b3chain / Testnet

B3Chain Testnet

The B3Chain public test network. Anyone can run a node, request free test coins from the faucet, mine blocks with the reference CPU miner, and watch the chain in the explorer. Test B3C has no monetary value; this network exists to soak-test the consensus rules and BLAKE3 PoW pipeline before mainnet launch.

Phase: 8a bootstrap Status: live Default port: 18533 (P2P)
This is a test network. Coins are valueless. The chain may be reset without notice if a critical bug is found.

1. Connect a node #

Build (or download) b3chaind from github.com/b3chain/b3chain on the b3chain-main branch (or any released v0.1.x-testnet tag), then run: 

b3chaind -chain=test

That's it. The DNS seed at testnet-seed.b3chain.org returns the operator-run seed nodes; your node will connect and start syncing the chain.

Connection parameters

SettingValue
Chain nametest
Magic bytesb3 c1 02 0e
P2P port18533
Default RPC port18534
Bech32 HRPtb3
HD coin_type1 (BIP44 testnet)
Genesis hash8c61fcbc6249f2518010fabc1589f91d35378f48757ef97323e8cb401103ae64
DNS seedtestnet-seed.b3chain.org

2. Get test coins #

Generate a new bech32 address with your wallet: 

b3chain-cli -chain=test getnewaddress "" bech32
# returns tb3...

Paste it into the faucet at faucet.b3chain.org. The faucet hands out 0.5 tB3C per request, with a 24-hour cooldown per IP and per destination address.

The faucet is a small Flask service in the public source tree: contrib/testnet/faucet/app.py.

3. Explore the chain #

A live block explorer is at explorer.b3chain.org. It is a deployment of btc-rpc-explorer pointed at one of the operator-run testnet nodes — nothing custom, so any compatible explorer can do the same.

Programmatic status is available as plain text at /testnet-status.txt.

4. Mine blocks #

Anyone can mine on testnet. The reference CPU miner from Phase 6 works as-is — it talks to your local node via JSON-RPC and submits valid blocks via submitblock. 

pip install blake3
b3chain-cli -chain=test getnewaddress "" bech32
# tb3...your-address...

python3 contrib/miner/b3chain-cpuminer.py \
    --rpcconnect=127.0.0.1 \
    --rpcport=18534 \
    --rpcuser=USER \
    --rpcpassword=PASS \
    --coinbaseaddr=tb3...your-address...

Testnet uses an early-difficulty-guard regime for the first 10000 blocks (nEarlyDifficultyGuardHeight in src/kernel/chainparams.cpp), so a single CPU thread can produce blocks at roughly the 10-minute target.

5. Operator notes #

The seed network is intentionally small at bootstrap: one operator-run node on the existing project server, plus two smaller nodes in different geographic regions for redundancy. Anyone can join at any time — just run b3chaind -chain=test.

Repository layout

PathWhat's there
contrib/deploy/bootstrap-testnet-node.sh Idempotent script: fresh Ubuntu host → running b3chaind testnet under systemd
contrib/testnet/faucet/ Flask faucet + systemd unit + installer
contrib/testnet/miner/ Always-on CPU miner systemd unit + installer
contrib/testnet/explorer/ btc-rpc-explorer Docker installer
contrib/testnet/monitor/ Cron-driven seed status snapshot ⇒ /testnet-status.txt

6. Found a bug? #

Testnet bugs are exactly what we want before mainnet. Report any consensus oddity, reorg longer than 2 blocks, sync stall, RPC inconsistency, or wallet weirdness via the channels described in /testing/reporting.html. Include the testnet block height, your node version (getnetworkinfo), and the journal log (journalctl -u b3chaind-testnet --since '1 hour ago').