Cuprate is an alternative and independent Monero node implementation that is focused on being fast, user-friendly, and backwards compatible with monerod
.
This project is currently a work-in-progress; the cuprated
node can be ran by users although it is not yet ready for production. This book contains brief sections documenting cuprated
usage, however, be aware that it is incomplete and missing sections.
To get started, see: Getting started
.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Cuprate.
Who?
Cuprate was started by SyntheticBird45 in early 2023 and was later joined by boog900, hinto-janai, and other contributors.
A few Cuprate contributors are funded by Monero's Community Crowdfunding System to work on Cuprate and occasionally monerod
.
What is cuprated
?
monerod
is the daemon of the Monero project, the Monero node.
cuprated
is the daemon of the Cuprate project, the Cuprate node.
Both operate on the same network, the Monero network, and are responsible for roughly the same tasks.
For more information on the role of alternative node implementations, see:
- https://clientdiversity.org
- https://bchfaq.com/knowledge-base/what-are-the-full-node-implementations-for-bitcoin-cash
- https://zfnd.org/zebra-stable-release
Does cuprated
replace monerod
?
No.
cuprated
cannot currently replace monerod
in production environments. With that said, there will be practical performance benefits for users to use cuprated
eventually.
Is it safe to run cuprated
?
⚠️ This project is still in development; do NOT use cuprated
for any serious purposes ⚠️
cuprated
is fine to run for non-serious purposes and has a similar attack surface to other network connected services.
See Resources
for information on what system resources cuprated
will use.
What files does cuprated
create?
See Resources/Disk
.
What can cuprated
currently do?
Cuprate's node (cuprated
) can currently:
- Sync the blockchain and transaction pool
- Broadcast and relay blocks and transactions
- Help other peers sync their blockchain
How fast does cuprated
sync?
The current full verification sync timings are around ~7.5x faster than monerod
.
In real terms, 16 hour full verification syncs and 4 hour fast-sync syncs have been reported on consumer grade hardware. On faster hardware (14 threads, 10Gbps networking), sub 2 hour fast-syncs have been reported.
Various testing results can be found here.
How to see status of cuprated
?
In the terminal running cuprated
, type status
.
Use the help
command to see the full list of commands.
How to tell cuprated
is fully synced?
cuprated
emits a message when it is fully synced: Synchronised with the network
.
It also logs its block height status when syncing, for example:
2025-05-01T22:17:10.270002Z INFO incoming_block{height=3402413 txs=66}: Successfully added block hash="e93464a7feea9b472dd734e61574e295f4b8f809c48ff78ef76d12111992ada7"
How big is the database?
As of May 1st 2025, cuprated
's database is ~270GB in size.
monerod
's database is ~225GB in size.
This is 1.2x larger.
This is planned to be improved in the future.
Is the database compatible with monerod
?
No.
The database cuprated
generates and uses cannot directly be used by monerod
and vice-versa. Supporting this is possible but there are no current plans to do so.
Can I connect a wallet to cuprated
?
Not yet.
Wallets require the daemon RPC API. This is actively being worked on to be backwards compatible with monerod
, although this is not yet available.
Can cuprated
be used with an anonymity network like Tor?
Not yet (directly).
Tor is planned to be integrated into cuprated
via arti
, although this is not yet available.
cuprated
won't start because of a "killswitch", why?
The current alpha builds of cuprated
contain killswitches that activate 1 week after the next release is out. If the killswitch activates, you must upgrade to the latest release.
The reasoning for why this exists can be found here: https://github.com/Cuprate/cuprate/pull/365.
What is the release schedule?
New versions of cuprated
are planned to release every 4 weeks.
See this GitHub issue for more details.
What is the versioning scheme?
cuprated
is currently in alpha (0.0.x
).
After sufficient testing and development, cuprated
will enter beta (0.x.y
) then stable (x.y.z
) releases.
See this GitHub issue for more details.
What is the current progress?
See this Reddit thread for a brief report on Cuprate's progress throughout 2024.
Things are always changing so feel free to join our Matrix channel and ask questions.
What is the current roadmap?
See this GitHub issue for Cuprate's rough 2025 roadmap.