Mining (Block Production)

RougeChain uses Proof of Stake, so "mining" refers to block production by validators rather than proof-of-work mining.

Enable Mining

Start your node with the --mine flag:

./quantum-vault-daemon --mine --api-port 5100

This tells the node to try to seal a block whenever it has pending transactions. The miner checks the mempool every --block-time-ms (default 400 ms) and wakes early when a new transaction arrives. Empty blocks are never produced, so blocks only appear when there are transactions, and only the designated proposer seals them (see below).

Requirements

How Block Production Works

1. Proposer selection — Since mainnet height 100, each height has exactly one designated proposer: the eligible validator (stake > 0, not jailed) with the most stake, ties going to the lowest raw public-key bytes. It is deterministic (no randomness, no rotation, no fallback). Every other node refuses to seal, and peers reject blocks from any other proposer. (GET /api/selection reports the same designated proposer for the next height.)
2. Block assembly — The designated proposer collects pending transactions from the mempool. Since height 150 it first waits for the commit certificate of the previous block (precommits from validators holding ⅔ of the stake)
3. Signing — The block is signed with the validator's ML-DSA-65 key
4. Voting — Validators automatically submit prevote and precommit attestations for each block
5. Propagation — The signed block is broadcast to all peers via POST /api/blocks/import
6. Verification — Receiving nodes verify the signature and block validity before accepting

Block Timing

--block-time-ms is how often the miner checks for pending transactions, not a fixed block cadence: a new transaction wakes the miner immediately, and nothing is produced while the mempool is empty. So it is an upper bound on how long a pending transaction waits before the designated proposer tries to seal it. Mainnet nodes run with the default (the block_time_ms value in the genesis file is not used for timing).

# Check the mempool less often (every 5 seconds)
./quantum-vault-daemon --mine --block-time-ms 5000

Mining with Peers

To mine as part of the network (not solo):

./quantum-vault-daemon \
  --mine \
  --api-port 5100 \
  --peers "https://testnet.rougechain.io/api" \
  --public-url "https://mynode.example.com"

The --public-url flag is important — it lets other nodes discover and sync from you.

Monitoring

Check your validator status:

curl https://testnet.rougechain.io/api/validators

Check blocks produced:

curl https://testnet.rougechain.io/api/blocks?limit=10

Rewards

Every staked, non-jailed validator earns a stake-weighted share of the fees in every block; the proposer also gets a 20% share. Fees are credited when the block is applied to state. See Staking Rewards for details.

Troubleshooting

Node not producing blocks

• Ensure --mine flag is set
• Verify you have enough XRGE staked (min 10,000)
• Check that your node is synced: curl http://127.0.0.1:5100/api/health
• Check whether you are the designated proposer: designated_proposer_next in curl http://127.0.0.1:5100/api/stats. If it is another key, the log line not the designated proposer … — not sealing is expected
• If the log says waiting for the commit certificate of block …, validators holding ⅔ of the stake have not yet voted for the tip

Blocks not propagating

• Ensure --public-url is set and accessible from the internet
• Check firewall rules for your API port
• Verify peer connections: curl http://127.0.0.1:5100/api/peers

Producing blocks but no rewards

• Confirm your staking transaction was included in a block
• Check validator status via the API