How to Mine: Nimiq (NIM)

Biscults

5 min readJun 4, 2019

Brought to you by icemining.ca — the cool pool

icemining.ca Specifications:

Geo-distributed servers, load balanced through CloudFlare, for the lowest latency, and maximum reliability
DPPLNS for maximum reward, and immune to pool hopping
2hr payments, customizable by request(ask in discord for assistance)
Active development, friendly and engaging community with many experts
Block maturity for NIM: 30 blocks

NIM Specifications:

Released: Mainnet launch on April 14, 2018
Algorithm: Argon2d-nim
Block time: 1 minute
Block reward: 4965 NIM, reduced in a curved fashion (inspired in Monero and Cryptonote) proportional to the block height and remaining Nimiq supply. The reward remains constant once a certain block height is reached.
Total supply: 4,967,344,771(at time of this publication) 21,000,000,000 max

To mine NIM, you’ll need:

Any computer with a modern cpu or gpu
A browser to access your funds

NIM Storage and Management:

All storage is handled via a browser based wallet, no additional hardware or software is required.
To create a Nimiq account, and begin mining or acquiring NIM, proceed as instructed below(pictures included):

Navigate to https://nimiq.com , and click on “create account” at the top left of your browser screen.

A series of avatars will be provided to choose for your account. You can click “new avatars” if you do not like any of the displayed avatars.

After choosing an avatar, you will be asked to create a password, and then asked to verify the password you just created.

Once you have created a password, Nimiq will generate your account, and take you into the Nimiq Safe. The Nimiq Safe is how your funds are accessed as no software(other than your browser) is required to do so.

At this point, your first priority is to backup your account. Click on the text near the top of Nimiq Safe “Download your login file to save your Account.”

Another browser window will popup(you may be prompted to allow the popup), click on the button “continue to login file”.

On the next screen, click on “download login file”, and select a safe place to store the file.

Next, you will be prompted to create a backup. This will be a 24 word seed that is tied to your account. Click “create backup”.

At this time, your 24 word seed will be displayed. It is important that you physically write this down for maximum security.

After you have written down your seed, click on “validate backup”. You will then be prompted to enter specific words from your seed to verify you have written it down correctly.

Your account is now fully created and backed up. If you should lose access to the Nimiq Safe, you can restore access via the file you downloaded, or by entering your 24 word seed.

Mining NIM:

There are currently three types of mining modes to choose from; Smart, Nano, and dumb. The details for the different mining methods can be found here . The preferred method of mining currently is “dumb” mode, in which a block header is sent to the miner to hash against. This is also the mining method that will be covered in this guide. For this, we will be using the mining software provided by Noncer Pro

Mining Software:

Now that you have the mining software, and a Nimiq address, you can start mining. Here is an example of a batch file to launch the Noncer Pro mining software:

SET UV_THREADPOOL_SIZE=32
noncerpro.exe -a NQ46DP4N5YG1H3QU5LPA2624FKL50LNSEFEF -s nimiq.icemining.ca -p 2053 --threads=2 --mode=dumb
pause

There is also a config file for more specific and advanced settings. Most of the settings are already in place, you just need to remove the “//” from the beginning of the lines with relevant settings. It is highly recommended to set a unique rig name for each worker, as this will be required for future features. Here is an example of a completed config:

{
    /**************************NOTICE**************************/
    /*** Following options are NOT active by default. ***/
    /*** You need to uncomment them first by removing the // at the beginning. ***/
    /**************************NOTICE**************************//*** Nimiq address to register on the pool ***/
    "address": "NQ46 DP4N 5YG1 H3QU 5LPA 2624 FKL5 0LNS EFEF",/*** Device name. The pool may or may not support this ***/
    "name": "rig1",/*** Pool servers to connect to ***/
    "server": ['nimiq.icemining.ca'],/*** Pool ports to connect to ***/
    "port": [2053],/*** Mining mode: dumb or nano. Notice that Dumb protocol is only supported on some pools. ***/
    "mode": 'dumb',/*** Array of active devices. eg: [0, 2, 3] ***/
    /*** Default: All available devices. Delete or comment to switch to default. ***/
    //"devices": [0, 2, 3],/*** Number or an array of active threads per device. eg: 2 or [2, 2, 1] ***/
    /*** Default: 1 ***/
    "threads": 2,/*** Number or an array of batchsize per thread. eg: 120 or [100, 150, 120] ***/
    /*** Default: Auto based on available device memory. Delete or comment to switch to default. **/
    //"batchsize": 93,/*** Start difficulty (must be supported on the pool side too) ***/
    //"difficulty": 32,}