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Become a prover ​

A Prova prover stores client files and posts cryptographic proofs that the bytes are still there. In return, the prover earns a slice of the deal's payment for every successful proof.

This page is for operators. If you're a client, see Welcome.

Quick reality check ​

Before you set up a prover, sanity-check the economics:

  • Capacity: typical solo prover starts at 1–10 TB. You can scale to PB if you want.
  • Bandwidth: a real symmetric link. You're fetching client uploads and serving retrievals.
  • Stake: you must lock USDC equal to a percentage of the bytes you commit. If you fail proofs, this gets slashed.
  • Net margin: ~$0.40-0.80 per TiB-month after fees, before electricity. See Earnings for the calculator.

It's a real business. Treat it like one.

Install ​

bash
# Linux / macOS
curl -fsSL https://get.prova.network/prover | sh

This drops provad in /usr/local/bin and creates /etc/prova/prover.toml with a starter config.

(Alternatively, build from source: git clone github.com/prova-network/prova && cd prover && go build ./cmd/provad.)

Configure ​

Edit /etc/prova/prover.toml:

toml
[identity]
keystore_path = "/etc/prova/keystore.json"
# Or for local testing only: private_key_hex = "0x..."

[chain]
rpc_url = "https://mainnet.base.org"
chain_id = 8453

[chain.contracts]
storage_marketplace = "0x..."
prover_registry     = "0x..."
prover_staking      = "0x..."

[storage]
data_dir = "/var/lib/prova/pieces"
max_bytes = 10_000_000_000_000   # 10 TB

[http]
enabled = true
listen_addr = "0.0.0.0:443"
public_url = "https://prover.example.com"
cert_path = "/etc/letsencrypt/live/prover.example.com/fullchain.pem"
key_path  = "/etc/letsencrypt/live/prover.example.com/privkey.pem"

[dashboard]
enabled = true
listen_addr = "127.0.0.1:8080"

Register on-chain ​

bash
provad --config /etc/prova/prover.toml register \
  --capacity 10TB \
  --price-per-tib-month 4.00 \
  --regions "EU"

This submits a registerProver(...) transaction and stakes USDC equal to your committed capacity. The amount needed depends on the contract's STAKE_RATIO parameter.

Start ​

bash
systemctl enable --now provad

Or run directly:

bash
provad --config /etc/prova/prover.toml start

The daemon:

  1. Watches Base for DealProposed events targeting your address
  2. Fetches client bytes from each deal's sourceURL
  3. Verifies the cid matches
  4. Posts the first proof, then every 30 seconds
  5. Serves retrievals on /piece/{cid} over HTTPS

Status ​

bash
provad --config /etc/prova/prover.toml status
prover     0xYourAddress
state      active
capacity   10.0 TB committed, 4.2 TB stored (42%)
deals      127 active, 8 settled, 0 slashed
proofs     last posted 12s ago, 99.94% success (last 7d)
balance    1,237.40 USDC available, 4,000.00 USDC staked

Or use the local dashboard at http://localhost:8080.

Operations ​

  • Logs: journalctl -u provad -f
  • Scale up: edit max_bytes in config, run provad register --capacity <new> to expand commitment + stake
  • Scale down: can only reduce capacity by un-pinning Settled deals. Active deals are obligations.
  • Move servers: export the keystore, copy the /var/lib/prova/pieces directory, and start provad on the new box. The on-chain identity stays the same.

Source ​

github.com/prova-network/prova/tree/main/prover

The prover is Go, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. Forked from FilOzone's curio with attribution preserved, adapted for Base + ETH/USDC instead of Filecoin/FIL.

Apache-2.0 OR MIT.

© 2026 Prova