Mining Zcash with zebra
Zebra's RPC methods support miners and mining pools.
Contents:
Download Zebra
The easiest way to run Zebra for mining is with our docker images.
If you have installed Zebra another way, follow the instructions below to start mining:
Configure zebra for mining
We need a configuration file. First, we create a file with the default settings:
mkdir -p ~/.config
zebrad generate -o ~/.config/zebrad.toml
The above command places the generated zebrad.toml config file in the default preferences directory of Linux. For other OSes default locations see here.
Tweak the following options in order to prepare for mining.
Miner address
Node miner address is required. At the moment zebra only allows p2pkh or p2sh transparent addresses.
[mining]
miner_address = 't3dvVE3SQEi7kqNzwrfNePxZ1d4hUyztBA1'
The above address is the ZF Mainnet funding stream address. It is used here purely as an example.
RPC section
This change is required for zebra to behave as an RPC endpoint. The standard port for RPC endpoint is 8232 on mainnet.
[rpc]
listen_addr = "127.0.0.1:8232"
Running zebra
If the configuration file is in the default directory, then zebra will just read from it. All we need to do is to start zebra as follows:
zebrad
You can specify the configuration file path with -c /path/to/config.file.
Wait until zebra is in sync, you will see the sync at 100% when this happens:
...
2023-02-21T18:41:09.088931Z INFO {zebrad="4daedbc" net="Main"}: zebrad::components::sync::progress: finished initial sync to chain tip, using gossiped blocks sync_percent=100.000% current_height=Height(1992055) network_upgrade=Nu5 remaining_sync_blocks=1 time_since_last_state_block=0s
...
Testing the setup
The easiest way to check your setup is to call the getblocktemplate RPC method and check the result.
Starting with Zebra v2.0.0, a cookie authentication method similar to the one used by the zcashd node is enabled by default. The cookie is stored in the default cache directory when the RPC endpoint starts and is deleted at shutdown. By default, the cookie is located in the cache directory; for example, on Linux, it may be found at /home/user/.cache/zebra/.cookie. You can change the cookie's location using the rpc.cookie_dir option in the configuration, or disable cookie authentication altogether by setting rpc.enable_cookie_auth to false. The contents of the cookie file look like this:
__cookie__:YwDDua GzvtEmWG6KWnhgd9gilo5mKdi6m38v__we3Ko=
The password is an encoded, randomly generated string. You can use it in your call as follows:
$ curl --silent --data-binary '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id":"curltest", "method": "getblocktemplate", "params": [] }' -H 'Content-type: application/json' http://__cookie__:YwDDuaGzvtEmWG6KWnhgd9gilo5mKdi6m38v__we3Ko=@127.0.0.1:8232/ | jq
If you can see something similar to the following then you are good to go.
Click to see demo command output
{
"result": {
"capabilities": [
"proposal"
],
"version": 4,
"previousblockhash": "000000000173ae4123b7cb0fbed51aad913a736b846eaa9f23c3bb7f6c65b011",
"blockcommitmentshash": "84ac267e51ce10e6e4685955e3a3b08d96a7f862d74b2d60f141c8e91f1af3a7",
"lightclientroothash": "84ac267e51ce10e6e4685955e3a3b08d96a7f862d74b2d60f141c8e91f1af3a7",
"finalsaplingroothash": "84ac267e51ce10e6e4685955e3a3b08d96a7f862d74b2d60f141c8e91f1af3a7",
"defaultroots": {
"merkleroot": "5e312942e7f024166f3cb9b52627c07872b6bfa95754ccc96c96ca59b2938d11",
"chainhistoryroot": "97be47b0836d629f094409f5b979e011cbdb51d4a7e6f1450acc08373fe0901a",
"authdataroot": "dc40ac2b3a4ae92e4aa0d42abeea6934ef91e6ab488772c0466d7051180a4e83",
"blockcommitmentshash": "84ac267e51ce10e6e4685955e3a3b08d96a7f862d74b2d60f141c8e91f1af3a7"
},
"transactions": [
{
"data": "0400008085202f890120a8b2e646b5c5ee230a095a3a19ffea3c2aa389306b1ee3c31e9abd4ac92e08010000006b483045022100fb64eac188cb0b16534e0bd75eae7b74ed2bdde20102416f2e2c18638ec776dd02204772076abbc4f9baf19bd76e3cdf953a1218e98764f41ebc37b4994886881b160121022c3365fba47d7db8422d8b4a410cd860788152453f8ab75c9e90935a7a693535ffffffff015ca00602000000001976a914411d4bb3c17e67b5d48f1f6b7d55ee3883417f5288ac000000009d651e000000000000000000000000",
"hash": "63c939ad16ef61a1d382a2149d826e3a9fe9a7dbb8274bfab109b8e70f469012",
"authdigest": "ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff",
"depends": [],
"fee": 11300,
"sigops": 1,
"required": false
},
{
"data": "0400008085202f890192e3403f2fb04614a7faaf66b5f59a78101fe3f721aee3291dea3afcc5a4080d000000006b483045022100b39702506ff89302dcde977e3b817c8bb674c4c408df5cd14b0cc3199c832be802205cbbfab3a14e80c9765af69d21cd2406cea4e8e55af1ff5b64ec00a6df1f5e6b01210207d2b6f6b3b500d567d5cf11bc307fbcb6d342869ec1736a8a3a0f6ed17f75f4ffffffff0147c717a8040000001976a9149f68dd83709ae1bc8bc91d7068f1d4d6418470b688ac00000000000000000000000000000000000000",
"hash": "d5c6e9eb4c378c8304f045a43c8a07c1ac377ab6b4d7206e338eda38c0f196ba",
"authdigest": "ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff",
"depends": [],
"fee": 185,
"sigops": 1,
"required": false
},
{
"data": "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",
"hash": "2e9296d48f036112541b39522b412c06057b2d55272933a5aff22e17aa1228cd",
"authdigest": "ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff",
"depends": [],
"fee": 1367,
"sigops": 35,
"required": false
}
],
"coinbasetxn": {
"data": "0400008085202f89010000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000ffffffff050378651e00ffffffff04b4e4e60e0000000017a9140579e6348f398c5e78611da902ca457885cda2398738c94d010000000017a9145d190948e5a6982893512c6d269ea14e96018f7e8740787d010000000017a914931fec54c1fea86e574462cc32013f5400b8912987286bee000000000017a914d45cb1adffb5215a42720532a076f02c7c778c90870000000078651e000000000000000000000000",
"hash": "f77c29f032f4abe579faa891c8456602f848f423021db1f39578536742e8ff3e",
"authdigest": "ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff",
"depends": [],
"fee": -12852,
"sigops": 0,
"required": true
},
"longpollid": "0001992055c6e3ad7916770099070000000004516b4994",
"target": "0000000001a11f00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
"mintime": 1677004508,
"mutable": [
"time",
"transactions",
"prevblock"
],
"noncerange": "00000000ffffffff",
"sigoplimit": 20000,
"sizelimit": 2000000,
"curtime": 1677004885,
"bits": "1c01a11f",
"height": 1992056,
"maxtime": 1677009907
},
"id": "curltest"
}
Run a mining pool
Just point your mining pool software to the Zebra RPC endpoint (127.0.0.1:8232). Zebra supports the RPC methods needed to run most mining pool software.
If you want to run an experimental s-nomp mining pool with Zebra on testnet, please refer to this document for a very detailed guide. s-nomp is not compatible with NU5, so some mining functions are disabled.
If your mining pool software needs additional support, or if you as a miner need additional RPC methods, then please open a ticket in the Zebra repository.