lotus/documentation/en/mining.md

Storage Mining

Here are instructions to learn how to perform storage mining. For hardware specifications please read this.

It is useful to join the Testnet prior to attempting storage mining for the first time.

Note: Using the Lotus Miner from China

If you are trying to use lotus-miner from China. You should set this environment variable on your machine.

export IPFS_GATEWAY="https://proof-parameters.s3.cn-south-1.jdcloud-oss.com/ipfs/"

Get started

Please ensure that at least one BLS address (starts with t3) in your wallet exists with the following command:

lotus wallet list

If you do not have a bls address, create a new bls wallet:

lotus wallet new bls

With your wallet address:

• Visit the faucet
• Click "Create Miner"
• DO NOT REFRESH THE PAGE. THIS OPERATION CAN TAKE SOME TIME.

The task will be complete when you see:

New miners address is: <YOUR_NEW_MINING_ADDRESS>

Initialize the miner

In a CLI window, use the following command to start your miner:

lotus-miner init --actor=ACTOR_VALUE_RECEIVED --owner=OWNER_VALUE_RECEIVED

Example

lotus-miner init --actor=t01424 --owner=t3spmep2xxsl33o4gxk7yjxcobyohzgj3vejzerug25iinbznpzob6a6kexcbeix73th6vjtzfq7boakfdtd6a

You will have to wait some time for this operation to complete.

Mining

To mine:

lotus-miner run

If you are downloading Filecoin Proof Parameters, the download can take some time.

Get information about your miner:

lotus-miner info
# example: miner id `t0111`

Seal random data to start producing PoSts:

lotus-miner sectors pledge

• Warning: On Linux configurations, this command will write data to $TMPDIR which is not usually the largest partition. You should point the value to a larger partition if possible.

Get miner power and sector usage:

lotus state power
# returns total power

lotus state power <miner>

lotus state sectors <miner>

Performance tuning

FIL_PROOFS_MAXIMIZE_CACHING=1 Environment variable

This env var can be used with lotus-miner, lotus-worker, and lotus-bench to make the precommit1 step faster at the cost of some memory use (1x sector size)

FIL_PROOFS_USE_GPU_COLUMN_BUILDER=1 Environment variable

This env var can be used with lotus-miner, lotus-worker, and lotus-bench to enable experimental precommit2 GPU acceleration

Setting multiaddresses

Set multiaddresses for the miner to listen on in a miner's config.toml file (by default, it is located at ~/.lotusminer/config.toml). The ListenAddresses in this file should be interface listen addresses (usually /ip4/0.0.0.0/tcp/PORT), and the AnnounceAddresses should match the addresses being passed to set-addrs.

The addresses passed to set-addrs parameter in the commands below should be currently active and dialable; confirm they are before entering them.

Once the config file has been updated, set the on-chain record of the miner's listen addresses:

lotus-miner actor set-addrs <multiaddr_1> <multiaddr_2> ... <multiaddr_n>

This updates the MinerInfo object in the miner's actor, which will be looked up when a client attempts to make a deal. Any number of addresses can be provided.

Example:

lotus-miner actor set-addrs /ip4/123.123.73.123/tcp/12345 /ip4/223.223.83.223/tcp/23456

Separate address for windowPoSt messages

WindowPoSt is the mechanism through which storage is verified in Filecoin. It requires miners to submit proofs for all sectors every 24h, which require sending messages to the chain.

Because many other mining related actions require sending messages to the chain, and not all of those are "high value", it may be desirable to use a separate account to send PoSt messages from. This allows for setting lower GasFeeCaps on the lower value messages without creating head-of-line blocking problems for the PoSt messages in congested chain conditions

To set this up, first create a new account, and send it some funds for gas fees:

lotus wallet new bls
t3defg...

lotus send t3defg... 100

Next add the control address

lotus-miner actor control set t3defg...
Add t3defg...
Pass --really-do-it to actually execute this action

Now actually set the addresses

lotus-miner actor control set --really-do-it t3defg...
Add t3defg...
Message CID: bafy2..

Wait for the message to land on chain

lotus state wait-msg bafy2..
...
Exit Code: 0
...

Check miner control address list to make sure the address was correctly setup

lotus-miner actor control list
name       ID      key           use    balance
owner      t01111  t3abcd...  other  300 FIL
worker     t01111  t3abcd...  other  300 FIL
control-0  t02222  t3defg...  post   100 FIL