Blur Network

Copyright (c) 2018-2023, Blur Network

See License

See Code of Conduct

About the Project

The Blur Network is an experimental project based upon the premise that privacy and centralization cannot coexist. We focus on maximizing accessibility to block rewards, while fostering an educational environment. We seek to create an ecosystem where individuals can take a first-hand role in protecting their right to privacy.

The Blur Network employs a custom algorithm for mining, called CryptoNight-Dynamic. The algorithm adjusts approximately once every five seconds, with a goal of maintaining CPU advantages over specialized mining hardware. Making use of a Unix timestamp, the current block height, and the previous block’s hash, CryptoNight-Dynamic varies iterations in the CryptoNight algorithm. Employing a timestamp in the calculation serves the purpose of dynamic iterations on an intra-block basis, while height and the previous block’s hash create variation on an inter-block basis. The iterations necessary to mine each next block are directly dependent upon the result of the block before it.

Contents:

• Compiling from Source
  
  • Dependency Packages & Dynamic Linking
    
  • Dependencies from Source & Static Linking
    
  • Building with packages on Host OS
    
• Mining on Linux/Mac
  
• Mining on Windows
  
• Fixing Synchronization Issues
  
  

Donate to help support Blur:

BLUR: bL4PdWFk3VVgEGYezGTXigHrsoJ3JGKgxKDi1gHXT7GKTLawFu3WMhu53Gc2KCmxxmCHbR4VEYMQ93PRv8vWgJ8j2mMHVEzLu

Compiling from Source

Blur uses the CMake build system and a top-level Makefile that invokes cmake commands as needed.

Step 1: Clone this repository's stable branch:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/blur-network/blur.git

Step 2a: Install dependencies (If you wish to link the binaries dynamically)

If you wish to instead compile statically, scroll to step 2(b)

Ubuntu/Debian:

Required: sudo apt-get install -y build-essential cmake pkg-config libboost-all-dev libssl-dev libsodium-dev libunwind-dev binutils-dev libreadline-dev

Optional: sudo apt-get install -y liblzma-dev libgtest-dev

Arch Linux:

Required: sudo pacman -S base-devel cmake boost openssl libsodium libunwind binutils-devel readline

Optional: sudo pacman -S xz gtest

Step 2(b): Build dependencies, and link statically, all in one go

Install additional dependency: sudo apt-get install -y curl

To compile for Linux (distro-agnostic): make release-cross-linux-x86_64

To compile for Windows(mingw64): make release-cross-winx64

To compile for Mac(x86_64): make release-cross-mac-x86_64

The Makefile entries run by the above commands will build dependencies for x86_64-gnu-linux and x86_64-w64-mingw32, and x86_64-apple-darwin11 hosts, respectively. If you would like to compile for a different type of host platform, cd into the contrib/depends directory, and build with make HOST=xxx-yyy-zzz where xxx-yyy-zzz is a standard host triplet.

Note that we do not officially support builds for 32-bit architecture, arm architecture, or the freebsd linux distribution currently. However, there are options within the Makefile for these configurations. These entries may require significant modifications to source files, in order to work properly.

Mining on Linux

Compile from source, or download the latest binary release from the Releases page.

We also now offer a Snap package on the Ubuntu Snap Store:

Open a terminal in the directory within which the binaries were downloaded. Assuming that is your Downloads folder, enter the following command:

cd ~/Downloads && tar xvzf blur-v0.1.9.9.6-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

Navigate into the directory you just extracted from the archive, and start the daemon.

cd blur-v0.1.9.9.6-linux_x86_64 && ./blurd

Wait for sync to complete, open a new tab or terminal window, and then start the wallet:

./blur-wallet-cli

Follow the prompts to setup a new wallet. When prompted for the password, the CLI will not show a password as you type, as echo has been turned off for password entry.

Record the information for your wallet.

You can mine from your wallet, using the start_mining <threads> command -- but using that method directly from the wallet is NOT recommended.

