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Mining & animica up

One command turns a machine into an Animica miner. animica up is the unified miner: it runs Proof-of-Work, useful-work (AI/ENA), GPU train/serve, and Studio functions from the same process — and the native CPU miner ships by default. 

pip install animica      # complete client; native CPU miner included by default
animica up               # unified miner: PoW + useful-work + GPU train/serve + Studio

What animica up does

Proof-of-Work

Native SHA3-256 CPU hashing (animica-fastpow) across all cores, with a pure-Python fallback.

Useful-work (PoIES)

AI/ENA jobs from the AICF lane — useful computation that also secures the chain.

GPU train / serve

If a GPU is present, the same rig trains and serves models (torch/transformers ship in the base install).

Studio functions

The rig also runs serverless Studio functions submitted to the fleet, settled in ANM.

The native CPU miner

animica-fastpow is a small C extension (optimized tiny_sha3 keccak) that gives the miner real multi-core SHA3-256 hashrate instead of pure-Python hashing. It ships with pip install animica, so there's nothing extra to do. The miner imports it automatically and falls back to a pure-Python loop if it isn't present — it's an accelerator, never a hard requirement.

  • Prebuilt wheels for Linux, macOS (Intel + Apple Silicon) and Windows (cp38–cp313).
  • Tolerant build: no wheel and no C compiler → installs a pure-Python no-op; the install never breaks.
  • From source needs a C compiler (gcc/clang, or MSVC Build Tools on Windows).

Install options

pip install animica

The complete client. Mine, run a node, use the wallet, deploy Python contracts, run animica up, and use the Studio SDK. The native CPU miner (animica-fastpow) is included BY DEFAULT. What most people want.

pip install "animica[all]"

Everything above PLUS every optional extra: Qt desktop-wallet QR codes, the full distributed Studio client (cloudpickle + omni-sdk for on-chain ANM escrow), and all server/operator deps pinned. Quote the brackets so zsh/macOS doesn't glob them.

pip install animica-fastpow

Just the native accelerator (prebuilt wheels for Linux/macOS/Windows). Already bundled by pip install animica — only needed to install it standalone.

To install only the accelerator via the miner extra: pip install "animica[fast]".

FAQ

Do I need to install the native miner separately?

No. animica-fastpow ships by default with pip install animica, so animica up gets real multi-core SHA3-256 hashrate out of the box. Its build is tolerant: on a platform with no prebuilt wheel and no C compiler it installs a pure-Python no-op and the miner falls back — so it never breaks the install.

What's the difference between animica and animica[all]?

pip install animica is the complete client — mining, node, wallet, contracts, animica up, and the Studio SDK, with the native CPU miner included by default. pip install "animica[all]" adds every optional extra on top (Qt QR codes, the full distributed Studio client, and pinned server/operator dependencies). Most people want plain animica; use [all] for the kitchen sink or pool/API infra.

Does mining require a GPU?

No. The CPU PoW + useful-work lanes run anywhere. A GPU is optional — if present, animica up also trains and serves models and earns from those lanes too. The base install ships the GPU/AI stack (torch, transformers, accelerate) so it's GPU-ready with no extra step.

See also: Animica Studio SDK · Become a compute provider · All docs