第一次上手：从铸造到流片Getting started: from minting to tapeout

Prepare a wallet

TapeOut runs on BNB Chain (chain ID 56), so you need a browser or mobile wallet that supports it. The project publishes no wallet tutorial and endorses none; the usual routine:

• create a dedicated wallet — not the main wallet holding large assets;
• write down the seed phrase and keep it offline — it is full control of the wallet, and anyone asking for it is a scammer;
• switch to BNB Chain mainnet (most wallets have it built in; add it manually with chain ID 56);
• fund it with a little BNB for gas and parts.

What is gas? Every action that changes on-chain state (buying, selling, taping out, claiming) is a transaction that pays a small BNB fee to the network; read-only queries (calling a circuit, reading data) need none.

Two things to tell apart

• Processor: created by a factory contract; it issues the parts.
• Tapeout: consumes parts and mints your own circuit NFT.

In one line: a processor makes the parts, a tapeout turns them into your circuit.

A processor: a "transistor mint"

A processor here is not a CPU inside a computer but a transistor mint: anyone can open one for 0.001 BNB (per the official site), fixing its total transistor supply, mint price and revenue share at creation.

• Processors are numbered in creation order, starting at 0, only increasing; 1043 of them as of 2026-09-25.
• When others mint your processor tokens, the revenue is credited to you and must be withdrawn manually on the detail page.
• Transistors from different processors are not interchangeable: before buying, confirm which processor the NAND / LATCH belongs to, or your tapeout may land somewhere else, or may not mine at all.
• Only two processors can mine: Behemoth (#1) and TapeOut (#30); #0 Genesis is a sample processor. Community processors are flagged on the site as "community, not official, not certified".

Canvas and tapeout

The canvas is the design tool on the site: drag NAND and LATCH in, pull a wire from one output to another input, and you have made a connection. Everything on the canvas simulates inside your own browser, off-chain and free, so you can try as many times as you like; those using professional tools (Yosys, ABC) can import an exported BLIF file straight into the canvas.

When satisfied, press "tape out on-chain":

• the transistor tokens you used are really burned;
• an ERC-721 circuit NFT is minted on-chain, each one unique;
• the circuit logic is stored on-chain as data (a netlist) describing which gate wires to which.

Two cautions: a single tapeout transaction cannot hold too large a circuit — data above roughly 40,000 bytes fails, so large circuits must be split into several edits; and a tapeout is irreversible, so verify the logic on the canvas first.

Verify before taping out

Once a tapeout is on-chain the logic is fixed forever. The good habit is to test-read a few times first: feed a set of inputs through read-only calls like eval and step, check the outputs, and pay nothing.

The "BTC miner" page on the site is only a demo — it is not really mining bitcoin; it shows that on-chain circuits can run SHA-256.

A circuit is a function

After a tapeout the circuit becomes a function anyone can call: a read-only query, with no transaction, no gas and no wallet. A circuit has no "call others" instruction and no writable state — the worst a stranger can do by handing you a circuit is return a wrong answer.

The canvas also lets you drop an existing circuit into a new design as a black box, called a reference (REF); but the current PoD mining rules bar circuits that contain references from mining.

The order

1. Buy parts: purchase NAND and LATCH on the market with BNB.
2. Tape out: submit the design, burn the parts, mint a circuit NFT.
3. Start mining: run the circuit on the workbench, get scored, and claim $BEM by rank.

Buying parts

A tapeout consumes transistors, and there are two ways to get them:

• Mint: on a processor detail page, at the price its creator set. Once a processor is sold out the site says it is "sold out, cannot tape out on it".
• Buy on the market: the official transistor market is a purely on-chain order book charging 1%; third-party markets are many, but none is endorsed.

If you intend to mine: both mineable processors, TapeOut (#30) and Behemoth (#1), are already sold out (per contracts read on 2026-09-25: 1M and 100K, minted equals cap), so newcomers must buy on the market. At tapeout the site fills the processor address automatically: your own project if you have one, otherwise the official TapeOut.

Do not start from price or which "chip" looks worth minting — see whether it can do the work first, then decide whether to hold its parts.

Two safeguards at tapeout

• Front-run protection (MEV): before it lands, a transaction waits a few seconds in the public queue, where someone may peek and copy it. The site builds the protection first, then sends your netlist; if protection is not up it stops and warns you, and you should continue only if you clearly accept being front-run.
• Proof of originality: the mining page lets you submit a "design commitment" before taping out, so nobody can copy your design and grab "first-best". The site saves a backup file on your computer containing a random number (salt) only you know, as proof of time — do not send it to anyone before mining starts.

Fee cheat sheet

Figures are from the site UI (2026-09-25) and on-chain readings; gas is extra.

Common pitfalls and risks

• Wrong processor parts: transistors are not interchangeable, and mining only counts TapeOut and Behemoth.
• Circuit too large: the UI blocks an over-limit netlist up front; circuits above the mining gate count can only enter the low-yield unverified pool.
• Selling a circuit without claiming: unclaimed $BEM on a mining circuit goes to the buyer with the NFT.
• Listing without emptying the container: assets inside go with the circuit and are not counted in the listing price.
• Fake URLs: always enter the official site from a bookmark or by typing it in.
• Every step may need gas; on-chain actions are irreversible; a tapeout burns parts.
• Returns depend on design skill and network competition; owning parts is no guarantee.

Every on-chain step can be irreversible — start small.