xCoin · MetalDAG · post-quantum from block 1
Learn to mine by mining.
Press start and this browser does real MetalDAG proof-of-work: a learning tool, a few hundred hashes a second on CPU, not a block finder. The rehearsal is running on testnet A: paste a rehearsal address (txa1r…), press start, and this tab joins the rehearsal pool; a block it finds pays that address. When you want hashrate, NerdMiner runs the same work natively on your Mac.
Network status
testnet A rehearsal · reading superknet.com
Live from the explorer at superknet.com. Mainnet genesis is not mined; these are rehearsal figures. Nothing here is simulated.
Paste a rehearsal address (txa1r…) and press start: this tab joins the rehearsal pool at wss://superknet.com/stratum as web-solo-NNNNN. Leave it blank to just try it (learn mode, no rewards). Get an address →
STATUS: the rehearsal is running on testnet A; the explorer at superknet.com is live and the pool is mining. Mainnet genesis is not mined. The rehearsal pool is open to browsers at wss://superknet.com/stratum and to NerdMiner at 172.96.186.49:3335. This page is a learning tool: a few hundred hashes a second on CPU, not a block finder. With no address it runs the learning benchmark: real MetalDAG work, no shares, no rewards. Rehearsal addresses read txa1r…, mainnet addresses xpa1r….
What your machine is actually doing
the whole thing, in four stepsGet a job
The pool hands your browser a block template: the last block's hash, the transactions to include, and a target the hash has to beat.
Walk the DAG
For every guess, MetalDAG reads 64 random 128-byte items from a dataset that starts at 4 GiB and grows 128 MiB every 14-day epoch, and mixes them. The cost is memory traffic, not arithmetic.
Submit shares
Any hash under the pool's easier target is a share: proof you did work. Shares are how the pool measures you.
Find a block
A hash under the network target is a block. The subsidy is 14 XCF in era 0 and halves every 750,000 blocks. The pool is solo and coinbase-only: the block pays its whole coinbase to the address that found it.
MetalDAG, plainly
Bitcoin's puzzle fits in 80 bytes, so a chip that does nothing but SHA-256 wins. MetalDAG makes the puzzle touch a 4 GiB dataset on every guess, and the dataset grows 128 MiB every 14-day epoch. It is memory-hard: the cost is memory traffic, not arithmetic.
That is the one thing Apple Silicon is world-class at: one pool of very fast memory shared by CPU and GPU. MetalDAG is memory-hard and Apple-Silicon-favoring; that is the whole claim. The full deep dive, with benchmarks.
Why this browser is slow, on purpose
The browser uses the light path: a 32 MiB verification cache and recomputing dataset items on demand. Real and correct, and a few hundred hashes a second on CPU: a learning tool, not a block finder. The Mac app holds the whole dataset.
It exists so anyone can see mining happen without installing anything. When you want hashrate, the next section is for you.
Three ways in. Pick your level.
01 · Browser
This page. One tab, one click, nothing installed. Paste a rehearsal address (txa1r…) and press start: the tab joins the rehearsal pool at wss://superknet.com/stratum as web-solo-NNNNN, and a block it finds pays that address. Blank address: learn mode, no rewards.
The light path, a 32 MiB verification cache. It is a learning tool, a few hundred hashes a second on CPU, not a block finder.
Start above02 · NerdMiner for Mac
Native Mac miner. Holds the full DAG, 4 GiB at epoch 0, in unified memory. Get a rehearsal address from the node wallet (txa1r…, below), then start NerdMiner with that address, the rehearsal pool, and a name for this rig (mymac here; pick any):
# address from the node wallet: ./nex-cli -testnet getnewaddress → txa1r…
./NerdMiner txa1r… --pool 172.96.186.49:3335 --worker mymac
The dashboard shows your hashrate, the DAG epoch, accepted and rejected shares, best share, and blocks found. A block pays its coinbase, 14 XCF in era 0, to that address. Mainnet (xpa1r…) opens with genesis.
