The Mine - Goldpaper

Introduction

The Not a Punks Cult & Goobaloo Proof of Work Gold Mine is a fully autonomous, decentralized, Proof-of-Work (PoW) ERC-721 Mining experience on ApeChain.

This ecosystem is designed to create verifiable, scarce, and on-chain digital assets through real mining work whilst ensuring a self-sustaining, cyclical economy with dynamic difficulty adjustments and a finite gold supply.

The Mining process involves several levels of gamification and strategy - which pick to use, when to mine, when to submit a Proof to the contract to Mint your Gold Ore, and how many Picks/Miners can your device handle mining at once.

How The Mine Works

• Mining occurs in the browser using a SHA256 hashing process.

• Users must find and validate a Gold Ore Hash, and then submit it for on-chain verification.

• Each Gold Ore Hash contains:
  • Pickaxe ID (which mined it)
  • Gold Ratio
  • Mining Attempts
  • Previously Mined Gold Ore ID

This system ensures every Gold Ore NFT is a verifiable Proof-of-Work record with immutable provenance.

SHA-256 is a cryptographic one-way function, which means:

• Unpredictability: Even a tiny change in the input produces a completely different, seemingly random output due to the avalanche effect.

• No Reverse-Engineering: There’s no shortcut to work backward from the hash to determine the input.

• Brute-Force Necessity: To find a hash that meets specific conditions (like ending with certain values), you must sequentially modify a part of the data (often a nonce) and compute the hash repeatedly until you hit the desired pattern.

In essence, you can only "mine" for a valid hash by trying each possibility one by one, because guessing the correct input directly is computationally infeasible.

Finite Gold Supply & Economy

The Mine contains exactly 21,000,000 Gold.

• Gold Ore NFTs "contain" Gold, a quantifiable measure of mined gold.

• Mining will always result in a Gold Ore with at least 10 Gold.

• The system is non-inflationary, with no staking or passive rewards, only real Proof-of-Work earns rewards.

Although it is not the sole purpose of mining Gold Ore, The Mine will always buy Gold Ore from collectors who wish to sell it. As well as ensuring a functional economic loop, this feature is included as a unique proposition for collectors who either ‘need some liquidity’ or desire to no longer be involved in the collection - they can avoid the typical ‘drawbacks’ of secondary markets (list price strategy, sell-shaming etc.) without getting stuck with a bunch of ‘worthless’ NFTs in their wallet.

Future Expansion, Utility ⬆️

Gold Ores and their Gold will be used in future to craft new NFTs that retain their Gold Value.

We intend for Gold Ores to have value and utility besides selling them to The Mine, that's just a nice feature. In the words of Rida, "wapey wapey" - except to a Smart Contract this will always pay a fixed price, in Ape, for Gold Ores.

Mining & Pickaxe NFTs

Mining requires special NFT Pickaxes, which are:

• ERC721 Utility-driven tools used for mining.

• Hand-drawn, TCG-style collectibles crafted by Uncle Mac.

Pickaxe Types & Multipliers

Pickaxe Mint Fund Distribution

To ensure long-term sustainability:

• 50% → Liquidity Pool (backs Gold value) - the goal is to fund The Mine with ~21,000 Ape, giving Gold an instant Value, in Ape, of 0.001 per Gold - so the Mine would pay 1 APE for a Gold Ore with 1000 Gold

• 50% → Project Team (further development and usual project funding stuff).

Mining Process

✅ Select a Miner - miners will start off as NPCs, Goobaloos, Gobs on Ape, Gs on Ape, Frostbyte, and Alpha Banana Passes. Over time we'll 'approve' other collections on ApeChain to be able to mine in The Mine. Creating Cross-Community participation, providing utility and awareness to under-valued collections. Eventually, all Reputable collections can use Picks to mine in The Mine.

• Miners can mine once per day. Miners are a gamified mechanic, like 'energy' in an idle game, or 'free packs (Pokemon TCG App)' more Miners = more Mining.

✅ Select a Pick → select a Pick for one of your Miners to use (see Pick table for multipliers)

• Picks can Mine unlimited times per day, you just need a Miner with energy left to wield it.

✅ Start Mining → SHA256 hashing searches for valid Gold Hashes.

✅ Find a Valid Gold Hash → Proof-of-Work record is generated.

✅ Submit Hash to The Mine → On-chain verification, Gold Ore NFT is minted.

✅ On-Chain Artwork, generated as a Visual Representation of the Gold Hash.

✅ Gold Ore Contains Gold → Amount based on:

• Gold Ratio

• Pickaxe Multiplier (increased the "size" of the Gold Ore, 4x/3x/2x/1x the Gold in the final Ore)

• Mining Difficulty (Dynamic Adjustment): Mining Difficulty Adjusts in Real-Time, from the Smart Contract monitoring no. Gold Ores Mined.
  • More Miners = Harder Mining, Fewer Gold per Ore.
  • Fewer Miners = Easier Mining, More Gold per Ore.

🔄 Mining distributes Gold supply → Gold value (value in Ape, to the Mine) increases with Pick Secondary, Ore Sales from the Mine, and Pay-to-Mine users.

✅ Repeat Mining Cycle → Return to Start Mining

💡Strategies, Efficiencies and Gamification methods will develop as people engage in mining and share their experiences.

Gold Ore Buy & Sell System - Fully Autonomous (managed by Smart Contracts)

💰 Sell Gold Ore to The Mine → Receive APE based on Gold content of the Ore.

🔄 Buy Gold Ore from The Mine → Costs 1.2x the Mine's "sell to the mine" price.

📈 More Gold Ore Purchases = Higher Gold Cap.

📉The Mine tracks its "budget" (Gold Cap): both the amount of Gold Ore it currently owns and its available liquidity. It always pays a fixed price in Ape for Gold, with Gold valued at 1/21,000,000 of the Mine’s total accessible resources. For instance, if the Mine has 21,000 Ape recorded as the Gold Cap and has already purchased 20,999,000 Gold, it will have just 1 Ape left to acquire the final, "wild" 1000 Gold.

Royalties & Additional Fund Inflows

• 10% Pickaxe resale royalties → Funds The Mine Liquidity Pool.

• 5% Gold Ore resale royalties → Paid to the Holder of the Pick that Mined the Ore

• Paid Mining Sessions (1 APE per session for renters) → Adds APE to Liquidity Pool.
  • Potential for Projects to add more Ape to the Mine, for marketing/utility see 'Future Upgrades'.

📊 All fund inflows strengthen The Mine’s "Liquidity Pool" → Gold Speck Value Grows Over Time.

Future Upgrades ⬆️

Hidden Treasures & Special Rewards

Mining isn’t just about Gold Ore—rare artifacts, relics, and high-value NFTs may be found.

• Randomized rare giveaways of valuable ApeChain NFTs.

• Mystery artifacts with potential future use cases.

• Encourages long-term mining participation.

Interactive Mining Experience

• Real-time mining engagement – your browser must be running to process hashes.

• Live alerts & updates while mining:
  • Security warnings (e.g., "Discord Hacked – Don't Click Links!")
  • Upcoming mint notifications
  • Leaderboard updates for top miners

💡 Potential for trusted project marketing integrations (TBC), or Services provided by the Team/Mining. - Gold Isn't the only thing the Mine can Mine.

Conclusion: The First Proof-of-Work NFT Economy on ApeChain

• Pick holders strategize on mining efficiency, mining difficulty & resale value.

• Miners participate in the creation of Gold Ore, with Unique on-chain Hash Matrices, (the artwork for each Ore Token).

• Self-sustaining PoW NFT economy that engages active participants.

• The Mine is opening soon…