Introducing Steem (beta)

Steem is an experimental Proof of Work blockchain with an unproven consensus algorithm.

Currency symbol STEEM
1.000 STEEM block reward at launch
10% APR inflation narrowing to 1% APR over 20 years.

Public Announcement & Discussion

Steem was announced on the Bitcointalk forum prior to the start of any mining.

No Support & No Warranty

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Code is Documentation

Rather than attempt to describe the rules of the blockchain, it is up to each individual to inspect the code to understand the consensus rules.

Quickstart

Just want to get up and running quickly? Try deploying a prebuilt dockerized container. Both common binary types are included.

Dockerized p2p Node

To run a p2p node (ca. 2GB of memory is required at the moment):

docker run \
    -d -p 2001:2001 -p 8090:8090 --name steemd-default \
    steemit/steem

docker logs -f steemd-default  # follow along

Dockerized Full Node

To run a node with all the data (e.g. for supporting a content website) that uses ca. 14GB of memory and growing:

docker run \
    --env USE_WAY_TOO_MUCH_RAM=1 \
    -d -p 2001:2001 -p 8090:8090 --name steemd-full \
    steemit/steem

docker logs -f steemd-full

Seed Nodes

A list of some seed nodes to get you started can be found in doc/seednodes.txt.

This same file is baked into the docker images and can be overridden by setting STEEMD_SEED_NODES in the container environment at docker run time to a whitespace delimited list of seed nodes (with port).

How to Mine

The mining algorithm used by Steem requires the owner to have access to the private key used by the account. This means it does not favor mining pools.

./steemd --miner=["accountname","${WIFPRIVATEKEY}"] \
    --witness="accountname" --seed-node="52.38.66.234:2001"

Make sure that your accountname is unique and not already used by someone else or your proof of work might not be accepted by the blockchain.

Building

See doc/building.md for detailed build instructions, including compile-time options, and specific commands for Linux (Ubuntu LTS) or macOS X.

Testing

See doc/testing.md for test build targets and info on how to use lcov to check code test coverage.

System Requirements

Minimum 8 GB RAM (16 GB Recommended). 32 GB disk for full node or 12 GB for a consensus node. SSD is preferred. Any CPU with decent single core performance.

On Linux use the following Virtual Memory configuration for the initial sync and subsequent replays. It is not needed for normal operation.

echo    75 | sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio
echo  1000 | sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/dirty_expire_centisec
echo    80 | sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio
echo 30000 | sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisec

viaNull/steem