HardwareBeginner11 min read

NerdQAxe++ and NerdOCTAxe: Solo Mining Setup on mkpool (2026)

Published July 24, 2026

The NerdQAxe++ and its bigger sibling the NerdOCTAxe sit between a single-chip Bitaxe and an industrial ASIC: open-source home miners that pack several BM1370 chips, the same silicon generation as Bitmain's S21 Pro, onto one quiet board you can run on a desk. They set up in minutes through AxeOS and, on a non-custodial pool like mkpool, solo mine straight to your own wallet.

What you are working with

Published figures for the current boards. Exact numbers vary by hardware revision, firmware and cooling, and both boards can be pushed well past their stock hashrate with more power and a better heatsink, so treat these as stock reference points:

Board	Chips	Hashrate (stock)	Power	Efficiency
NerdQAxe++	4 × BM1370	~4.8 TH/s	~70 W	~15 J/TH
NerdOCTAxe (Gamma)	8 × BM1370	~9.6 TH/s	~160 W	~17 J/TH

Both run AxeOS, the open-source ESP-Miner web firmware (some NerdQAxe++ revisions ship a tuned fork of it). That means no app and no account: you configure everything from a browser, exactly as you would a Bitaxe.

Step 1: First boot and Wi-Fi

Power the board from a supply rated for its draw, roughly 70 watts for a NerdQAxe++, more for a NerdOCTAxe. On first boot it has no network, so it broadcasts its own Wi-Fi access point:

From a phone or laptop, join the board's access point.
The AxeOS setup page should open automatically; if not, browse to the address shown in its documentation.
Select your home Wi-Fi network and enter its password.

Step 2: Point it at mkpool

Still in AxeOS, fill in the stratum settings. For solo mining Bitcoin:

Stratum URL: btc.mkpool.com
Stratum port: 3333 (vardiff)
Stratum user: your Bitcoin address, optionally with a worker name, e.g. bc1qyouraddress.nerdqaxe
Stratum password: x

These boards are a natural fit for the vardiff port, it starts low so shares appear within seconds, then settles to their few-terahash rate with no tuning. Here are the live Bitcoin ports if you want the full picture:

Host: btc.mkpool.com

Port	Difficulty	Encryption	Rented hashrate
3333	vardiff [1024 to 1M]	Plain	Owned miners
3334	vardiff [1024 to 1M] · TLS	TLS	Owned miners
3335	fixed 1,000,000 · TLS	TLS	Owned miners
3336	fixed 10,000,000 · TLS	TLS	Owned miners
3342	fixed 50,000,000 · TLS	TLS	Owned miners
3337	fixed 1,000,000	Plain	NiceHash · Braiins
3338	fixed 10,000,000	Plain	NiceHash · Braiins
3339	fixed 50,000,000	Plain	NiceHash · Braiins
3340	vardiff [1024 to 1M]	Stratum V2	Owned miners · Braiins
3380	fixed 1,000,000	Stratum V2	Owned miners · Braiins
3381	fixed 10,000,000	Stratum V2	Owned miners · Braiins
3382	fixed 50,000,000	Stratum V2	Owned miners · Braiins

The address in the user field is both your identity and your payout destination; any block the board finds pays it directly. Save, and AxeOS reboots onto your home network and connects.

Set a backup pool

AxeOS supports a fallback pool. Point it at a second mkpool endpoint, a different port, or another SHA-256 chain, with the same address, so a brief outage never leaves the board idle.

Step 3: Confirm it is mining

Open the AxeOS dashboard at the board's address on your network and check:

A healthy NerdQAxe shows

Hashrate near the board's rating once warmed up.
Accepted shares climbing.
Chip temperatures in a safe range with fans not maxed out.
All chips contributing, not one reading zero.

Then cross-check on mkpool: find your address on the miners page. Seeing your worker with a live hashrate confirms the pool sees it. For what every figure means, the hashrate windows, shares, best share, read reading your worker stats.

Which chain to point it at

A few terahash is a real but long-odds lottery ticket on Bitcoin. Because these are SHA-256 boards, you can instead point them at any of mkpool's SHA-256 chains, Bitcoin Cash, BitcoinII, Bitcoin Cash II, DigiByte, eCash, by changing the host and using an address for that chain. A lower-difficulty chain turns up results far more often, though still on solo variance. The trade-offs are laid out in which coins you can solo mine.

Overclocking, carefully

Both boards have real headroom, a NerdQAxe++ can be pushed past 8 TH/s with a copper heatsink and a larger supply, but power draw and heat climb fast, and pushing too hard shortens chip life or destabilises shares. Get a stable stock baseline first, then raise frequency and voltage in small steps while watching temperature and the reject rate. The same method used for a Bitaxe applies here; it is covered in Bitaxe overclocking.

Disclaimer

NerdQAxe and NerdOCTAxe hardware comes in several community revisions; specifications, AxeOS screens and default behaviour vary by board and firmware version and are current as of July 2026. Figures are manufacturer- and community-published nominal specs, verify against your board's documentation. Nothing here is financial advice, and overclocking is at your own risk.

Frequently asked questions

What hashrate does a NerdQAxe++ do?

A NerdQAxe++ runs four BM1370 ASIC chips for roughly 4.8 TH/s at about 15 J/TH stock, drawing on the order of 70 watts. With a copper heatsink and a larger power supply it can be overclocked well beyond that, past 8 TH/s on some revisions. Exact figures vary by hardware revision and cooling, so check your board's documentation.

How is the NerdOCTAxe different from the NerdQAxe++?

The NerdOCTAxe doubles the chip count. Where the NerdQAxe++ has four BM1370 chips for about 4.8 TH/s, the NerdOCTAxe Gamma has eight for about 9.6 TH/s, drawing roughly 160 watts. Both run the same AxeOS firmware and set up identically; the OCTAxe simply needs more power and cooling.

Is a NerdQAxe set up like a Bitaxe?

Yes. Both run AxeOS, the open-source ESP-Miner web firmware, so the flow is identical: on first boot the board makes its own Wi-Fi access point, you join it, enter your home Wi-Fi, then set the pool URL, your wallet address as the user, and x as the password. If you have set up a Bitaxe, a NerdQAxe will feel the same.

Which coin should I mine on a NerdQAxe?

It is a SHA-256 miner, so it can mine Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, BitcoinII, Bitcoin Cash II, DigiByte or eCash. On Bitcoin, a few terahash is a genuine but long-odds lottery ticket; on a lower-difficulty SHA-256 chain the same hardware finds results far more often, though still on solo variance. Point it at whichever chain fits your goal by changing the host and address.

Do I need a special power supply?

At stock settings a quality USB-C or DC supply rated for the board's draw is enough, around 70 watts for a NerdQAxe++, more for a NerdOCTAxe. If you plan to overclock, budget for a larger supply and better cooling, such as a copper heatsink, because both power draw and heat rise quickly with clock speed.

Can I set a backup pool on a NerdQAxe?

Yes. AxeOS supports a fallback pool the board switches to if the primary is unreachable. Set it to a second mkpool endpoint, ideally a different port or chain, with the same address, so a brief outage never leaves the board idle.

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