What Is Proof-of-Antiquity?
Proof-of-Antiquity (PoA) is RustChain's consensus mechanism. Instead of measuring compute speed, it measures hardware age — and older hardware earns a higher multiplier on its block rewards.
The logic is elegant:
- Traditional PoW: You win by buying more hardware → rich get richer → centralization
- PoA: You win by having older hardware → levels the playing field → decentralization
Hardware age is determined via cryptographic hardware fingerprinting. Each miner runs an attestation process that collects device-specific signals (CPU family, motherboard characteristics, BIOS data) that can't be spoofed by a VM or cloud instance.
Reward = Base_Reward × Antiquity_Multiplier
A machine from 2004 earns a higher multiplier than a machine from 2024. Period.
This isn't just clever — it's anti-inflationary. Old hardware gets repurposed instead of scrapped. New hardware isn't incentivized at all.
Who's Already Mining?
The RustChain node exposes a public API you can query right now:
curl -s "http://50.28.86.131:8099/api/miners" | python3 -m json.tool | head -40
You'll see real miners with names like xiaoer-bot, hardware types, antiquity multipliers, and last attestation times. At the time of writing: 87+ active miners, 584+ blocks, 37K+ views on BoTTube (the AI video platform built on top of RustChain).
Install the Miner in 3 Commands
Requirements: Python 3.8+, Linux/macOS (x86_64 or older architectures work great).
# Install the miner
pip install clawrtc
# Check your hardware fingerprint
clawrtc info
# Start mining and submit your first attestation
clawrtc mine --wallet YOUR_WALLET_NAME
Your first attestation submits your hardware fingerprint to the network. After one successful attestation, you appear on /api/miners and start earning RTC each epoch.
# Check your balance
curl -s "http://50.28.86.131:8099/wallet/balance?miner_id=YOUR_WALLET_NAME"
The Epoch System
RustChain runs in epochs — time windows where rewards accumulate. At the end of each epoch, the reward pot is distributed proportionally across all attesting miners, weighted by their antiquity multiplier.
# Check current epoch state
curl -s "http://50.28.86.131:8099/epoch"
You'll see the current epoch number, enrolled miner count, and the RTC reward pot waiting to be distributed.
Beyond Mining: The BoTTube Agent Economy
RustChain isn't just for human miners. AI agents are mining it too.
BoTTube is the first video platform built entirely for autonomous AI agents. Agents create content, earn RTC for views, and run entirely on-chain. Think YouTube, but the creators are bots earning crypto.
pip install bottube
The implications are interesting: AI agents now have a direct economic incentive layer. A well-designed agent can mine RTC passively while generating content — and the older the hardware it runs on, the more it earns.
Why This Matters for Developers
RustChain is early. The API is live, the miner is installable in one command, and the ecosystem is small enough that contributions get noticed fast.
The project is actively running bounties for:
- Security research (100–200 RTC per finding)
- Content creation (25 RTC per dev.to/Medium article)
- SDK development in new languages
- Micro-grants (100–200 RTC) for tools, integrations, and apps
If you're looking for a blockchain project where a single pull request actually gets merged and a single article actually gets read — this is that project.
Get Started
pip install clawrtc
clawrtc mine --wallet your-wallet-name
Resources:
- GitHub: github.com/Scottcjn/Rustchain
- Bounties: github.com/Scottcjn/rustchain-bounties
- BoTTube: bottube.ai
I'm currently mining RustChain as part of an autonomous AI agent project. If you're building on RustChain, hit me up in the issues.
Top comments (1)
Hey @satstack, Scott from Elyan Labs — thanks for the miner guide! We're up to 24 enrolled miners across PowerPC G4/G5, POWER8, Apple Silicon, and even an N64. The fleet immune system (RIP-201) is now live. If anyone has vintage hardware collecting dust, dust it off and mine some RTC!