With the Midnight scavenger hunt now closed, I want to thank everyone who reported issues, made pull requests, and donated their NIGHT. Without your support, this would not have been possible!

Important: Make sure you have consolidated your rewards with the consolidation script! Soon, the claim portal will be up and you will be able to claim NIGHT with the address you consolidated to.

Defensio, a DEX building on Midnight, is using a scavenger hunt to distribute their token. The API is compatible with the Midnight scavenger hunt API, so you can use this miner for it.

To mine DFO: Run python miner.py --defensio

Important: You MUST use a fresh directory for Defensio mining. If you previously mined for Midnight, either re-download this repository to a new location or delete your existing challenges.json, developer-addresses.json and wallets.json files.

Additionally, you must consolidate to a DIFFERENT address to where you consolidated your NIGHT.

Using utility scripts with Defensio: All utility scripts must also use the --defensio flag:

• Check earnings: python check_earnings.py --defensio
• Consolidate wallets: python consolidate.py --defensio
• Resubmit solutions: python resubmit_solutions.py --defensio

Disclaimer: MidnightMiner is NOT AFFILIATED with the Defensio project. Engage at your own risk. The tokens may be worth nothing.

A Python-based mining bot for the Midnight Network's scavenger hunt, allowing users to automatically mine for NIGHT tokens with multiple wallets.

Supported Platforms: Windows (x64), Linux (x64, ARM64), macOS (Intel, Apple Silicon)

If you are unfamiliar with python, and/or using windows, check out the Easy Guide.

This is an unofficial tool, and has not been properly tested. Use it at your own risk.

I will be updating and improving this software regularly. Please keep up to date by re-downloading from this repository and copying over your wallets.json and challenges.json files, or simply by running git pull.

The miner operates by performing the following steps:

1. Wallet Setup: It creates or loads Cardano wallets to be used for mining. These wallets are stored in wallets.json.
2. Registration: The bot registers the wallets with the Midnight Scavenger Mine API and agrees to the terms and conditions.
3. Challenge Loop: It continuously polls the API for new mining challenges. Challenges are stored in challenges.json so they can be resumed later.
4. Mining: When a new challenge is received, the bot uses the provided parameters to build a large proof-of-work table (ROM). It then rapidly searches for a valid nonce that solves the challenge's difficulty requirement. The core hashing logic is performed by a native Rust library for optimal performance.
5. Submission: Once a solution is found, it is submitted to the API to earn NIGHT tokens.
6. Worker Rotation: When a worker completes all available challenges for its wallet, it automatically exits and respawns with a different wallet. New wallets are generated automatically as needed.

Before running the miner, ensure you have the following:

1. Python 3: The script is written in Python (version 3.13 or higher required).

2. Python venv module: Usually included with Python 3.3+, but can be installed separately if needed.

3. Required Python Libraries: The following packages are required and will be installed automatically when setting up the virtual environment:

   • pycardano - Cardano wallet functionality
   • wasmtime - WebAssembly runtime
   • requests - HTTP requests
   • cbor2 - CBOR encoding/decoding
   • portalocker - Cross-platform file locking

   These are listed in requirements.txt and will be installed automatically when you set up the virtual environment.

4. Git: Use Git to download and update your Miner easily.

Run this command to download MidnightMiner

git clone https://github.com/djeanql/MidnightMiner && cd MidnightMiner

1. Create a virtual environment:

   python3 -m venv venv

2. Activate the virtual environment:

   All future steps will assume you are in the virtual environment. It is optional, but highly recommended.

   • On Linux/macOS:

     source venv/bin/activate

   • On Windows (CMD):

     venv\Scripts\activate

   • On Windows Powershell:

     .\venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

     Note: if you are NOT running running powershell as administrator, you will get an error about permission to run scripts and will need to escalate permission:

     Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

3. Install required dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Run the miner:

   • Start mining: This command will either load an existing wallet from wallets.json or create a new one if it doesn't exist.

     python miner.py

   • Multiple workers: To mine with multiple workers, use:

     python miner.py --workers <number of workers>

     Each worker uses one CPU core and 1GB of RAM. The miner will automatically create enough wallets for all workers and rotate through them as challenges are completed. Each worker always mines to a unique wallet. Do not run more workers than your system is capable of.

   • Consolidation:

     It is recommended to use automatic consolidation with the --consolidate flag. See the consolidation section below for more info.

     py miner.py ... --consolidate <destination address>
     

     It is IMPERITIVE that the destination address is registered.

For Linux users, you can run the miner as a systemd service, which allows it to:

• Start automatically on boot
• Restart automatically if it crashes
• Automatically pull the latest code from git before starting
• Run in the background without a terminal

Please refer to SYSTEMD.md for setup instructions.

If solutions fail to submit due to network issues or API errors, they are automatically saved to solutions.csv. To resubmit them, run:

python resubmit_solutions.py

The script automatically removes successfully submitted solutions and keeps any that still failed for retry. You should run this once a day, as solutions can no longer be submitted after 24 hours.

This software will be updated frequently, so it is VERY important you update it to earn the highest rewards.

Update by running this command in the MidnightMiner directory:

git pull

I suggest checking for updates once a day to make sure your miner is up-to-date.

Systemd Users: If you are running MidnightMiner as a systemd service, please check here for update instructions.

