Bitaxe – ‘No Share in Coinbase Reward’ Warning (256 / Testnet4)
AxeOS dashboard banner: 'You don't have a share in the coinbase reward.' AxeOS firmware 2.13.x decodes the pool's mining.notify coinbase outputs and matches each one against your configured Stratum User address. When no output matches, the warning fires. Five distinct triggers: hash-donation pool (256 Foundation, expected), testnet4 mining (parser blind spot, expected false positive), stratum proxy rewriting the coinbase (silent disaster), pool quietly substituting a house address for an unparsable user address (silent override), or a buggy/malicious pool paying somebody else. The check is the most important honest-broker signal pleb solo mining has shipped — the cost of getting it wrong is a 3.125 BTC + fees block reward to a wallet you can't sign for.
Informational — Monitor and address as needed
Symptoms
- AxeOS dashboard banner reads 'You don't have a share in the coinbase reward'
- Banner appeared after upgrading to ESP-Miner / AxeOS firmware `2.13.0`, `2.13.1`, or later (was not present on `2.12.x`)
- Stratum URL points at `pool.256foundation.org` or another known hash-donation / sponsored pool — warning expected
- Stratum User address starts with testnet/signet/regtest prefix (`tb1q`, `tb1p`, `m`, `n`, `2`, `bcrt1`) on a testnet4 pool — parser-blind-spot false positive
- Stratum User contains an appended worker name (`bc1q...xyz.workername` or `bc1q...xyz/heater01`) and the parser may not be extracting it cleanly
- Bitaxe is behind a stratum proxy, stratum-v1-to-v2 translator, marketplace router, or third-party gateway that may be rewriting the coinbase
- Pool you thought was solo is actually a fee-shared 'solo-style' pool with off-chain ledger payouts
- Hashrate is healthy, shares are being accepted, dashboard uptime is fine — the only abnormality is the banner
- Stratum User was recently changed (testnet/Lightning/exchange-pasted-by-mistake → correct mainnet on-chain) and the warning persisted across the change due to NVS-cached stale state
- Manual decode of the `coinbase1 + extranonce + coinbase2` hex shows your address absent from every `vout` script address
- Manual decode shows your address present in a `vout` but AxeOS still reports no user output (parser format-recognition gap, not a real coinbase mismatch)
- Wireshark `tcpdump` of the stratum stream shows the `mining.notify` payload received by the Bitaxe differs from what the pool's documented endpoint claims to send (LAN-level rewrite)
Step-by-Step Fix
Open AxeOS Settings → read the Stratum URL host. If it's `pool.256foundation.org` or a similar named hash-donation pool, the warning is expected — your hash is being donated and no block reward will go to you. Acknowledge mentally; the warning is the protocol surface telling you the trade you intentionally made. Skip the rest of the diagnostic flow and continue mining if this is what you intended.
Check whether your Stratum User address starts with `tb1q`, `tb1p`, `m`, `n`, `2`, or `bcrt1`. Those prefixes are testnet/signet/regtest — AxeOS firmware `2.13.x` does not currently parse them as valid user outputs. False positive. The testnet pool is paying you correctly to your testnet address. Track GitHub issue #1648 (bitaxeorg/ESP-Miner) for the parser fix; continue mining.
Re-paste your Stratum User address. AxeOS Settings → Stratum User. Delete the entire field, copy the address fresh from your wallet, paste, save, reboot. Some firmware updates have wiped or truncated the field; re-pasting from source is a 30-second sanity restore that catches Unicode-paste surprises and silent truncations.
Validate the address on mempool.space and a second explorer like blockstream.info. Both should load an address page (zero balance is fine). If either explorer 404s or kicks you to a testnet suggestion, the address is malformed or wrong-network — fix it now (typo / wrong network / wrong format / Lightning-pasted-by-mistake). See the sibling page `bitaxe-invalid-btc-address-lightning-pasted` for full paste-class triage.
Hard power-cycle the Bitaxe (unplug, count to ten, plug back in). Soft web reboots can leave cached parser state from before the address change. Wait for the dashboard to come back up and re-check the warning banner. Sometimes the banner clears after the next clean mining cycle on the new configuration.
Connect a USB-C data cable to the Bitaxe and open a serial terminal at `115200 8N1` (`screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200` on macOS/Linux, PuTTY on Windows). Within 60 seconds you'll see `stratum_task: New job` lines including `mining.notify` payloads. Capture one full cycle to a text file: `coinbase1`, `extranonce1`, `coinbase2`, plus the merkle branches and previous block hash for cross-reference.
