# How I Run POP Miner in Hemi?

*Hemi Testnet Airdrop*

By [PokoBlue](https://paragraph.com/@pokoblue) · 2024-09-23

hemi, airdrop, validator, testnet, node, pop miner

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When I choose projects for airdrop farming, I have a simple rule: it should have raised over $20M. This project hasn’t quite hit that number yet, but it got me thinking — there’s huge potential for growth in the upcoming Series A or B rounds. Plus, I’ve noticed that projects backed by Binance Labs often offer more airdrops than those without their support!

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/60243294d783b8d8994b281dc28d6368.jpg)

First things first, head over to their website and connect your wallet. Don’t forget to enter the referral code and connect with X as well. By the way, I’d really appreciate it if you use my referral code — it’d be a kind favor! 😊

URL: [https://points.absinthe.network/hemi/start](https://points.absinthe.network/hemi/start)

Ref: 23ccef7d

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/747e973ac6e480f2d5e87d27602db67c.png)

Once you’re signed in, just head to the quests section and complete the social quests.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/8f5004f0cd99c07965265730e59dfd0f.png)

The quests are actually quite easy: faucet, bridge, swap, mint, create transactions. But when I checked out their dev channel and docs, I found something interesting — there’s a POP Miner CLI.

Normally, being a miner requires special hardware like ASICs on the mainnet, which isn’t for me since it involves a huge investment and feels like a red ocean. But for a testnet like this, I’m definitely up for giving it a try. Let’ s start.

### 1\. Setup & Installation

There are two binary versions: windows and linux. In Windows, it’s usually straightforward — just download, double-click, set it up, and let it run. However, in the Linux world, things are a bit more complicated, but it’s more resilient and easier to maintain in the long run. We will focus on Linux.

#### 1.1 Download Binary — POP Miner CLI

    #download
    wget https://github.com/hemilabs/heminetwork/releases/download/v0.4.3/heminetwork_v0.4.3_linux_amd64.tar.gz
    
    #extract
    tar xvf heminetwork_v0.2.8_linux_amd64.tar.gz
    
    #navigate
    cd heminetwork_v0.2.8_linux_amd64

#### 1.2 Generate key

You’ll need a private key as part of the configuration to get this running. Fortunately, the binary provides commands to handle this. Here’s how:

    #inside binary dirctory,execute and it will create json at home directory
    ./keygen -secp256k1 -json -net="testnet" > ~/popm-address.json
    
    #open json
    cat ~/popm-address.json

You should get something like this:

    {
    "ethereum_address": "0x51xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxA62",
    "network": "testnet",
    "private_key": "0aecxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx38a",
    "public_key": "034a65xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxf88e",
    "pubkey_hash": "mxqxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxqoMj"
    }

Additionally, their official documentation includes a well define business glossary that explains everything in detail. You can check it out below:

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/2ef555f50c7c907154f2f1d601868951.png)

#### 1.3 Get tBtc faucet in discord

Now, going back to the key we created, there’s a `pubkey_hash` for the BTC address. You’ll need some tBTC to cover gas fees—at least 0.002 tBTC.

Head over to grab the faucet from their Discord → faucet channel, and you’ll be ready to go!

Note: Make sure to use the `tbtc-faucet` command in Discord. The regular `faucet` command is for ETH, but we need tBTC for this.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/4465286ea464ffb4fb1e86efd0455251.png)

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/25e184cbc71c22b54495dbcf64d75956.png)

### 2\. Create environment variable and service file

Actually, the official documentation is much simpler than this. You just execute the binary and check the output in the command line. However, I prefer doing it this way since it’s easier to maintain in the long run.

#### 2.1 Create env file

    sudo nano /etc/popmd_env

Inside nano, set variable:

    #repalce with your private key
    export POPM_BTC_PRIVKEY=<private_key>
    export POPM_STATIC_FEE=<fee_per_vB_integer>
    export POPM_BFG_URL=wss://testnet.rpc.hemi.network/v1/ws/public

Remember to replace the `<private_key>` with your private key (step 1.2). Also, set the `POPM_STATIC_FEE` to 50, as recommended in the official guide.

#### 2.2 Create Service File

Before copying and pasting, make sure to update the path to reflect your username. You need to modify the paths below to correspond to your specific username.

**Change from:**

WorkingDirectory=/home/`<user>`/heminetwork\_v0.4.3\_linux\_amd64  
ExecStart=/home/`<user>`/heminetwork\_v0.4.3\_linux\_amd64/popmd

**to**

WorkingDirectory=/home/pokoblue/heminetwork\_v0.4.3\_linux\_amd64  
ExecStart=/home/pokoblue/heminetwork\_v0.4.3\_linux\_amd64/popmd

> Note: Replace “pokoblue” with your actual username.

    sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/popmd.service > /dev/null << EOF
    [Unit]
    Description=PoPM Service
    After=network.target
    
    [Service]
    EnvironmentFile=/etc/popmd_env
    WorkingDirectory=/home/<user>/heminetwork_v0.4.3_linux_amd64
    ExecStart=/home/<user>/heminetwork_v0.4.3_linux_amd64/popmd
    Restart=always
    RestartSec=5
    
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target
    EOF

> Note: replace <user> with your username in both WorkingDirectory and ExecStart

#### 2.3 Next, load, run and check status

Once the service file is ready, we’ll register and run it. After that, we can check the result to make sure it’s running smoothly.

    # Reload systemd to recognize the new service
    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
    
    # Enable the service to start on boot
    sudo systemctl enable popmd.service
    
    # Start the service
    sudo systemctl start popmd.service
    
    # Check the status of the service
    sudo systemctl status popmd.service

You shoud get something like this:

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/99c724d901c80f54809a3011b47b90b6.png)

If you want to view the log file, use this command:

    sudo journalctl -u popmd.service -f
    

This will display the real-time logs for the service. You should get something like this.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/e3db69d3ded970eabd347e37951e3f01.png)

### 3\. Check it On-Chain

To check the on-chain transaction, search for your account at the following URL: [https://mempool.space](https://mempool.space)

You should get something like this.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/ab8581cf5c264e7a183c5046840f3c62.png)

Observe that your faucet balance will gradually decrease, as it’s being used for PoP BTC CLI. If that’s happening, you’re on the right track — it’s pretty cool! Get ready for the next quest from the team. Enjoy

Thank yo for reading.

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*Originally published on [PokoBlue](https://paragraph.com/@pokoblue/hemi-popminer-setup)*