Zcash.conf Guide

Below contains information for additional configuration of the zcash.conf file.

Notes:

• A blank zcash.conf file will run zcashd on mainnet.

• The most important setting to set is which network, mainnet, testnet, and regtest, zcashd to run. The other settings allow optimization of zcashd and how it interacts with other components it services.

• You can have multiple configuration files, and run zcashd with a flag -conf=<file> to run with a specific config file. We suggest keeping various configuration files to suit different needs, rather than editing your configuration file as needed.

• By default, the config file zcashd tries is $HOME/.zcash/zcash.conf on Debian and Windows, and /Users/yourusername/Library/Application\ Support/Zcash/zcash.conf on MacOS.

Network-Related Settings

Parameter	Description & Example
testnet	Run on the test network instead of the real zcash network. testnet=1
regtest	Run a regression test network regtest=1
proxy	Connect via a SOCKS5 proxy proxy=127.0.0.1:9050
bind	Bind to given address and always listen on it. Use [host]:port notation for IPv6 bind=<addr>
whitebind	Bind to given address and whitelist peers connecting to it. Use [host]:port notation for IPv6 whitebind=<addr>

Quick Primer on addnode vs connect

Let’s say for instance you use addnode=4.2.2.4 addnode will connect you to and tell you about the nodes connected to 4.2.2.4. In addition it will tell the other nodes connected to it that you exist so they can connect to you. Connect will not do the above when you ‘connect’ to it. It will only connect you to 4.2.2.4 and no one else. So if you’re behind a firewall, or have other problems finding nodes, add some using ‘addnode’. If you want to stay private, use ‘connect’ to only connect to “trusted” nodes. If you run multiple nodes on a LAN, there’s no need for all of them to open lots of connections. Instead ‘connect’ them all to one node that is port forwarded and has lots of connections.

Thanks goes to [Noodle] on Freenode.

Parameter	Description & Example
addnode	Use as many addnode= settings as you like to connect to specific peers addnode=69.164.218.197 addnode=10.0.0.2:8233
connect	Alternatively use as many connect= settings as you like to connect ONLY to specific peers connect=69.164.218.197 connect=10.0.0.1:8233
listen	Listening mode, enabled by default except when ‘connect’ is being used listen=1
maxconnections	Maximum number of inbound+outbound connections. maxconnections=6

JSON-RPC Options

Controlling a running Zcash/zcashd process

Parameter	Description & Example
addnode	Use as many addnode= settings as you like to connect to specific peers addnode=69.164.218.197 addnode=10.0.0.2:8233
server	Tells zcashd to accept JSON-RPC commands (set as default if not specified) server=1
rpcbind	Bind to given address to listen for JSON-RPC connections. Use [host]:port notation for IPv6. This option can be specified multiple times (default: bind to all interfaces) rpcbind=<addr>
rpcuser	If you set an rpcpassword using that option, you must also set rpcuser. rpcuser=<username>
rpcpassword	If you specify this option, be sure it is sufficiently-secure, see the notes below. When no rpcpassword option is specified, the daemon now uses a special ‘cookie’ file for authentication. This file is generated with random content when the daemon starts, and deleted when it exits. Its contents are used as an authentication token. Read access to this file controls who can access through RPC. By default it is stored in the data directory but its location can be overridden with the option -rpccookiefile. rpcpassword=<password> Warning You should still set a secure password (or rely on the auth cookie that is generated when you don’t supply the rpcpassword option) even if you don’t expose the RPC port to external interfaces, because of the existence of DNS rebinding attacks (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_rebinding for more information). To generate a password that contains enough randomness to protect your keys, you could use the following command (on Linux)… $ dd if=/dev/random bs=32 count=1 2>/dev/null | base64
rpcclienttimeout	How many seconds Zcash will wait for a complete RPC HTTP request. after the HTTP connection is established. rpcclienttimeout=30
rpcallowip	By default, only RPC connections from localhost are allowed. Specify as many rpcallowip= settings as you require to allow insecure connections from other hosts, either as a single IPv4/IPv6 or with a subnet specification. Without further security controls, an attacker who can see your network traffic will be able to take over your node. Warning Using the RPC port over a remote interface is NOT RECOMMENDED, because that will cause the rpcpassword to be transmitted over the network unencrypted, allowing any observer to steal your keys + Zcash and take over the OS account running zcashd (see https://github.com/zcash/zcash/issues/1497). rpcallowip=127.0.0.1/255.255.255.0 rpcallowip=127.0.0.1/24 rpcallowip=::1/128
rpcport	Listen for RPC connections on this TCP port: rpcport=83232
rpcconnect	You can use Zcash or zcashd to send commands to Zcash/zcashd running on another host using this option: rpcconnect=127.0.0.1

Transaction Fee

Parameter	Description & Example
sendfreetransactions	Send transactions as zero-fee transactions if possible (default: 0) sendfreetransactions=1
txconfirmtarget	Create transactions that have enough fees (or priority) so they are likely to # begin confirmation within n blocks (default: 1). This setting is overridden by the -paytxfee option. txconfirmtarget=n

Miscellaneous Options

Parameter	Description & Example
gen	Enable attempt to mine Zcash. gen=1
txindex	Maintain a full transaction index, used by the getrawtransaction rpc, partitioncheck, pow, proxy, prune, rand, reindex, rpc, selectcoins, tor. txindex=1
genproclimit	Set the number of threads to be used for mining Zcash (-1 = all cores). genproclimit=1
equihashsolver	Specify a different Equihash solver (e.g. “tromp”) to try to mine Zcash faster when gen=1. equihashsolver=default
keypool	Pre-generate this many public/private key pairs, so wallet backups will be valid for both prior transactions and several dozen future transactions. keypool=100
paytxfee	Pay an optional transaction fee every time you send Zcash. Transactions with fees are more likely than free transactions to be included in generated blocks, so may be validated sooner. This setting does not affect private transactions created with z_sendmany paytxfee=0.00