Concatenate `coinbase1 + extranonce1 + extranonce2_from_your_share + coinbase2` as hex. Decode using `bitcoin-cli decoderawtransaction <hex>` if you run a node, or paste into btctools.io / mempool.space transaction-decode. Inspect each `vout`'s `scriptPubKey.address` field. Your Stratum User address should appear in one of them; if it does, the pool is honest and AxeOS missed the parse — continue mining and file an issue at github.com/bitaxeorg/ESP-Miner/issues with the failing format.
If your address is absent from every coinbase output and the pool's house address is present, you're in case 3 (proxy rewriting) or case 5 (bad pool). Disable every middlebox between the Bitaxe and the pool: VPN, stratum proxy, stratum-v1-to-v2 translator, custom DNS rewrites, router 'mining accelerator' features. Repoint directly at the pool's official hostname/port. Reboot. Re-capture `mining.notify`. Re-decode. If the warning vanishes, audit the proxy you removed before re-enabling — proxies have been hijacked in the wild.
Factory-reset NVS to clear cached state. AxeOS Settings → System → Factory Reset, or hold the boot button for 10 seconds during power-on. Reconfigure WiFi, Stratum URL, and Stratum User from scratch. Some firmware-update edge cases have left stale partial state in NVS; a clean reset restores known-good behaviour. Re-test the warning after reconfig.
Reflash the canonical signed firmware. Download the latest stable release from github.com/bitaxeorg/ESP-Miner/releases. Verify `factory.bin` SHA256 against the release page. Flash via the official ESP-Miner web flasher at osmu.wiki/bitaxe/getting-started/flashing/, or `esptool.py --chip esp32s3 write_flash 0x0 factory.bin`. Reconfigure and re-test. Eliminates third-party-fork or nightly-build parser regressions.
Cross-check with a second miner. Point a second Bitaxe (or a NerdMiner / NerdAxe) at the same pool with the same Stratum User. Same warning behaviour on both? It's the pool. Different result on the second miner with the same config? Hardware-specific bug or bad NVS partition on the first — escalate to D-Central support with both serial captures and firmware versions.
Capture a Wireshark trace of `mining.notify`. With both miner and a workstation on the same LAN, run `tcpdump -i any -w bitaxe.pcap port <pool_port>` (typically 21496 for Public Pool, 3333 for CKPool, 3334 for testnet CKPool). Power-cycle the Bitaxe, capture for 5 minutes, open in Wireshark, follow the TCP stream. Confirm the `mining.notify` received by the Bitaxe matches what the pool's documented endpoint claims to send. Discrepancy at this layer = LAN-level rewrite, not an AxeOS parser issue.
Patch the firmware (Mining Hacker tier). Clone github.com/bitaxeorg/ESP-Miner. Open `main/tasks/stratum_task.c` and find `decode_mining_notification()`. Add the address format(s) you need parsed (testnet4 `tb1q`/`tb1p`, exotic mainnet formats, witness-script-hash). Build with the standard ESP-IDF toolchain. Flash. Submit a PR upstream. Issue #1648 is the open tracker for the testnet4 parser fix; the maintainers welcome contributions from the community.
If Step 8 confirmed the pool itself is shipping a coinbase that doesn't pay you, switch pools immediately. Capture three full `mining.notify` payloads with timestamps as evidence. Post anonymized to r/Bitaxe, the Bitaxe Discord, the SoloSatoshi forum, and the D-Central blog. Pool reputation is the only enforcement mechanism in solo mining; document the failure pattern publicly so the next pleb miner doesn't get caught the same way.
Send a 2,000-sat test deposit (~$1 USD) from a wallet you currently control to the address you have configured as Stratum User. Wait for one confirmation on mempool.space. Open the wallet you BELIEVE owns the address and confirm receipt. Confirms two things at once: (a) the address is real and on the right network, (b) you can sign for spends from it. If the test deposit never appears in your wallet, your seed is lost or the address is wrong — fix that now, not after a block.
Tier 4 — D-Central pre-flight + post-warning support. If the warning persists across firmware reflash, factory NVS reset, network-stripping, and a second-miner cross-check, open a ticket at d-central.tech/contact/. Include: AxeOS firmware version, Bitaxe variant, Stratum URL + Stratum User (the address — never share the seed), captured `mining.notify` hex, decoded coinbase output addresses, and a description of what you've already ruled out. We triage whether you've found a new pool-side issue worth disclosure, a parser bug worth a PR, or a network-layer hijack worth a router replacement.
When to Seek Professional Repair
If the steps above do not resolve the issue, or if you are not comfortable performing these repairs yourself, professional service is recommended. Attempting advanced repairs without proper equipment can cause further damage.
Related Error Codes
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