Table of Contents

Introduction

Spacemesh is a groundbreaking cryptocurrency platform that employs an energy-efficient consensus algorithm known as “Proof of Space-Time” (PoST) for mining, presenting an eco-friendly alternative to traditional Proof of Work (PoW) cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. If you have multiple GPUs and an interest in mining Spacemesh, this comprehensive guide will walk you through the process of maximizing your mining potential using the powerful postcli application.

Prerequisites

Before diving into the mining process, ensure you have the following prerequisites in place:

  1. Multiple GPUs: Make sure you have at least two GPUs capable of handling Spacemesh mining effectively.

  2. postcli Application: Download the postcli application from here and ensure it is correctly installed and available in your system’s environment path.

Mining Spacemesh with Multiple GPUs

To begin mining Spacemesh with multiple GPUs, follow these simple steps:

Step 1: Configure Variables

Open a text editor or PowerShell script editor and set the configurable variables according to your requirements.

The provided script already includes some variables you can adjust, but the rest can be pulled from the json or key.bin file that you get when you start smeshing on the spacemech GUI application:

  • Special Values: These values can be pulled from the metadata.json file in the folder when you used go-spacemesh or the gui application. However we need to change their encoding.

    1. Pull the base64 encoded values from the json file and go to this base64 decoder .
    2. In the encoder, one at a time you’ll convert the node and commitment ids from the metadata.json using text > base64 decode > bytes, hexadecimal, none. The output of this conversion is the value you need.
      1. You can see the following video to learn more .

    • $commitmentAtxId: Replace this with your commitment ATX ID, a unique identifier for your commitment to participate in the Spacemesh network.

    • $nodeId: Replace this with your Node ID, Node ID is last 64 digits from key.bin.

  • Standard Values These values can be changed manually to whatever you want. Use common sense. Select the number of gpus and copy and paste the values if they are different from the metadata.json file.

    • $numGpus: Set the number of GPUs you want to utilize for mining. For instance, 2 for two GPUs.

    • $LabelsPerUnit: Set the number of labels per storage unit. The default value is 4294967296.

    • $MaxFileSize: Set the maximum file size. The default value is 2147483648.

    • $numUnits: Set the number of storage units to mine. The default value is 16.

    • $datadir: Set the path to the data directory where your mining data will be stored.

Step 2: Execute the Script

Save the script with the defined variables and execute it in PowerShell. The script will automatically divide the mining workload among the specified GPUs, optimizing mining efficiency.

Windows 

## Configurable Variables
$numGpus = 2
$commitmentAtxId = ""
$nodeId = ""
$LabelsPerUnit = 4294967296
$MaxFileSize = 2147483648
$numUnits = 16
$datadir = "C:\root\post\data"

## Script
foreach ($gpuIndex in 0..($numGpus - 1)) {
    $fromFile = $gpuIndex * ($numUnits * 32 / $numGpus)
    $toFile = ($gpuIndex + 1) * ($numUnits * 32 / $numGpus) - 1
    
    Start-Process -NoNewWindow -FilePath "postcli" -ArgumentList "-provider $gpuIndex", "-commitmentAtxId", $commitmentAtxId, "-id", $nodeId, "-labelsPerUnit", $LabelsPerUnit, "-maxFileSize", $MaxFileSize , "-numUnits", $numUnits, "-datadir", $datadir, "-fromFile", $fromFile, "-toFile", $toFile
}

Linux 

#!/bin/bash

# Configurable Variables
numGpus=2
commitmentAtxId=""
nodeId=""
LabelsPerUnit=4294967296
MaxFileSize=2147483648
numUnits=16
datadir="\root\post\data"

# Script
for ((gpuIndex=0; gpuIndex<numGpus; gpuIndex++)); do
    fromFile=$((gpuIndex * (numUnits * 32 / numGpus)))
    toFile=$(( (gpuIndex + 1) * (numUnits * 32 / numGpus) - 1 ))
    
    postcli -provider $gpuIndex -commitmentAtxId "$commitmentAtxId" -id "$nodeId" -labelsPerUnit $LabelsPerUnit -maxFileSize $MaxFileSize -numUnits $numUnits -datadir "$datadir" -fromFile $fromFile -toFile $toFile &
done

Step 2.5: Optional Advanced - Execute the Script

Advanced Linux

Alternate

Get a much better version of this at https://github.com/CryptoZanoryt/spacemesh/tree/main/generate-post

Advanced Linux Script 
#!/bin/bash

# Configurable variables
desiredSizeGiB=1024 # 1TIB
datadir="/root/post/data"
commitmentAtxId=""
nodeId=""

## Automatic Values
desiredSizeBytes=$(($desiredSizeGiB * 1024 * 1024 * 1024))
numGpus=$(nvidia-smi --query-gpu=name --format=csv,noheader | wc -l)
numGpus=$(($numGpus + 0)) # convert to int
LabelsPerUnit=4294967296
MaxFileSize=2147483648
numUnits=$(($desiredSizeGiB / 64))           # 64 GiB per unit
numUnits=$(($numUnits + 0))                  # convert to int

# Script to run postcli for each GPU
for ((gpuIndex=0; gpuIndex<numGpus; gpuIndex++)); do
    fromFile=$((gpuIndex * (numUnits * 32 / numGpus)))
    toFile=$(( (gpuIndex + 1) * (numUnits * 32 / numGpus) - 1 ))
    
    postcli -provider $gpuIndex -commitmentAtxId "$commitmentAtxId" -id "$nodeId" -labelsPerUnit $LabelsPerUnit -maxFileSize $MaxFileSize -numUnits $numUnits -datadir "$datadir" -fromFile $fromFile -toFile $toFile &
done

Step 3: Monitor Mining Progress

Once the script is running, you can monitor the mining progress. The postcli application will start utilizing the specified GPUs to mine Spacemesh using the PoST algorithm. Each GPU will be assigned a specific range of storage units to ensure fair distribution of work.

Conclusion

Mining Spacemesh with multiple GPUs is an efficient way to contribute to the network while maximizing your hardware potential. By employing the provided PowerShell script alongside the postcli application, you can seamlessly mine Spacemesh using the PoST algorithm without the energy-intensive computations required by PoW-based cryptocurrencies.

Always remember to keep your postcli application up to date and stay informed about any changes or updates to the Spacemesh network. Happy mining!

References

  1. Spacemesh Official Website
  2. Spacemesh GitHub Repository
  3. Spacemesh POST CLI Application