Getting started
The Argonmine app runs in a web browser, on a phone or a computer, with nothing to install. In about a minute you can create a wallet and start mining. This page walks through the app screen by screen and explains every figure it shows.
Before you start
- Any current browser works: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, and their mobile versions.
- Mining uses the processor. A laptop on battery or a phone will run warm. Plug in when you can.
- Coins on testnet have no value. Testnet addresses start with
targ1; mainnet addresses start witharg1.
1. Create a wallet
Open the app. It offers two choices.
Create a new wallet. The app generates a 24-word recovery phrase inside your browser and shows it at once. Write the words down, in order, on paper. They are the only way back to the wallet if this browser loses it: the explorer never sees them, and there is no account to recover them from. Confirm that you wrote them down, type back four words at the positions the app asks for, then choose a password. The app keeps the words in this browser only locked under that password, and asks for it before a payment when the wallet has been idle for 15 minutes. Settings, Show recovery phrase, shows the words again after the password.
Log in with your 24 words. Already have a wallet? Enter its 24 words and choose a password for this browser. The same words open the same coins anywhere. Log out in Settings removes the wallet from the browser; the 24 words bring it back.
Your address is shown on the Mine page under "Rewards go to", on the Wallet page with a QR code, and in Settings.
The 24 words are a BIP-39 phrase and the address is derived the same way as in the desktop app, so the same phrase restores the same coins anywhere.
2. Start mining
Press Start mining. The miner loads into a background worker in the tab, asks the explorer for a block template that pays your address, and starts hashing. You can switch to other pages of the app while it runs.
A few things to know:
- Keep the tab open. A browser tab can only work while it exists. Closing it stops the miner.
- Reloading is fine. A reload restarts the tab, so mining stops for a second and then resumes by itself.
- Phones throttle background tabs. Keep the app in the foreground. In Settings, "Keep the screen awake" stops the phone from sleeping while mining.
- Start when the app opens in Settings makes every visit start mining without a press.
3. Reading the Mine page
| Figure | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Hashrate | Attempts per second this tab is making. The chart shows the last three minutes. |
| Found this session | Blocks this tab has solved since you pressed Start. |
| Hashes | Attempts since you pressed Start. |
| Rejected | Solved blocks the network refused, usually because someone else solved the same height first. Rare. |
| Running | Time since you pressed Start. |
| Working on block | The height your current attempts would create. |
| Block reward | What the next block pays, in ARG. |
| Network hashrate | Attempts per second across the whole network, estimated from recent blocks. |
| Your share | Your hashrate divided by the network's, including yours. |
| Expected time to a block | On average, how long until this tab finds a block at the current rates. Blocks are random; the real wait can be much shorter or longer. |
| Referral share | Shown only if you opened the app through an invite link. The fixed share of your rewards that goes to the inviter. |
| Blocks mined | All blocks ever paid to this address, with when the last one was found. |
| Mined in total | Everything those blocks paid, including referral rewards you received as an inviter. |
| Matured | Rewards that are now spendable. |
| Maturing | Rewards still locked, with a bar for the one that unlocks next. |
| Blocks you found | The most recent blocks paid to this address, each with the moment it unlocks. |
Rewards unlock 100 blocks after the block that paid them, about 17 hours at the target block interval. The lock exists so that a short chain reorganisation cannot make an already-spent reward disappear.
4. The Wallet page
The balance card shows the amount you can spend now. Below it, "maturing" is what mining has paid that is still locked. Receive shows your address and its QR code; anyone can send ARG to it, and mining rewards arrive there too. The Tokens tab lists ARG, uARG and wARG; the Activity tab is a short version of History, with payments still waiting for a block at the top.
Send pays ARG, uARG or wARG to another Argonmine address: paste the address, pick the coin, enter the amount, check the fee and press Send. The payment is signed in this browser and confirms with the next block. The network fee is paid in ARG; a wallet that holds only uARG or wARG pays it with the smallest swap to ARG, shown in the review.
Swap trades ARG, wARG and uARG with each other on this chain; the swap service pays the network fee. Moving uARG to or from USDC and USDT on other chains is done on the bridge.
5. The History page
Every confirmed transaction that touched your address, grouped by day, with its confirmations and a link to the explorer. The totals at the top are mined, received and sent. Filters show one kind at a time. Mined rewards appear as soon as the block is confirmed, even while they are still locked.
6. Settings
| Group | What is there |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Light, dark or follow the system. |
| Mining | Start when the app opens. Keep the screen awake while mining. |
| Security | Verify your recovery phrase: type the 24 words and the app checks, in the browser only, that they belong to this address. Forget this wallet removes the address from this browser; the coins stay on the chain and the words restore them. |
| Referrals | Your invite link, and the inviter you are paying if you came through a link, with a button to remove them. |
| Network | Which network and explorer the app is using. |
There is no account and no password because there is nothing on a server to protect. Two-factor authentication does not apply: whoever has the 24 words has the coins, and nobody else does.
7. Phones and tablets
Everything above works on mobile browsers. Expect a lower hashrate than a laptop, and expect the phone to warm up. Turn on "Keep the screen awake" and leave the app in the foreground; mobile browsers slow down or stop background tabs to save battery. Mining pauses while the device is asleep and resumes when the app is visible again.
Troubleshooting
| Message or symptom | What it means |
|---|---|
| "The work server is not reachable right now. Retrying." | The explorer that supplies block templates is down or your connection dropped. The miner keeps retrying and the message clears by itself. |
| "This browser cannot run the miner" | The browser does not support WebAssembly or web workers. Update it, or use another browser. |
| Rejected count goes up | Your solved block arrived after someone else's at the same height. Nothing is lost except that attempt. |
| Balance or history does not update | Both come from the explorer. The red banner at the top says when it is unreachable. |
| Hashrate is zero while "Mining" | The tab is in the background and the browser has throttled it. Bring it to the front. |
| I closed the tab | Mining stopped. Reopen the app and press Start, or turn on "Start when the app opens". |
| I lost the 24 words | The coins at that address cannot be spent by anyone. Use "Forget this wallet", create a new one, and treat the old address as gone. |
Mining with the desktop app instead
The desktop app bundles a full node, a wallet and the miner in one program, with the same interface. It mines with several processor threads, can send coins, and does not depend on the explorer. See Mining with the desktop app.