Work Generation for Integrations

Every Kakitu block requires a valid Proof-of-Work value before it can be broadcast. This guide covers work generation from the perspective of an application developer.

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When to Generate Work

Work is tied to the previous block hash of an account chain. For the first block (open block), work is generated against the account's public key.

Block type	Work input
Open block (first ever)	Account public key
All subsequent blocks	Hash of the most recent block

Work must meet a minimum difficulty threshold:

Block type	Minimum difficulty
Send / Change	fffffff800000000
Receive / Open / Epoch	fffffe0000000000

When in doubt, always generate at the higher Send/Change difficulty — it is valid for any block type.

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Requesting Work from the Node

curl -s -d '{
  "action": "work_generate",
  "hash": "PREVIOUS_BLOCK_HASH_OR_PUBLIC_KEY",
  "difficulty": "fffffff800000000"
}' http://localhost:7076

{
  "work": "2bf29ef00786a6bc",
  "difficulty": "ffffffff8ba4a60c",
  "multiplier": "8.00",
  "hash": "PREVIOUS_BLOCK_HASH_OR_PUBLIC_KEY"
}

Use the returned work value in your block's work field.

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Pre-caching Work

For low-latency transaction sending, generate work for the next block immediately after a transaction is confirmed — before the user needs to send again.

# After a block is confirmed:
def on_confirmation(block_hash):
    # Immediately start generating work for the next block
    work = generate_work(block_hash, difficulty="fffffff800000000")
    cache.set(f"work:{block_hash}", work, ttl=3600)

# When building the next block:
def build_block(previous_hash):
    work = cache.get(f"work:{previous_hash}")
    if not work:
        # Cache miss — generate synchronously (adds latency)
        work = generate_work(previous_hash)
    return Block(previous=previous_hash, work=work, ...)

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Validating Work

Before broadcasting a block, validate that the work value is correct:

curl -s -d '{
  "action": "work_validate",
  "work": "2bf29ef00786a6bc",
  "hash": "PREVIOUS_BLOCK_HASH_OR_PUBLIC_KEY",
  "difficulty": "fffffff800000000"
}' http://localhost:7076

{
  "valid_all": "1",
  "valid_receive": "1",
  "difficulty": "ffffffff8ba4a60c",
  "multiplier": "8.00"
}

valid_all = "1" means the work meets the send/change threshold (valid for any block type).

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External Work Generation

For high-throughput systems, use a dedicated work server:

Kakitu Work Server API

The work server accepts the same format as the node RPC:

curl -s -d '{
  "action": "work_generate",
  "hash": "PREVIOUS_BLOCK_HASH",
  "difficulty": "fffffff800000000"
}' http://work-server:7078

See Work Generation (Node) for setup instructions.

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Libraries

Go — gokakitu

import "github.com/kakitucurrency/gokakitu"

work, err := gokakitu.GenerateWork(previousHash, gokakitu.DifficultyBase)

JavaScript — kakitucurrency-js

import { generateWork } from 'kakitucurrency-js';

const work = await generateWork(previousHash, { difficulty: 'fffffff800000000' });

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Difficulty Multiplier

The multiplier in the work_generate response indicates how far above the minimum threshold the generated work is. A multiplier of 1.0 means exactly at minimum; higher values provide additional margin.

For most use cases, the default difficulty is sufficient. Increasing difficulty does not improve transaction speed or priority — work only needs to meet the minimum threshold.