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Run A Maker

A maker keeps liquidity online and offers to participate in other users' CoinJoins for a fee. Selection and earnings are not guaranteed. The running process can sign transactions, so treat the host as a hot-wallet system.

Prerequisites

Complete wallet setup, back up the recovery material, and keep the backend and Tor SOCKS and control services running. Do not run another spender against the same wallet.

There is no universal minimum wallet balance. Eligible coins, your offer limits, and taker demand determine whether your wallet can participate.

Quick Start

Use the wallet CLI to issue a fresh receiving address:

jm-wallet address --prompt-bip39-passphrase new 0

Omit the passphrase prompt if your wallet has no BIP39 passphrase. The wallet synchronizes, verifies address history, and reserves the address before printing it. The old jm-maker generate-address command was removed because it always derived the first receiving address, even if that address had already been used. See wallet recovery before funding an imported wallet.

jm-wallet info
jm-maker start

The maker syncs, publishes offers for eligible funds, and waits for takers. Check that the logs show funded offers and directory connections, not just a running process. Use Ctrl-C to request a clean shutdown and let it finish.

By default, fresh deposits and deposit-derived change in mixdepth 0 are kept out of maker rotation. A wallet funded only there may need an internal taker CoinJoin before it has maker liquidity. Recovered wallets may also lack the history needed to prove eligibility. Do not disable this safeguard simply because the displayed balance exceeds an offer.

Set Your Fees

Use [maker] in config.toml for lasting settings, or jm-maker start --help for one-run overrides. Choose the fee model and offer size limits deliberately; there is no fee setting that guarantees profit.

The defaults use shared fee bands to reduce distinctive pricing. Unusual or randomized fees can fingerprint your maker and be excluded by takers that require those bands. The fee quantization discussion and paper explain the evidence and proposed mitigations. Consult the installed config.toml.template before changing fee or mixdepth-selection policies. The configuration guide explains precedence.

Fidelity Bonds

A bond can make an offer more likely to be selected, but locks funds until its expiry and publicly links the bond to the maker. It is optional, not a startup requirement. Read fidelity bond operations before locking funds; external-signing bonds require separate recovery material.

Migration From JoinMarket Reference

The network protocol is compatible; wallet files and configuration are not interchangeable. Follow recovery and migration, compare addresses and all mixdepth balances, and recover existing bonds before starting the maker. Retain the original wallet backup and do not run both copies.

Running As A Service

First establish that interactive startup works. Then follow unattended maker operation. Auto-start requires access to wallet decryption credentials without a terminal prompt; storing them on the host changes the protection offered by wallet-file encryption.

Logs

Watch connection, offer, and transaction errors. Check jm-wallet history for completed activity and jm-wallet info for the current balance. With systemd, use journalctl -u jm-maker -f. Review logs for private data before sharing.

For a maker with no earnings or repeated failures, use troubleshooting.

Multiple Local Instances

Give each maker its own wallet and data directory. Pass its --data-dir and --mnemonic-file consistently to wallet and maker commands; do not run the same seed as independent makers. See the component reference for an example.

Docker Deployment

Use the maker Compose configuration for container-specific paths, networking, and restart policy.

Command Reference

jm-maker start --help describes the installed version's options. Generated help also lives in the component reference.