Networks & parameters
All consensus constants live in one class per network under lib/src/NetworkParams*.java. The network= config key selects the class. Besides mainnet and the public testnet there is a 1-second-block regtest and three small networks that exercise sharding.
Comparison
| Parameter | Mainnet | Testnet | Regtest | testshard | demoshard | regshard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
network= | snowblossom, mainnet | testnet, teapot | regtest, spoon | testshard | demoshard | regshard |
| Internal name (in tips, seeds) | snowblossom | teapot | spoon | testshard | demoshard | regshard |
| Address prefix | snow | snowtest | snowreg | snowtestshard | snowdemoshard | snowshardo |
| BIP-44 coin type | 2338 | 2339 | 2339 | 2340 | 2340 | 2340 |
| Port / TLS port | 2338 / 2348 | 2339 / 2349 | 2340 / 2350 | 2361 / 2362 | 2371 / 2372 | 2341 / 2351 |
| Block time target | 10 min | 10 min | 1 s | 10 min | 10 min | 1 s |
| Minimum difficulty (max target) | 25 | 22 | 11 | 15 | 15 | 13 |
| Average weight (per mille) | 10 | 10 | 10 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Max block size (policy) | 3,800,000 | 8,000,000 | 3,800,000 | 32,000,000 | 4,000,000 | 8,388,608 |
| Shard fork threshold | 1,900,000 | 4,000,000 | 1,900,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 0 |
| Min shard length | 144 | 144 | 144 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Max shard id | 62 | 512 | 1022 | 30 | 6 | 6 |
| Max shard skew | 6 blocks | |||||
| Max clock skew | 45 s | |||||
| Block-zero remark | 00000000000000000019d1562bd02674302db7ddd6ccdb77be3e6daaa8eb8a51 | testnet2-20180516 | it begins | it begins | it begins | it begins |
| Single-host networks allowed | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Snow fields | 12 × 1 GiB … 2 TiB | 11 × 1 MiB … 1 GiB | 11 × 1 MiB … 1 GiB | 11 × 1 MiB … 1 GiB | 11 × 1 MiB … 1 GiB | 11 × 1 MiB … 1 GiB |
“Single-host” networks skip the sync check so a lone node can mine its own chain (regtest). Note the testnet max shard id 512 is not of the 2k−2 form the others use; with it shard 255 can still split, giving 257 leaves rather than the 256 the source comment mentions.
Activation heights
| Feature | Mainnet | Testnet | Shard test nets | Regtest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Output locks (SIP-3: requirements) | 35,000 | 16,000 | 0 | 0 |
| Output extras (SIP-3: FBO, ids) | 35,000 | 16,000 | 0 | 0 |
| Input value check (SIP-4) | 151,680 | 131,000 | 0 | never |
| Sharding / header v2 (SIP-5) | 211,600 | 170,000 | 10 | never |
| Post-quantum signatures (SIP-6) | 358,700 | 280,890 | never | never |
Seed nodes
Mainnet
DNS seeds (all A/AAAA records are used): seed.snowblossom.org, node.snowblossom.cluelessperson.com, snow-tx1.snowblossom.org, snow-de1.snowblossom.org, snow-a.1209k.com, snow-b.1209k.com. Pinned TLS URIs used by wallets when no node is configured:
grpc+tls://snow-a.1209k.com?key=node:eaws55vusncn05dedphrval0apyfw7vg7s22ldlg
grpc+tls://snow-b.1209k.com?key=node:nzfjcdmdafus4t7wwec0mvejm3u8m5dkmen7nyew
grpc+tls://snow-tx1.snowblossom.org?key=node:fgmfupck7seaq8t2gl6plzs5vh7nyl6656wscgq3
grpc+tls://snow-de1.snowblossom.org?key=node:plv8gca5ucqm0w34l3y0pwcpg8vj2u9qu530q50d
grpc+tls://snow-tx1.snowblossom.org:443?key=node:fgmfupck7seaq8t2gl6plzs5vh7nyl6656wscgq3
grpc+tls://snow-de1.snowblossom.org:443?key=node:plv8gca5ucqm0w34l3y0pwcpg8vj2u9qu530q50dPlaintext fallbacks (32-bit JVMs): the same four hosts on the default port and the two snowblossom.org hosts on port 80.
