PoUW Prover Setup

Overview

PoUW (Proof-of-Useful-Work) provers generate zero-knowledge proofs for Rivellum batches. Provers run the rivellum-pouwd daemon, which claims jobs from the PoUW job queue and submits completed proofs for rewards.

Prerequisites

Hardware Requirements

Component	Minimum	Recommended
CPU	8 cores	16+ cores (AVX2 support recommended)
RAM	32 GB	64+ GB
Storage	100 GB SSD	500 GB NVMe
Network	100 Mbps	1 Gbps

ZK proof generation is CPU-intensive. More cores and faster clock speeds directly improve proof throughput.

Software Requirements

Rust 1.78+ (for building from source)
Linux (Ubuntu 22.04+ recommended)
Network access to a Rivellum node

Installation

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/rivellumlabs/rivellum.git
cd rivellum
cargo build --release --bin rivellum-pouwd

The binary will be at ./target/release/rivellum-pouwd.

Configuration

The prover daemon connects to a Rivellum node to claim and submit jobs:

rivellum-pouwd \
    --node-url https://rpc.rivellum.network \
    --concurrency 4 \
    --poll-interval-ms 1000

Options

Flag	Description	Default
`--node-url`	URL of the Rivellum node RPC	Required
`--concurrency`	Maximum concurrent proof jobs	1
`--poll-interval-ms`	Polling interval for new jobs	5000

How It Works

Worker Loop

Daemon polls GET /v1/pouw/jobs/pending for available jobs
Claims a job via POST /v1/pouw/jobs/claim
Downloads the execution trace via the trace_ref
Validates the trace hash locally (BLAKE3)
Generates the ZK proof using the configured backend
Submits the proof via POST /v1/pouw/jobs/:id/submit
Renews the lease periodically if proof generation takes longer than expected
On failure, reports via POST /v1/pouw/jobs/:id/fail

Graceful Shutdown

The daemon uses a CancellationToken for clean shutdown. Send SIGTERM or SIGINT:

# Graceful shutdown
kill -TERM $(pidof rivellum-pouwd)

In-progress proofs will complete before the daemon exits.

Monitoring

Prover Metrics

# Check PoUW system status
curl https://rpc.rivellum.network/v1/pouw/system/status

# View your prover statistics
curl https://rpc.rivellum.network/v1/pouw/provers

# Check Prometheus metrics
curl https://rpc.rivellum.network/v1/pouw/metrics

Dead-Letter Queue

Failed jobs (after max_retries attempts) go to the dead-letter queue:

curl https://rpc.rivellum.network/v1/pouw/dead-letter

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
No jobs available	Network idle or all jobs claimed	Wait; check `/v1/pouw/jobs/pending`
Lease expired	Proof generation too slow	Increase concurrency; upgrade hardware
Proof rejected	Trace mismatch or invalid proof	Check trace hash; ensure compatible ZK backend
Connection refused	Node unreachable	Verify `--node-url`; check node is running

For economic details on prover rewards, see PoUW Economics. For the technical specification, see PoUW Specification.