How to mine Beam with BeamHash III? (Confidential Mining)

Understanding BeamHash III Algorithm

1. BeamHash III is a memory-hard, ASIC-resistant proof-of-work algorithm designed specifically for the Beam blockchain.

2. It evolved from BeamHash II to increase resistance against specialized hardware while maintaining GPU viability.

3. The algorithm relies on large pseudo-random datasets generated from block headers and requires frequent memory access patterns that stress VRAM bandwidth.

4. Unlike Bitcoin’s SHA-256, BeamHash III incorporates cryptographic commitments tied to Mimblewimble transaction structures, making it inseparable from Beam’s privacy model.

5. Its dataset size scales with block height, currently exceeding 4.2 GB at mainnet block heights above 1,200,000, demanding high-capacity GPUs with fast memory subsystems.

Hardware Requirements for Confidential Mining

1. NVIDIA GPUs from the GTX 10-series onward are officially supported, with RTX 3080 and RTX 4090 delivering optimal hashrates per watt.

2. AMD Radeon RX 6000 and RX 7000 series cards require patched drivers and community-maintained forks of mining software due to OpenCL limitations in official releases.

3. At least 8 GB of VRAM is mandatory; mining fails silently on cards with less than 6 GB due to dataset overflow during DAG generation.

4. Systems must run Linux (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS preferred) or Windows 10/11 64-bit with updated GPU firmware and secure boot disabled.

5. A minimum of 16 GB system RAM and SSD storage are required to handle full node synchronization and real-time kernel compilation during DAG updates.

Setting Up a Beam Mining Node

1. Download and compile the official beam-node binary from GitHub’s Beam-MW repository using Rust 1.75+ and CMake 3.22.

2. Launch the node with --mine --mining_threads=0 to enable GPU auto-detection and internal stratum server binding on port 34567.

3. Configure wallet address via beam-wallet config with a valid shielded address derived from a restored seed phrase.

4. Ensure time synchronization using systemd-timesyncd or NTP to prevent block rejection caused by timestamp drift beyond ±30 seconds.

5. Monitor log output for “DAG ready” and “GPU miner started” messages before validating shares through beam-node status.

Mining Pool Integration and Share Submission

1. Most active pools—including BeamPool.io and BeamMiners.net—support Stratum V2 with encrypted job distribution and client-side nonce hashing.

2. Configure miner clients like lolMiner 1.52+ using --pool pool.beampool.io:3333 --user YOUR_BEAM_ADDRESS.

3. Pools validate shares against the current block header hash and verify inclusion in the confidential transaction kernel before crediting rewards.

4. Each accepted share contributes toward finding a valid block solution, where the final nonce must satisfy both BeamHash III difficulty and Mimblewimble kernel signature constraints.

5. Reward distribution occurs only after 10 confirmations, and payouts are sent to the miner’s designated shielded address as confidential assets.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I mine BeamHash III using CPU-only setups?A: No. BeamHash III is intentionally memory-intensive and lacks CPU-optimized kernels. Attempts result in negligible hashrate below 0.01 H/s and immediate DAG allocation failure.

Q: Why does my RTX 4090 show lower efficiency than expected on BeamHash III?A: NVIDIA’s Ampere and Ada Lovelace architectures suffer from reduced memory controller utilization under BeamHash III’s irregular access pattern. Firmware updates and manual memory clock undervolting often restore baseline performance.

Q: Is solo mining viable on Beam’s current network difficulty?A: With global network hashrate averaging 1.8 GH/s and block time fixed at 60 seconds, solo mining success probability for a 100 MH/s rig falls below 0.0005% per day. Pool participation remains the only practical approach.

Q: Do Beam mining rewards appear as transparent or confidential UTXOs?A: All mined coins are issued as confidential assets within the Mimblewimble ledger. They exist solely as Pedersen commitments and range proofs—no transparent balances or addresses are ever exposed.