Altchain PoP Miner
Altchain PoP Miner install and run instructions
Contents
Overview
The Proof-of-Proof (PoP) consensus protocol enables a security inheriting blockchain (any Altchain) to inherit the complete proof-of-work of a security providing blockchain (VeriBlock). For a deeper understanding of the PoP consensus protocol, please refer to the PoP White Paper.
A PoP miner serves as the communication and transactional bridge between the mined Altchain and the VeriBlock blockchain. As often as they wish, a PoP miner will take the most recent blockchain state data from the Altchain, along with an identification of the miner, and publish it to the VeriBlock blockchain via a PoP transaction with the embedded data. The PoP miner then waits for the transaction to be included in a VeriBlock block and also proven in the Bitcoin blockchain (through the process of VeriBlock PoP Mining).
PoP mining is a competitive endeavor in which miners compete to have their endorsement of the Altchain state included in the earliest possible VeriBlock block.
Getting Started
Download NodeCore
- Download the latest NodeCore software suite from the VeriBlock Github repository and extract the contents of the package.
- Follow the instructions at NodeCore QuickStart to start a local instance of NodeCore.
For Altchain PoP mining to be successful, the local NodeCore instance must be fully synced with the VeriBlock network.
Configuration
By default the application comes without a configuration file, in order to generate the configuration file you should run the application (see #Run)
The application.conf file is composed by different configuration blocks:
| miner | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Configuration Name | Default Value | Description | Example |
| feePerByte | 1000 | The atomic units to pay per transaction byte |
miner {
feePerByte: 1000
maxFee: 10000000
}
|
| maxFee | 10000000 | Maximum veriblock atomic units to pay as transaction fee | |
| nodecore | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Configuration Name | Default Value | Description | Example |
| network | mainnet | The network type, there are three options: mainnet, testnet and alphanet |
nodecore {
network: mainnet
ip: 127.0.0.1
port: 10500
}
|
| ip | 127.0.0.1 | The NodeCore ip to which the miner will connect to | |
| port | 10500 | The NodeCore port to which the miner will connect to | |
You can add chains to the securityInheriting block, for example:
| securityInheriting | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| btc | |||
| Configuration Name | Example Value | Description | Example |
| family | btc | The plugin family to load |
securityInheriting {
btc: {
family: btc
id: 50
name: "vBitcoin"
host: "http://localhost:18332"
username: rpc_username
password: rpc_password
}
}
|
| id | 50 | The chain id | |
| name | vBitcoin | The chain name | |
| host | http://localhost:10600/api | API url from the coin daemon | |
| username | rpc_username | The username used on the daemon authentication (if any) | |
| password | rpc_password | The password used on the daemon authentication (if any) | |
Example of a full configuration file:
miner {
feePerByte: 1000
maxFee: 10000000
}
nodecore {
network: mainnet
ip: 127.0.0.1
port: 10500
}
securityInheriting {
btc: {
family: btc
id: 50
name: "vBitcoin"
host: "http://localhost:18332"
username: rpc_username
password: rpc_password
}
test: {
host: "http://localhost:10600/api"
autoMinePeriod: null
}
}
Run
Inside the application's bin folder, you will have two scripts to run the application, veriblock-alt-pop (Linux and Mac) and veriblock-alt-pop.bat (Windows)
NOTE: If you are having trouble running nodecore-apm on Linux, you may need to make nodecore-apm executable: chmod a+x veriblock-alt-pop
On first execution of the application, a lightweight VeriBlock wallet will be created, in order to start mining you have to send VBK coin funds to this wallet.
The Altchain PoP miner communicates with NodeCore to maintain the internal wallet. A connection to a synchronized NodeCore is always required.
Docker
With APM Docker, the next environment variables are accessible:
| Variable Name | Example Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| MINER_FEE_PER_BYTE | 1000 | The atomic units to pay per transaction byte |
| MINER_MAX_FEE | 10000000 | Maximum veriblock atomic units to pay as transaction fee |
| NODECORE_NETWORK | mainnet | The network type, there are three options: mainnet, testnet and alphanet |
| NODECORE_IP | localhost | The NodeCore ip to which the miner will connect to |
| NODECORE_PORT | 10500 | The NodeCore port to which the miner will connect to |
| APM_LOG_PATH | /data/logs | The folder for the APM logs |
Mining
Right now there are no real Altchains integrated with APM. However, we have created a virtual altchain for testing purposes
- To begin a mining operation for the test alchain, type 'mine test' and press ENTER
Once we start having more plugins ready, Every single APM instance will be able to perform mining operations on multiple different chains.
Shell
The Altchain PoP miner provides several commands:
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| help | Lists all the commands |
| clear | Clears the screen |
| quit or exit | Stops the application |
| listconfig | Lists the current config values |
| setconfig <key> <value> | Sets a config value |
| mine <chain> <block (optional)> | Begins a proof of proof mining operation for the given chain |
| listoperations | Lists the currently running mining operations |
| getoperation <id> | Supplies the details of the operation matching the given id |
| getoperationvtb <id> | Supplies the VTB details of the operation matching the given id |
| getbalance | Gets the coin balance for the VeriBlock address |
