Nostr Web Client

Check out Nutminer – a crazy invention by nostr:npub12262qa4uhw7u8gdwlgmntqtv7aye8vdcmvszkqwgs0zchel6mz7s6cgrkj

Nutminer is a difficulty-adjusted proof-of-work based Cashu faucet that emits a constant rate of tokens, no matter how many people use it! How? The miner runs in your browser and produces hashes that are submitted to the backend. The more people use it, the higher the difficulty – just like with Bitcoin mining. If the PoW matches the difficulty, you get an ecash nut which you can cash out on Lightning!

Think of the bigger picture here. You can think this as a proof-of-concept of what an ecash-based mining pool would look like: Bitcoin miners do not need to reveal their mining rewards to the pool. Instead, they can accumulate ecash representing their reward and cash out anonymously. More privacy for miners!

Try it out and crack some nuts: https://nutminer.semisol.dev/

Amazing work nostr:npub12262qa4uhw7u8gdwlgmntqtv7aye8vdcmvszkqwgs0zchel6mz7s6cgrkj! Note: Every sat zapped on this note will go directly into the faucet!

Geist 2y ago

It definitely seems like a better way to do faucets, as an anti spam measure.

Maybe pools could use this by bidding for hash power with ecash, reducing the need for on chain transactions and lightning channels for payout. That would make setup for at home mining easier as on chain transactions get more expensive, and I think mining for home heating gets more attractive in that scenario.

I'm concerned though. A high functioning mint can offer a competitive price per hash to pools, and artificially inflate the supply of ecash to pay miners. This is prossibly a vector for the bitcoin future many of us expect, essentially a free banking system with a better base money. If its going to happen then its inevitable though, so all we can do is build systems that make it easier for mints to set up and market their services to pools.

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Discussion

calle 2y ago

Look at how every mining pool today works. It's worse in every sense.

Geist 2y ago

It definitely could have some interesting results, I'm imagining those hosted mining companies that let you buy hash power, only with this you could have a market (rather than a few big players) that has much less friction.

I find the idea attractive, that mining in the future could be mostly or all at home mining, even when it isn't profitable; one of the reasons I've heard for this is eventually all governments will be faced with the incentive to control or ban mining, and at home mining can blend in with normal power usage. I find this to be unrealistic with today's options, because even a single 3kw miner will be very obvious to anyone paying attention; but if we could see 1kw miners take off then it would be difficult to detect, and a system like this would be a great fit for that high fee future.