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FAQ

Short answers to the questions that come up most. Follow a link to go deep.

What does it cost?​

A flat 100 DIG per capsule — the same whether you mint your first one (init / first Publish) or ship an update (commit / re-Publish) — plus a small XCH transaction fee. A store's lifetime cost is 100 DIG × number of capsules. The price is uniform by design.

Can I try it for free?​

Yes. Scaffolding, building, and previewing cost nothing. You spend DIG only when you publish a capsule on-chain. Start from the Quickstart — build and preview a draft for free, fund a wallet only at the Publish step.

Why is every capsule the same price — isn't a small update cheaper?​

No, and that's intentional. Each capsule compiles to a fixed-size module (padded so its length leaks nothing about content size). A price that varied with size would re-leak the size the padding hides — so the price has to be flat. See why the price is flat.

Do I need a wallet to start?​

Not to build and preview. You connect a Chia wallet only at the moment you publish. Your wallet is your account — no email, no password.

Where do I get DIG?​

DIG is the DIG Network token (a Chia CAT). Swap XCH for it on TibetSwap ↗, dexie.space ↗, or 9mm.pro ↗, then send it to your wallet's receive address. See Where to get DIG. DIG asset id: a406d3a9de984d03c9591c10d917593b434d5263cabe2b42f6b367df16832f81.

Is there a testnet?​

No. There's no testnet mode; everything runs on Chia mainnet. Use a wallet funded with only as much XCH and DIG as you intend to spend. (You can still iterate for free — see above — because previews never touch the chain.)

How can the host not read my app?​

The host only ever stores ciphertext keyed by hashes. Encryption and decryption happen entirely in the client; the URN is both the address and the key, and the URN never reaches the host (only SHA-256(URN) does). The host literally cannot read or scan your content. See URNs & Encryption.

How do I update a site after it's live?​

Publish again. Edit, preview the new draft for free, then Publish (web) or digstore commit (CLI) to ship a new capsule for 100 DIG. Each capsule is immutable; an update is a new one, and your store points at the latest.

Is my store reachable as soon as I publish?​

Yes — over the read path. The moment a capsule confirms on-chain it's readable through the dig RPC by its URN / dig:// address: universal, verified client-side, no registration and nothing more to pay. A friendly *.on.dig.net web address is a separate, optional step (next question).

Can I get a *.on.dig.net address or use my own domain?​

A store does not get a *.on.dig.net subdomain automatically. You get one by registering a handle for the store in DIGHub — a paid registration that pins the store to that name. (Your account handle and a store's slug are separate namespaces; they don't auto-expose a subdomain.) DIGHub also supports custom domains with TLS. Either way, the store is already readable by its URN / dig:// address without any of this. See DIGHub ↗.

What happens if I lose my seed?​

The store stays on-chain and existing content stays readable, but you can't publish new capsules to it. Back up ~/.dig/seed.enc and your mnemonic. See On-chain anchoring.

Public vs private — what's the difference?​

A public store needs only its URN to read. A private store adds a secret salt; the URN alone isn't enough — the reader also needs the salt. Treat the salt like a password. See URNs & Encryption.

How do I deploy from CI?​

Add the GitHub Action: push to main and it publishes a new capsule to your existing store — git-push-to-deploy. Use a dedicated, funded deploy wallet.

Is it open source?​

Yes. DigStore is GPL-2.0 — see the digstore repository ↗. The whole protocol is specified in the whitepapers.