Other networks
- Testnet:
seed-testnet.snowblossom.org,snow-test-a.1209k.com,snow-test-b.1209k.com,testnet-seed-v4.snowblossom.org - Regtest:
seed-regtest.snowblossom.org· testshard:snow-testshard.1209k.com,hippo.1209k.com· regshard:seed-reg-shard.snowblossom.org· demoshard: none
Snow fields per network
Field seeds are <internal name>.<n> (snowblossom.0, teapot.3, …). Mainnet fields are listed on the Snow fields page. The small networks use 1 MiB × 2n fields (n = 0…10) with one difficulty bit between activations:
| # | Name | Size | Testnet (act. 22–32) | Regtest (11–21) | testshard (18–28) | demoshard (18–28) | regshard (19–29) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | cricket | 1 MiB | bacc447f89ee2b623721083ed9437842 | da4eb1edd0969e39f86a139b7b43ba0e | 354baa73a383b8490cb8823a38c18ebf | ffcafdc2dae74d95be5b0574a1bef52e | cfb81749b78efc20e8cc4343f824c9fa |
| 1 | shrew | 2 MiB | 27aa4228bf39c6b6a5164ea3e050bfcc | 6a52fd075f6f581a9e6fb7c0a30ec8fe | 1fa306514996ec2402ff88c2014753aa | 0456d4b3ee8d66736344cf2f07edda0c | 7f15a7aa5efc42353f431e6cbe8a2c88 |
| 2 | stoat | 4 MiB | 47873faca24808fbb334af74ffa3ce08 | 4f1a1233f12f08cdf15b73e49cc1636f | 81c021376ca7bbc9e95e29a9bc4540f7 | 8ca5c4675f0f47755351cb41aa06696c | e0158ab6fb8c1550a3a4da0dead21cdc |
| 3 | ocelot | 8 MiB | 97f8303394d267dfe4bf65243bd3740e | 4497d77025a5edf059ad5ab8f069a015 | 9574e0e52ab38fcce62c758651842251 | fe410a0fdbef0cf5ace856f383d2fdc3 | 2016e50974facef60276c9b5c849f2f8 |
| 4 | pudu | 16 MiB | 3587f96c4e6651dd900e462d3404c03d | ee9753a4d6f4dcb64faca5113f66a75d | 83e5de1a60d119cd0a06bbe130800abd | 0dbc8bdc0466a528debf682637e6f01e | 57daabe01e9dbf7807eba189da61f6c7 |
| 5 | badger | 32 MiB | ca1cedce13472a2e030c5c91933879a7 | 4c8395c86c195a997af873ec34ba5366 | b4df45d1b161dae5facd7b45a773d688 | 54799b27127a995f0d7e8fe8e12832e7 | c671013f8bbf9c689ea66d0381fdfdf4 |
| 6 | capybara | 64 MiB | 0b3297f9b20e38ecfd66bc881a19412f | 64b276dd37f50790acf749eeeed3d56e | c5e3ef1bc746a78882a86bc5e2952565 | 9de79baf819f55d26a693d3dad8e5eb1 | e02aadbc39e2554c569d02fc724b4e95 |
| 7 | llama | 128 MiB | 72ec45325df2b918aaba7891491e0ad0 | 08bfebc48f74292e9714238533c7859b | 5df17dfc7907ee0816077795ddd6701d | 196a15c50d2a8352fc43aa47bbe410fc | 5110f56663773a6633ea1144aa32e4ad |
| 8 | bumbear / bugbear | 256 MiB | 6b1b0b675d6ecd3f6a07a924eb920754 | c9ed0de2305a244e7e43d2757b1202c2 | 28c012cac8bf777d6187bbfbd23d9a30 | 0e8acc252f6f2e1218a5b9a9c3a465b8 | 0d1dd0394069830ade8049f6f0973377 |
| 9 | hippo | 512 MiB | 25cee1c0e6b5e6c7bbeee0756e0ca6cd | 46297d54bdd557c4098143e177edaaca | 4dc24fe284fa71d7f95060b947ebb0c0 | d3b6bcf094dee505fbb0212df7390df5 | 74952fbc546e4026a5d1e295dd95b3eb |
| 10 | shai-hulud | 1 GiB | b30e10f6c72b72f244cfddf5932f65f4 | 656670bb7ff68a3c769e58a213c283e4 | d19fcf03622b745bce14c3666beca537 | 42646cb78c40a7cd28f6fd37319edb8f | cbd186ceab88649ff178c9e15910b265 |
Field 8 is spelled “bumbear” on testnet, regtest and regshard and “bugbear” on mainnet, testshard and demoshard. Testnet fields are on the snowfields page as a single torrent; they are small enough to generate in minutes with tools/snowfall-teapot.sh.
Base-class defaults
Values every network inherits from NetworkParams unless overridden: max target = difficulty 24, average weight 10, block time 600,000 ms, block-zero remark “it begins”, clock skew 45,000 ms, ports 2338/2348, min shard length 144, max shard id 1022, max shard skew 6, fork threshold = max block size / 2, gRPC message size = max block size + 1,000,000, all SIP activation heights = never.
Running a private network
network=regtest with a single node: set bypass_sync_check=true (or rely on allowSingleHost), generate the tiny regtest fields with tools/snowfall-spoon.sh, run SnowBlossomMiner against the node and block 0 will be mined with remark “it begins” at difficulty 11 - a few seconds per block on any machine. The shard networks (regshard: fork threshold 0, min length 10) split into four shards after 20 blocks, which is how the sharding code is tested (systemtests/).