[ANN] Nightfall (NIGHT) — privacy L1, provable supply, 0 premine, CPU mine

[Angel_Instinct]

https://nightfallcoin.org/assets/logo-128.png

NIGHTFALLCOIN
Money that refuses to snitch.

No company · no premine · no admin key
Confidential amounts · no addresses on chain · a supply every node can prove

Website
https://nightfallcoin.org

Source & releases
https://github.com/Instinctes/nightfall

Web wallet (keys stay in the browser)
https://nightfallcoin.org/wallet/

Internal security review (not an independent audit)
https://nightfallcoin.org/audit/

Ticker NIGHT
Launch fair, August 2026 — protocol v8, new genesis
License MIT OR Apache-2.0


1. What this is

Nightfall is a standalone proof-of-work Layer-1. Amounts on the chain are Pedersen commitments, not numbers. Payments never write a reusable address. Every node re-checks one equation over the whole history, and the equation only balances if not a single coin was created from nothing.

It is not “100% anonymous.” The graph of spent outputs is mixed inside each block, not deleted. Network privacy is stem/fluff plus optional Tor, not a mixnet. There is no external audit of the live protocol. Those limits are listed in the open, because a privacy project that hides them is not worth using.

There is no premine, no team allocation, no VC round, no admin key, no freeze, and no official price. Coins exist by being mined.


2. Specifications

Consensus	Proof of work · Nighthash-v2 (Argon2id, 32 MiB / hash)
Block time	~15 seconds · LWMA-1 every block, 90-block window
Reward	6 NIGHT / block · halving every 7,500,000 blocks (~3.56 y)
Hard cap	90,000,000 NIGHT (curve ends at 89,999,999.25; 0.75 never minted)
Premine / ICO / airdrop	0
Fees	burned while the subsidy runs; after that they go to the miner
Coinbase maturity	1,440 blocks (~6 hours)
Unit	1 NIGHT = 1e8 darks
Privacy	mandatory shield · stealth one-sided payments · view keys nfview1…
Network	Tor default (127.0.0.1:9050) · clearnet fallback if Tor is down
Relay	Dandelion-class stem/fluff on transactions — not full Dandelion++
Genesis (live)	061a052d49607ff8f4b306c75d622ebd230cff4ec3a45a6dffc2f7738d4b20de
Magic / wire	NFL2 · protocol 8 · wire 6
Current build	0.7.1 (same chain as 0.7.0)

Live circulating supply is on the website hero — it is read from the seed, not invented.


3. Provable supply

Most private chains ask you to trust that nobody is printing coins behind the cryptography. Nightfall does not ask. Every full node evaluates:

Code:

Σ UTXO  −  Σ kernel excess  =  (minted − burned) · G

If anyone ever minted a coin that was not in the emission schedule, this equality breaks and every honest node sees it. Four checks sit under that:

• Bulletproof range proofs on every output — a negative amount cannot mint value
  
• Schnorr excess over a second generator — value cannot appear from nothing
  
• UTXO membership + one-time spend key — you cannot spend what you do not own
  
• Per-output sender signature — a relay cannot rewrite a payment in flight
  

The Core wallet prints the same check the node runs: Supply proof verified.


4. Privacy — what is true, and what is not

True today

• Amounts are commitments. Nothing on chain states how much moved.
• Addresses never appear. Each payment derives a fresh one-time key; two payments to the same person share no visible field.
• View keys (nfview1…) can see and cannot spend. That is a type-system fact, not a convention.
  
• Memos are encrypted and padded to constant length.
• A block flattens every payment into one sorted set of inputs, outputs and kernels. An observer cannot pair which input paid which output.
• There is no admin, no blacklist, no pause switch.

Not true, and we will not say it

• Not “untraceable,” not “protocol-scale anonymity.” The set of transactions in a block is the anonymity set. The network is small.
• The graph is mixed, not erased. Cut-through would destroy the signature that makes one-sided payments safe. We chose payments that work when the other party is offline.
• Light clients (phone, browser) display what a node tells them. They do not independently verify the chain. Spends still need the keys on the device.
  
• The web wallet keeps the seed in localStorage. XSS is theft. Write the 24 words on paper.
  

5. How to start

Download from https://nightfallcoin.org or the GitHub release. Open Core, write down the 24 words, press Start mining. The node finds the seed itself.

• macOS — unsigned. Right-click → Open the first time. Verify SHA256SUMS-0.7.1.txt.
  
• Windows — unsigned. Built by the public Actions workflow, not a laptop. SmartScreen will complain; checksums are the truth.
  
