Mining Zcash with zebra

Zebra's RPC methods support miners and mining pools.

Contents:

Download and build Zebra for mining

Before installing please make sure you have the Zebra dependencies in your OS.

cargo install --locked --features getblocktemplate-rpcs --git https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra zebrad

Zebra binary will be at ~/.cargo/bin/zebrad.

It is important to install with the getblocktemplate-rpcs feature so the final binary will contain mining support.

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 = 't3Vz22vK5z2LcKEdg16Yv4FFneEL1zg9ojd'

The above address is just the first address of the Founders' Reward section of the Zcash protocol. It's a Mainnet address and 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.

$ curl --silent --data-binary '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id":"curltest", "method": "getblocktemplate", "params": [] }' -H 'Content-type: application/json' http://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": "0400008085202f8901dca2e357fe25c062e988a90f6e055bf72b631f286833bcdfcc140b47990e22cc040000006a47304402205423166bba80f5d46322a7ea250f2464edcd750aa8d904d715a77e5eaad4417c0220670c6112d7f6dc3873143bdf5c3652c49c3e306d4d478632ca66845b2bfae2a6012102bc7156d237dbfd2f779603e3953dbcbb3f89703d21c1f5a3df6f127aa9b10058feffffff23da1b0000000000001976a914227ea3051630d4a327bcbe3b8fcf02d17a2c8f9a88acc2010000000000001976a914d1264ed5acc40e020923b772b1b8fdafff2c465c88ac661c0000000000001976a914d8bae22d9e23bfa78d65d502fbbe32e56f349e5688ac02210000000000001976a91484a1d34e31feac43b3965beb6b6dedc55d134ac588ac92040000000000001976a91448d9083a5d92124e8c1b6a2d895874bb6a077d1d88ac78140000000000001976a91433bfa413cd714601a100e6ebc99c49a8aaec558888ac4c1d0000000000001976a91447aebb77822273df8c9bc377e18332ce2af707f488ac004c0000000000001976a914a095a81f6fb880c0372ad3ea74366adc1545490888ac16120000000000001976a914d1f2052f0018fb4a6814f5574e9bc1befbdfce9388acbfce0000000000001976a914aa052c0181e434e9bbd87566aeb414a23356116088ac5c2b0000000000001976a914741a131b859e83b802d0eb0f5d11c75132a643a488ac40240000000000001976a914c5e62f402fe5b13f31f5182299d3204c44fc2d5288ace10a0000000000001976a914b612ff1d9efdf5c45eb8e688764c5daaf482df0c88accc010000000000001976a9148692f64b0a1d7fc201d7c4b86f5a6703b80d7dfe88aca0190000000000001976a9144c998d1b661126fd82481131b2abdc7ca870edc088ac44020000000000001976a914bd60ea12bf960b3b27c9ea000a73e84bbe59591588ac00460000000000001976a914b0c711a99ff21f2090fa97d49a5403eaa3ad9e0988ac9a240000000000001976a9145a7c7d50a72355f07340678ca2cba5f2857d15e788ac2a210000000000001976a91424cb780ce81cc384b61c5cc5853585dc538eb9af88ac30430000000000001976a9148b9f78cb36e4126920675fe5420cbd17384db44288ac981c0000000000001976a9145d1c183b0bde829b5363e1007f4f6f1d29d3bb4a88aca0140000000000001976a9147f44beaacfb56ab561648a2ba818c33245b39dbb88acee020000000000001976a914c485f4edcefcf248e883ad1161959efc14900ddf88acc03a0000000000001976a91419bfbbd0b5f63590290e063e35285fd070a36b6a88ac98030000000000001976a9147a557b673a45a255ff21f3746846c28c1b1e53b988acdc230000000000001976a9146c1bf6a4e0a06d3498534cec7e3b976ab5c2dcbc88ac3187f364000000001976a914a1a906b35314449892f2e6d674912e536108e06188ace61e0000000000001976a914fcaafc8ae90ac9f5cbf139d626cfbd215064034888ace4020000000000001976a914bb1bfa7116a9fe806fb3ca30fa988ab8f98df94088ac88180000000000001976a9146a43a0a5ea2b421c9134930d037cdbcd86b9e84c88ac0a3c0000000000001976a91444874ae13b1fa73f900b451f4b69dbabb2b2f93788ac0a410000000000001976a914cd89fbd4f8683d97c201e34c8431918f6025c50d88ac76020000000000001976a91482035b454977ca675328c4c7de097807d5c842d688ac1c160000000000001976a9142c9a51e381b27268819543a075bbe71e80234a6b88ac70030000000000001976a914a8f48fd340da7fe1f8bb13ec5856c9d1f5f50c0388ac6c651e009f651e000000000000000000000000",
        "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.