The miner and utility scripts read proxy settings from proxy.json. You can provide either a single proxy object or a list of proxies (for rotation). Use the sample file proxy.json.example as a starting point:

[
  {
    "server": "127.0.0.1",
    "port": 3128,
    "user": "user1",
    "password": "example-password-1"
  }
]

Copy the example, edit the credentials to match your environment, and rename it to proxy.json. When multiple entries are supplied, the miner automatically rotates between them if a proxy becomes unavailable or returns HTTP 407/5xx responses.

You can verify the proxy is working correctly by running the miner with the --log-api-requests flag.

This miner includes an optional 5% donation system to support ongoing development and maintenance. By default, approximately 1 in 20 (5%) of solved challenges will be mined for the developer's address.

Thank you for considering supporting this project!

To disable donations, add the --no-donation flag:

python miner.py --no-donation

To quickly check NIGHT token balances and completed solutions for your wallets, use the check_earnings.py utility:

# Check all wallets
python check_earnings.py --wallets-path wallets.json --proxy-count 30 --proxy-config proxy.json

# Check a specific wallet address
python check_earnings.py --address addr1vxask5vpp8p4xddsc3qd63luy4ecf...

• --wallets-path accepts one or more files or directories containing wallet JSON definitions.
• --address checks a specific wallet address directly (ignores --wallets-path).
• --proxy-count limits how many proxy-backed sessions are created simultaneously. For faster results, prepare at least that many proxy entries in proxy.json.
• --proxy-config points to the proxy configuration file; if omitted, the script will fall back to direct connections.

Tip: Supplying a rich proxy pool dramatically reduces the chance of hitting rate limits while the script queries the statistics API.

You can consolidate all NIGHT earnings to a single wallet using consolidate.py. This registers a destination address where your NIGHT tokens will be sent during future distributions.

Consolidation is like setting up mail forwarding - it tells the network where to send your NIGHT, but doesn't immediately move anything. Your miner wallet balances will remain unchanged, and your destination wallet balance won't increase until the Midnight Network actually distributes tokens.

The destination address must be registered at https://sm.midnight.gd before consolidation. It is recommended to not use a wallet from wallets.json as your destination address for security reasons. It's safer to use an address from a wallet extension such as Eternl or Lace, after registering it with the online portal.

You can run the miner with --consolidate <destination address> to automatically consolidate new wallets generated by the miner. All future earnings allocated to that wallet will be consolidated. It is still recommended to run the above script at the end of the scavenger hunt to make sure all wallets have consolidated properly.

Run the script:

python consolidate.py

The script will prompt for confirmation before proceeding. Successfully consolidated wallets will redirect all their earnings (past and future) to the destination address when distributions occur.

To undo consolidation:

python consolidate.py --undo

This registers each wallet back to itself, reversing any previous donations.

If you don't want to use the consolidation script, you can manually export all your wallets and claim from each of them. You will need to import your wallets' signing keys (.skey files) into a Cardano wallet like Eternl. The export_skeys.py script helps with this process.

1. Run the export script:

   python export_skeys.py

   This will create a directory named skeys/ (if it doesn't exist) and export each wallet's signing key from wallets.json into a separate .skey file.

2. Import into Eternl (or other Cardano wallet):

   • Open your Eternl wallet.
   • Go to Add Wallet -> More -> CLI Signing Keys.
   • Import the .skey files generated in the skeys/ directory.

The dashboard displays important information about the status of each worker. Each row represents a worker (not a wallet) - workers automatically rotate through different wallets as they complete challenges.

The Challenge column shows which challenge ID the worker is currently solving, or status messages like "Waiting" if all known challenges have been completed. The Attempts and H/s columns show mining progress and hash rate for each worker.

At the bottom, you'll see totals across all wallets:

• Total Hash Rate: Combined hash rate of all workers
• Total Completed: Total challenges solved by all wallets. The number in brackets shows how many were solved in this session.
• Total NIGHT: Estimated NIGHT token rewards across all wallets (fetched once at startup)

If developer donations are enabled (default), when a worker is mining for the developer, the Address field for that worker will temporarily show "developer (thank you!)" instead of the wallet address.

==============================================================================================================
                                          MIDNIGHT MINER - v0.3
==============================================================================================================
Active Workers: 4 | Last Update: 2025-11-05 14:32:18
==============================================================================================================

ID   Address                                      Challenge                  Attempts      H/s
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0    addr1vxask5vpp8p4xddsc3qd63luy4ecf...        **D05C02                   470,000       2,040
1    developer (thank you!)                       **D05C19                   471,000       2,035
2    addr1v9hcpxeevkks7g4mvyls029yuvvsm0d...      Building ROM               0             0
3    addr1vx64c8703ketwnjtxkjcqzsktwkcvh...      **D05C20                   154,000       2,028
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total Hash Rate:     6,103 H/s
Total Completed:     127 (+15)
Total NIGHT:         45.32
==============================================================================================================

Press Ctrl+C to stop all miners

The miner uses a native Rust library (ashmaize_py) for high-performance hashing. Pre-compiled binaries are included for all major platforms:

The miner automatically detects your operating system and CPU architecture, loading the appropriate binary from the libs/ directory.

A script plot_challenges.py is included to visualize the number of solved challenges over time.

This script requires matplotlib.

pip install matplotlib

To generate the plot, run the following command:

python3 plot_challenges.py

The script will read the challenges.json file and generate a plot named solved_challenges_over_time.png.

Note: The graph uses the challenge's discovery time as an approximation for when solutions were found, as individual solution times are not stored.

This miner uses the Ashmaize hashing algorithm, developed by IOHK. Included in this repository are binaries for my python bindings module. You can find the code here

If you like MidnightMiner, why not star the repository?