• Android — sideload APK (debug-signed so the phone will install it). Not Play Store.
  
• iPhone — unsigned IPA. AltStore / Sideloadly / Xcode. Not App Store.
  
• Browser — https://nightfallcoin.org/wallet/
  
• From source — cargo build --release -p nightfall-core
  

Mined coins unlock after 1,440 blocks. If the wallet warns that it has no peers, take that seriously. Two miners who never meet build two chains; the lighter one dies when they connect. That has already happened on this network.

Seed: seed.nightfallcoin.org:17891
P2P port 17891 · light API 17888


6. What this is not, yet

• No independent audit of the live v8 crypto. The published review is internal: https://nightfallcoin.org/audit/
  
• Hashrate is small. A laptop farm can still reorg. Difficulty retargets every block; it is not a substitute for many independent miners.
  
• One seed currently answers P2P, the light API and the website proxy. A second operator would be better.
  
• No CEX, no ticker price, no premine sale. If someone quotes you a launch price, it is not from this project.
  
• Desktop builds are not store-signed. Checksums are how you know you have the file we published.

A protocol v4 chain from earlier this year had a tautological balance proof — anyone could have minted. That chain is dead and documented: docs/AUDIT-2026-08-12.md. The live chain is a new genesis. 0.6.x wallets cannot handshake (NFL1 vs NFL2).


7. Source layout

Rust workspace, no unsafe on the consensus path.


nightfall-types        emission, constants, genesis
nightfall-crypto       Nighthash-v2, stealth, range proofs, Schnorr
nightfall-ledger       UTXO set + supply invariant
nightfall-consensus    blocks, LWMA, fork choice
nightfall-node         P2P + RPC + miner (nightfalld)
nightfall-core         desktop wallet
nightfall-wallet       CLI


The test that must not be softened: cargo test -p nightfall-ledger --test exploit_regression


Build it, verify the checksum, write the seed on paper. There is no support desk and nobody who can reset a lost phrase.

https://nightfallcoin.org
https://github.com/Instinctes/nightfall

[Ms_Mining]

Discord?

[SkyLords]

As I detailed in my post 'Custom RandomX CPU Miner: Looking for Pool Collaborations', I have developed a CPU mining software. If this sounds interesting, I would be glad to discuss potential collaboration opportunities: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5591405.msg67050647#msg67050647

[lightbit]

Hey — I run Chainquiry, a searchable crypto project directory, and I’d like to invite your team to submit a free listing. 

It includes your official links, network, launch date and project information after editorial review:

https://chainquiry.com/list-your-project/

[zygzag]

https://nightfallcoin.org/assets/logo-128.png

NIGHTFALLCOIN
Money that refuses to snitch.

No company · no premine · no admin key
Confidential amounts · no addresses on chain · a supply every node can prove

Website
https://nightfallcoin.org

Source & releases
https://github.com/Instinctes/nightfall

Web wallet (keys stay in the browser)
https://nightfallcoin.org/wallet/

Internal security review (not an independent audit)
https://nightfallcoin.org/audit/

Ticker NIGHT
Launch fair, August 2026 — protocol v8, new genesis
License MIT OR Apache-2.0


1. What this is

Nightfall is a standalone proof-of-work Layer-1. Amounts on the chain are Pedersen commitments, not numbers. Payments never write a reusable address. Every node re-checks one equation over the whole history, and the equation only balances if not a single coin was created from nothing.

It is not “100% anonymous.” The graph of spent outputs is mixed inside each block, not deleted. Network privacy is stem/fluff plus optional Tor, not a mixnet. There is no external audit of the live protocol. Those limits are listed in the open, because a privacy project that hides them is not worth using.

There is no premine, no team allocation, no VC round, no admin key, no freeze, and no official price. Coins exist by being mined.


2. Specifications

Consensus	Proof of work · Nighthash-v2 (Argon2id, 32 MiB / hash)
Block time	~15 seconds · LWMA-1 every block, 90-block window
Reward	6 NIGHT / block · halving every 7,500,000 blocks (~3.56 y)
Hard cap	90,000,000 NIGHT (curve ends at 89,999,999.25; 0.75 never minted)
Premine / ICO / airdrop	0
Fees	burned while the subsidy runs; after that they go to the miner
Coinbase maturity	1,440 blocks (~6 hours)
Unit	1 NIGHT = 1e8 darks
Privacy	mandatory shield · stealth one-sided payments · view keys nfview1…
Network	Tor default (127.0.0.1:9050) · clearnet fallback if Tor is down
Relay	Dandelion-class stem/fluff on transactions — not full Dandelion++
Genesis (live)	061a052d49607ff8f4b306c75d622ebd230cff4ec3a45a6dffc2f7738d4b20de
Magic / wire	NFL2 · protocol 8 · wire 6
Current build	0.7.1 (same chain as 0.7.0)

Live circulating supply is on the website hero — it is read from the seed, not invented.


