Miner onboarding
Miner FAQ & troubleshooting
Short answers to the questions new miners ask most, and what to do when the miner does not start or is not scored.
Status · 5 October 2026
REAX is launching soon. It is not registered on testnet or mainnet and there is no netuid yet. Answers describe release 1.1 (pre-release 1.1.0rc1); details can change before launch.
FAQ
Is REAX live? Can I mine today?
Not yet. There is no netuid, and the code and images become public at launch. You can prepare a wallet and a server and rehearse registration on a local chain.
What does a REAX miner actually do?
It runs one of the System1 decision models (s1-fast, Plumb-4B, at launch) exactly as production runs it and answers short decision questions from validators: a situation plus a fixed set of options, answered with a probability for each option. Validators check the answers by computing them themselves.
I have never used Bittensor. Can I still do this?
Yes, if you can rent a Linux GPU server and copy commands into a terminal. The Talisman path keeps your money key in a normal browser wallet, you register on reax.dev/register with a click, and the guide has every command for the server.
Which GPU do I need?
For s1-fast one NVIDIA GPU with at least 24 GB. Measured and within tolerance: RTX 4090, RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell, H100 80 GB. Other cards are likely fine but unmeasured; run the calibration script first. s1-pro (later) needs 80 to 96 GB.
Can I bring my own model or a faster quantised version?
No. Validators compare your answers with the pinned model to within a small tolerance. An FP8 build, a different model or a changed prompt drifts too far, loses rounds and can reset your score. Speed only counts for 20 % of a round and is capped, so a cheaper substitute gains nothing. A separate competition track for better models is designed but switched off; see Competition mining.
May I forward validator requests to an API instead of running a GPU?
The rules allow it; answers are judged on correctness and speed only. Expect miner pay to fall over time (directing part of the miner emission away from miners and many admitted miners), which favours miners who run the open weights efficiently themselves. See the guide.
Can I run several miners?
Each hotkey needs its own registration (and fee) and serves one model. One s1-fast GPU answers about 30 (RTX 4090) to 60 (H100) decisions per second, far more than the validators send to one miner, so several hotkeys can share a GPU technically. Each needs its own port and its own commitment.
How much will I earn?
We do not know and we make no promise. Rewards are a share of the subnet's emission, paid as the subnet's alpha token staked on your hotkey. The amount depends on validator weights, the number of miners and subnet settings, all of which change. Plan for miner pay to decrease over time. Read costs and earnings.
Is there a REAX token or sale?
No sale. Like every Bittensor subnet, the subnet has an alpha token created by the chain. REAX makes no statement about its value.
What happens when my miner is offline?
Every missed round counts as zero in your moving average, so your score drops quickly and recovers within about an hour after you return. Long downtime makes you the lowest-ranked miner, and once your immunity has ended the next registration can replace you.
How do I update?
Follow the release announcements. When the protocol or the model manifest changes, update before the announced switch time. A new manifest means a new commitment, and your score restarts from zero.
Do miners see customer data?
No. In release 1.1 miners receive only freshly generated synthetic test decisions from validators. Customer traffic to miners is switched off.
What about the GDPR tier?
The EU (GDPR) tier is a separate, contracted operator programme with its own admission. Business inquiries: reax.co/apply.
Troubleshooting
| You see | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
AttributeError: module 'typer._click.exceptions' has no attribute 'Exit' from any btcli command | typer 0.27.2 is incompatible with btcli 11.1.0. Run ~/btcli-venv/bin/pip install "typer<0.27.2". |
| Sidecar stays "starting" or "unhealthy", logs mention a weights or hash mismatch | The weights folder is not the pinned revision, or you mounted a Hugging Face cache path (its files are symlinks that break inside the container). Download with hf download … --revision 55de037801a8a9b9de3db5c0e16cef86210c2186 --local-dir /srv/reax/plumb-4b and point REAX_S1_FAST_WEIGHTS at that folder. |
| Sidecar fails with a CUDA or driver error | The driver is too old for CUDA 13 (needs R580 or newer), or the NVIDIA Container Toolkit is missing. Test with docker run --rm --gpus all nvidia/cuda:13.0.0-base-ubuntu24.04 nvidia-smi. |
the s1-fast runtime at http://127.0.0.1:8101 did not answer an authenticated test decision | The sidecar is not up yet, or the two containers read different token files. Both mount deploy/secrets/runtime-token; recreate it, chmod 0600, and start both with the same REAX_UID. |
configuration error: … REAX_RUNTIME_TOKEN_FILE … or permission denied on the token or hotkey | The containers run as your user id. Start with REAX_UID=$(id -u) REAX_GID=$(id -g) and make sure the files belong to you. |
hotkey 5… is not registered on subnet N | Registration did not go through, or REAX_NETUID, REAX_WALLET_NAME or REAX_WALLET_HOTKEY does not match. Check with btcli query uid --netuid N --hotkey <HOTKEY_ADDRESS>. If you were replaced after your immunity period, register again. |
cannot load hotkey reax/miner1 from /wallets: … | The miner reads ~/.bittensor/wallets/<REAX_WALLET_NAME>/hotkeys/<REAX_WALLET_HOTKEY> of the user who starts compose (mounted read-only at /wallets). Check names and location. |
REAX_EXTERNAL_IP is required to publish the miner endpoint | Set REAX_EXTERNAL_IP to the server's public IP address in deploy/miner.env (or REAX_SERVE_AXON=0 if your endpoint is already published on chain and you do not want the miner to update it). |
could not publish commitment … | The chain limits how often a hotkey may write. The miner retries every 10 minutes; nothing to do unless it keeps failing for hours. |
served ok=0 for more than 15 minutes | Validators cannot reach you. Test curl http://<PUBLIC_IP>:8091/health from another network; open TCP 8091 in the server firewall and your provider's panel. Make sure the log shows published endpoint <your current IP>:8091 (after an IP change, restart the miner so it republishes). A home connection behind NAT needs port forwarding. |
rejected a request with 401 in the logs | Usually a wrong clock: signed requests older than 10 seconds are refused. Enable NTP (timedatectl set-ntp true). |
| Answers are served but the score stays at 0 or keeps resetting | Your answers do not match the reference: a modified image, a different model or quantisation, or an unmeasured GPU that drifts. Run the pinned images unchanged; on an unmeasured GPU run the calibration script. |
Registration fails with "insufficient balance", MEV-shielded submission needs free TAO … or a spending limit | The fee plus transaction fee is more than your free balance, or the price rose between reading and sending. Check btcli subnets burn-cost again and top up. |
BadProof or AncientBirthBlock from btcli tx burned-register | The shielded registration took too long to be included (seen on fast local practice chains). Nothing was charged; run the same command again. |
| The Talisman pop-up never appears on reax.dev/register | Unlock Talisman first. If you clicked away the connection request, open Talisman → Settings → Connected Sites and allow reax.dev, then reload the page. The account must be a Substrate (not Ethereum) account. |
error: MEV shielding cannot wrap the extension signer from btcli tx burned-register … --signer extension | btcli 11.1.0 does not let a browser wallet sign registrations. Use reax.dev/register with Talisman, or a btcli coldkey without --signer extension. |
Still stuck? Collect the output of docker compose -f deploy/docker-compose.s1.yml logs --tail 100 (it contains no secrets; still check before you share) and ask in the public REAX channel announced at launch. Never share a recovery phrase, a hotkey file or the runtime token.