Mine the testnet. Be counted for the mainnet.

• A computer with an NVIDIA GPU of the Ampere generation or newer: RTX 30xx, 40xx or 50xx, A-series, L-series, H100. Without a GPU the miner runs on the CPU, but very slowly.
• The NVIDIA driver: Windows 580 or newer, Linux 575 or newer.
• Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit), or Linux 64-bit with glibc 2.35 or newer (for example Ubuntu 22.04 or later).
• An Internet connection. The miner connects to the seed node and downloads the chain, which takes a few minutes the first time.
• A pen and a sheet of paper: the wallet gives you 24 recovery words that you must write down.

1. Download the archive for your system from the Releases page on GitHub: the windows-x86_64.zip or the linux-x86_64.tar.gz. Download only from there. Check the SHA-256 against the SHA256SUMS.txt file of the release if you want to be sure.
2. Extract it anywhere. On Windows, double-click vearl-miner.exe. On Linux, open a terminal in the folder and run ./vearl-miner.
3. The first time, an assistant creates your wallet. It shows 24 recovery words once: write them on paper. They are the only backup of your wallet. Never photograph them, never type them anywhere, and never give them to anybody: nobody from the project will ever ask for them.
4. Leave the window open. The miner starts mining as soon as the testnet opens, and prints a status line every 10 seconds (it is also saved in miner.log).

The miner mines Vearl only. An optional add-on can also mine Quantus (QTC) with the same GPU, but it is off by default and does not count for the testnet rewards.

Windows may warn about an unknown program (the files are not code-signed yet) and some antivirus programs flag any miner. You can read the source code and build it yourself: github.com/vearl-verified-compute/vearl.

Your wallet address starts with vrl1 and is shown by the miner at start. After the testnet opens:

• the status line shows blocks found going up (with one machine it can take a while: blocks are a lottery, and your share of them follows your share of the computing power);
• the explorer shows every block, job and miner;
• the leaderboard shows your points, computed only from the blocks of the chain. Paste your address in its search box.

The team plans to set aside 5 % of the mainnet supply to thank the people who help secure the testnet, shared between the eligible contributors in proportion to their points. Points come only from the blocks that your address mined: nobody can inflate them off-chain, and anybody can recompute the result from the published blocks.

To be eligible for the thank-you you must also:

• be active on at least 3 different days (24-hour windows since the start) and hold at least 0.005 % of all the points;
• register your address with a signature that proves you own it (next section);
• play fair: no fraud (a wrong result published by your worker, forged registrations) and no attack on the network outside the rules of the security policy;
• be one participant per person, of legal age, in a country that the team is allowed to reward (the list will be published before registration opens), and accept the terms.

After the testnet, the team takes a final snapshot, publishes the blocks, the script and the list of excluded addresses with reasons, and leaves 14 days to contest a result. The plan is to deliver the reward at the mainnet launch, partly at once and the rest over several months. The full rules are in docs/19.

Registration opens during the testnet. The date and the way to send your registration will be announced on the Discord and on X. You can already prepare it, it takes a minute. A signature proves that you own the address without revealing any secret.

1. Open a terminal in the miner folder (Windows: click the address bar of the folder, type cmd and press Enter). Your wallet file is wallet.json, in that folder.
2. Show your address: vearl-wallet address --file wallet.json
3. Sign the registration message, replacing ADDRESS with your address and CONTACT with your Discord name or e-mail (the wallet asks your password): vearl-wallet sign --file wallet.json --message "Vearl testnet rewards registration. Address: ADDRESS. Contact: CONTACT. I accept the terms in docs/19."
4. Keep the three lines it prints (address, message, signature). When registration opens, you will send them through the channel announced by the team.

On Linux, use ./vearl-wallet in the same way. This needs release rc11 or newer.

Do the testnet tokens have a value?

No. They cannot be bought, sold or converted. They only exist to test the network.

Can the team or anybody ask for my 24 words or my password?

Never. Anyone who asks is a scammer, including a message that seems to come from the team. We will not contact you first about your wallet.

What if I lose my 24 words?

Your wallet and the points linked to that address cannot be recovered. Write them on paper and keep them safe.

Can I use a pool?

The blocks are what is counted, so mine with your own address with the official miner. Pool mining is documented in the repository for people who run pools.

Can the testnet be reset?

Yes. Your points are kept: the team publishes the blocks and the leaderboard data at each snapshot.

Where do I ask a question?

On the Discord, or write to contact@vearl.org. To report a security problem, write to security@vearl.org and do not post it publicly.