Mining with Zebra in Docker

Zebra’s Docker images can be used for your mining operations. If you don’t have Docker, see the manual configuration instructions.

Using docker, you can start mining by running:

docker run -d --name zebra_local \
  -e MINER_ADDRESS="t3dvVE3SQEi7kqNzwrfNePxZ1d4hUyztBA1" \
  -e ZEBRA_RPC__LISTEN_ADDR=0.0.0.0:8232 \
  -p 8233:8233 \
  -p 8232:8232 \
  -v zebrad-cache:/home/zebra/.cache/zebra \
  zfnd/zebra:latest

This command starts a container on Mainnet and binds the P2P port (8233) and the RPC port (8232) on your Docker host. The P2P port lets other Zcash nodes connect to your node. If you want to start generating blocks, you need to let Zebra sync first.

Note that you must pass the address for your mining rewards via the MINER_ADDRESS environment variable when you are starting the container, as we did with the ZF funding stream address above. The address we used starts with the prefix t1, meaning it is a Mainnet P2PKH address. Please remember to set your own address for the rewards.

Instead of listing the environment variables on the command line, you can use Docker’s --env-file flag to specify a file containing the variables. You can find more info here https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/run/#env.

If you don’t want to set any environment variables, you can edit the docker/default-zebra-config.toml file, and pass it to Zebra before starting the container. There’s an example in docker/docker-compose.yml of how to do that.

If you want to mine on Testnet, you need to set the ZEBRA_NETWORK__NETWORK environment variable to Testnet and use a Testnet address for the rewards. For example, running

docker run -d --name zebra_local \
  -e ZEBRA_NETWORK__NETWORK="Testnet" \
  -e MINER_ADDRESS="t27eWDgjFYJGVXmzrXeVjnb5J3uXDM9xH9v" \
  -e ZEBRA_RPC__LISTEN_ADDR=0.0.0.0:18232 \
  -p 18233:18233 \
  -p 18232:18232 \
  -v zebrad-cache:/home/zebra/.cache/zebra \
  zfnd/zebra:latest

will start a container on Testnet and bind the P2P port (18233) and the RPC port (18232) on your Docker host. Notice that we also used a different rewards address. It starts with the prefix t2, indicating that it is a Testnet address. A Mainnet address would prevent Zebra from starting on Testnet, and conversely, a Testnet address would prevent Zebra from starting on Mainnet.

To connect to the RPC port, you will need the contents of the cookie file Zebra uses for authentication. By default, it is stored at /home/zebra/.cache/zebra/.cookie. You can print its contents by running

docker exec -it zebra_local cat /home/zebra/.cache/zebra/.cookie

If you want to avoid authentication, you can turn it off by setting

[rpc]
enable_cookie_auth = false

in Zebra’s config file before you start the container.