Secure way to mine: Once you've generated a wallet address, issue the following command to a running daemon:

start_mining <address> <# of threads>

Example: start_mining bL4PdWFk3VVgEGYezGTXigHrsoJ3JGKgxKDi1gHXT7GKTLawFu3WMhu53Gc2KCmxxmCHbR4VEYMQ93PRv8vWgJ8j2mMHVEzLu 4

Or: Use the following startup flags when launching the daemon:

./blurd --start-mining="<BLUR address>" --mining-threads="<num. threads>"

Example: ./blurd --start-mining="bL4PdWFk3VVgEGYezGTXigHrsoJ3JGKgxKDi1gHXT7GKTLawFu3WMhu53Gc2KCmxxmCHbR4VEYMQ93PRv8vWgJ8j2mMHVEzLu" --mining-threads="4"

You should see a message for each thread that reads: Mining started for thread[0] or something similar.

To view your hashrate in real-time, use the command show_hr.

Whenever you find a block, your daemon will show a bold message with the block # found. It is normal to experience a slight delay between that message and the balance reflecting in your wallet.

Mining on Windows

Download the latest release from our Releases page.

Open your Downloads Library in your File Explorer. Extract the executables from the compressed archive, and navigate to the folder that you just extracted.

Start the daemon by double-clicking the blurd.exe file.

You will see a pop-up from your firewall. Be sure to check the box next to "Private Networks" if you are on a private network, or your daemon will not be able to sync with the network. If you daemon stalls while syncing, close and restart the program. You will not lose any blocks you have already synced with. Once your daemon is synced with the network...

Start the wallet by double-clicking the blur-wallet-cli file. Follow the prompts to setup a new wallet. When prompted for the password, the CLI will not show a password as you type, as echo has been turned off for password entry.

Record the information for your wallet.

You can mine from your wallet, using the start_mining <threads> command -- but using that method directly from the wallet is NOT recommended.

Secure way to mine: Once you've generated a wallet address, issue the following command to a running daemon:

start_mining <address> <# of threads>

Example: start_mining bL4PdWFk3VVgEGYezGTXigHrsoJ3JGKgxKDi1gHXT7GKTLawFu3WMhu53Gc2KCmxxmCHbR4VEYMQ93PRv8vWgJ8j2mMHVEzLu 4

Or: Use the following startup flags when launching the daemon, from Powershell:

blurd.exe --start-mining="<BLUR address>" --mining-threads="<num. threads>"

Example: blurd.exe --start-mining="bL4PdWFk3VVgEGYezGTXigHrsoJ3JGKgxKDi1gHXT7GKTLawFu3WMhu53Gc2KCmxxmCHbR4VEYMQ93PRv8vWgJ8j2mMHVEzLu" --mining-threads="4"

You should see a message for each thread that reads: Mining started for thread[0] or something similar.

To view your hashrate in real-time, use the command show_hr.

Whenever you find a block, your daemon will show a bold message with the block # found. It is normal to experience a slight delay between that message and the balance reflecting in your wallet.

You should see the message: Mining started in daemon

Switch back to the terminal or tab in which your daemon is running, and type show_hr for real-time hashrate monitoring. For further commands in either the wallet or the daemon, type help into either CLI. Note that the commands for the daemon and wallet are different.

Whenever you find a block, your daemon will show a bold message with the block # found. There is a slight delay between that message and the balance reflecting in your wallet.

How to Fix Synchronization Issues

If you cannot synchronize with the network, kill your daemon & restart with the following options:

Linux: cd to the directory you downloaded the files into, and type: ./blurd --add-priority-node="51.79.66.123:52541" --add-priority-node="51.79.64.184:52541" --add-priority-node="51.79.66.36:52541" --p2p-bind-port="52541" --rpc-bind-port="52542" --rpc-bind-ip="127.0.0.1"

Windows: Open cmd.exe, cd to the directory you downloaded the files into, and type: blurd.exe --add-priority-node="51.79.66.123:52541" --add-priority-node="51.79.64.184:52541" --add-priority-node="51.79.66.36:52541" --p2p-bind-port="52541" --rpc-bind-port="52542" --rpc-bind-ip="127.0.0.1"

This should fix the synchronizattion issue if the daemon does not connect to the seed nodes automatically.

You can also see additional command-line options by running the daemon with the option --help. The program will return a list of startup flags and their descriptions.