3. Provable supply

Most private chains ask you to trust that nobody is printing coins behind the cryptography. Nightfall does not ask. Every full node evaluates:

Code:

Σ UTXO  −  Σ kernel excess  =  (minted − burned) · G

If anyone ever minted a coin that was not in the emission schedule, this equality breaks and every honest node sees it. Four checks sit under that:

• Bulletproof range proofs on every output — a negative amount cannot mint value
  
• Schnorr excess over a second generator — value cannot appear from nothing
  
• UTXO membership + one-time spend key — you cannot spend what you do not own
  
• Per-output sender signature — a relay cannot rewrite a payment in flight
  

The Core wallet prints the same check the node runs: Supply proof verified.


4. Privacy — what is true, and what is not

True today

• Amounts are commitments. Nothing on chain states how much moved.
• Addresses never appear. Each payment derives a fresh one-time key; two payments to the same person share no visible field.
• View keys (nfview1…) can see and cannot spend. That is a type-system fact, not a convention.
  
• Memos are encrypted and padded to constant length.
• A block flattens every payment into one sorted set of inputs, outputs and kernels. An observer cannot pair which input paid which output.
• There is no admin, no blacklist, no pause switch.

Not true, and we will not say it

• Not “untraceable,” not “protocol-scale anonymity.” The set of transactions in a block is the anonymity set. The network is small.
• The graph is mixed, not erased. Cut-through would destroy the signature that makes one-sided payments safe. We chose payments that work when the other party is offline.
• Light clients (phone, browser) display what a node tells them. They do not independently verify the chain. Spends still need the keys on the device.
  
• The web wallet keeps the seed in localStorage. XSS is theft. Write the 24 words on paper.
  

5. How to start

Download from https://nightfallcoin.org or the GitHub release. Open Core, write down the 24 words, press Start mining. The node finds the seed itself.

• macOS — unsigned. Right-click → Open the first time. Verify SHA256SUMS-0.7.1.txt.
  
• Windows — unsigned. Built by the public Actions workflow, not a laptop. SmartScreen will complain; checksums are the truth.
  
• Android — sideload APK (debug-signed so the phone will install it). Not Play Store.
  
• iPhone — unsigned IPA. AltStore / Sideloadly / Xcode. Not App Store.
  
• Browser — https://nightfallcoin.org/wallet/
  
• From source — cargo build --release -p nightfall-core
  

Mined coins unlock after 1,440 blocks. If the wallet warns that it has no peers, take that seriously. Two miners who never meet build two chains; the lighter one dies when they connect. That has already happened on this network.

Seed: seed.nightfallcoin.org:17891
P2P port 17891 · light API 17888


6. What this is not, yet

• No independent audit of the live v8 crypto. The published review is internal: https://nightfallcoin.org/audit/
  
• Hashrate is small. A laptop farm can still reorg. Difficulty retargets every block; it is not a substitute for many independent miners.
  
• One seed currently answers P2P, the light API and the website proxy. A second operator would be better.
  
• No CEX, no ticker price, no premine sale. If someone quotes you a launch price, it is not from this project.
  
• Desktop builds are not store-signed. Checksums are how you know you have the file we published.

A protocol v4 chain from earlier this year had a tautological balance proof — anyone could have minted. That chain is dead and documented: docs/AUDIT-2026-08-12.md. The live chain is a new genesis. 0.6.x wallets cannot handshake (NFL1 vs NFL2).


7. Source layout

Rust workspace, no unsafe on the consensus path.


nightfall-types        emission, constants, genesis
nightfall-crypto       Nighthash-v2, stealth, range proofs, Schnorr
nightfall-ledger       UTXO set + supply invariant
nightfall-consensus    blocks, LWMA, fork choice
nightfall-node         P2P + RPC + miner (nightfalld)
nightfall-core         desktop wallet
nightfall-wallet       CLI


The test that must not be softened: cargo test -p nightfall-ledger --test exploit_regression


Build it, verify the checksum, write the seed on paper. There is no support desk and nobody who can reset a lost phrase.

https://nightfallcoin.org
https://github.com/Instinctes/nightfall

Syncing is a hassle; you need to set up two nodes to sync faster. Please open a Discord server—it would make things easier.