Get NerdMiner03 · Watch it anywhere
iPhone, Apple Watch, browser. NerdMiner MD in your toolbar, the iPhone app to start and stop your rig, and a buzz on your wrist when you find a block.
NerdMiner MDGet an address
An address is where a block's coinbase is paid. On the testnet A rehearsal it starts with txa1r and comes from the wallet built into the xCoin node. Run a node first (build it from the repository, then nexd -testnet; it finds the rehearsal on its own), then ask its wallet, through the nex-cli that builds beside it:
./nex-cli -testnet createwallet mine
./nex-cli -testnet getnewaddress → txa1r… (rehearsal)
Paste it into the browser rig above, or hand it to NerdMiner. Mainnet addresses start with xpa1r and open with genesis; xPay on iPhone makes one there. Both prefixes mean post-quantum: every spend is signed with a post-quantum key — ML-DSA-65 or SLH-DSA-SHA2-128s — and the network rejects anything else. Nothing to migrate later.
Your forum identity (xid1…) is a different key, made by the wallet CLI; NerdMiner login signs with it. Card wallets: an NTAG 424 DNA tap unlocks the key, which never touches a networked device.
Solo, coinbase-only
Solo is a lottery ticket. Rare, but a block is the whole subsidy, 14 XCF in era 0, and it is yours.
The pool is solo and coinbase-only: a block you find pays its coinbase straight to your address. No accounts, nothing held on your behalf, nothing split.
The pool mines the testnet A rehearsal now: browsers join at wss://superknet.com/stratum, NerdMiner at 172.96.186.49:3335. The mainnet pool opens with genesis.
NerdMiner MD. Your rig in the toolbar.
Chrome · Brave · Edge · FirefoxWhat it is
A toolbar window onto your NerdMiner rig and the #rigs chat at MineDifferent. Click the icon and you see the rig's numbers: hashrate, accepted shares, best share, DAG epoch, blocks found. The badge shows your hashrate, a desktop notification fires when you find a block, and the chat is right there.
It does not mine. Your Mac does the work; this is the window.
Before you start
NerdMiner 4.1 or newer on your Mac (get it above), a rehearsal address (txa1r…), and Chrome, Brave, Edge, or Firefox. Nothing else: no account, no token. NerdMiner 4.1 links to the extension on its own.
Five steps, in the order you do them. Ten minutes the first time.
Run NerdMiner 4.1
On your Mac, start NerdMiner 4.1 or newer with your rehearsal address and the rehearsal pool, and leave it running:
./NerdMiner txa1r… --pool 172.96.186.49:3335 --worker mymac
The extension reads this miner's numbers straight from your Mac. Start the miner first; the extension finds it on its own.
Download and unzip
Download nerdminer-md.zip and unzip it: double-click it in Downloads. It unpacks to a nerdminer-md folder. Keep that folder where it is; the browser loads the extension from it.
Load it unpacked
Chrome: open chrome://extensions, switch on Developer mode (top right), click Load unpacked, pick the nerdminer-md folder. Then click the puzzle-piece icon in the toolbar and pin NerdMiner MD so the badge shows. Brave and Edge: the same, at brave://extensions and edge://extensions.
Firefox: inside the folder, rename manifest.firefox.json to manifest.json. Then about:debugging → This Firefox → Load Temporary Add-on → pick that manifest.json. Temporary means Firefox drops it when it quits; load it again next time.
Click the icon
Click NerdMiner MD in the toolbar. Your rig's numbers appear within two seconds. There is no token to paste: NerdMiner 4.1 links to the extension on its own. Options is only for an older NerdMiner that asks for its companion token, or a changed --stats-port.
Sign in to chat
Reading #rigs needs nothing. To post, click Sign in in the popup: MineDifferent shows a one-time challenge, and on your Mac you run ./NerdMiner login <challenge>. It signs with your xCoin identity (xid1…, key index 101 by default); the wallet asks for its passphrase. No password anywhere.
Chat unlocks after one accepted share credited to that identity. Mine first, then sign in. Founders and mods are exempt.