we'll need to use the privateKey, btcAddress and wif fields in later steps. {% endhint %}

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.

{% hint style="info" %} Note: Be sure to replace <wif from JSON above> with the wif value in the Generate a keychain step. {% endhint %}

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

{% hint style="info" %} Note: The import may take a while, because a wallet rescan is triggered. After the import has completed successfully, you can check that the address is imported with getaddressinfo. {% endhint %}

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 the seed value 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 = "<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.

{% hint style="warning" %} Ensure you have Docker installed. {% endhint %}

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

{% hint style="info" %} Info: The ENV VARS RUST_BACKTRACE and STACKS_LOG_DEBUG are optional. If removed, debug logs will be disabled. {% endhint %}

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="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.