Pearl merged mining: NOCK, NACRE, and what happened to MDL
Which Pearl pools pay a second coin on top of PRL for the same shares, how to set it up, and the catches: NOCK on Lucky Pool, F2Pool and Jetski, NACRE on AlphaPool, MDL shut down, and BzMiner's dual mining.
Some Pearl pools now pay a second coin on top of PRL, for the same shares and the same electricity. That is merged mining. This guide shows which pools offer it on 31 October 2026, how to set it up, and what the extra coin is really worth. Everything links to the pool's or project's own page.
What merged mining is
Your GPU does the Pearl work as usual. The pool also builds blocks for a second chain from the same work, and when it finds one, it shares that coin among its miners too.
- No extra power, no less PRL. F2Pool says the second coin's rewards "are calculated separately and do not affect each other".
- It does not double your income. The second chain has its own difficulty and its own price. Today the extra coin is worth a small fraction of the PRL you mine.
- The pool has to support it. You only add a second address. Nothing changes in your miner except, on some pools, the wallet field.
Who offers what
| Pool | Second coin | How to set it up | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucky Pool | NOCK | Wallet field PRL_ADDRESS+NOCK_ADDRESS.WORKER | Live since September, per the pool's notice |
| F2Pool | NOCK | Add a NOCK address in your F2Pool account settings | Since 21 October: PPLNS, 1% fee, minimum payout 350 NOCK |
| Jetski | NOCK | Register a NOCK address with the pool | Registration is open, per the pool's API |
| AlphaPool | NACRE (NACR) | Address prl1…+nacr1p… | NACR is credited; paid "once enabled" |
Sources: Lucky Pool, F2Pool's announcement, Jetski, AlphaPool.
NOCK (Nockchain)
Three pools pay NOCK for Pearl shares. A few things to get right:
- Use a native Nockchain address. Lucky Pool warns that an address starting with
0x(wrapped NOCK on another chain) cannot receive it. - On F2Pool, NOCK only counts from the moment you add the address. Shares from before are not paid out later.
- Mind the minimum payout. F2Pool pays NOCK from 350 NOCK. At about $0.015 per NOCK on 31 October (CoinGecko), that is roughly $5.
NACRE (NACR)
AlphaPool merge-mines NACRE on every Pearl share. Add + and your NACRE address (it starts with nacr1p) to your Pearl address, like prl1…+nacr1p….rig1. AlphaPool's own miner supports it from version 1.8.6; older builds use the password x;mdl=nacr1p….
From AlphaPool's page: 21,000,000 NACR in total, a 10 NACR block reward that halves every 1,050,000 blocks, and 2-minute blocks. AlphaPool shows NACR as credited and paid "once enabled". We found no exchange that lists NACR yet, so for now it is a balance, not money you can spend.
MDL is gone
modelOS (MDL) used to be merge-mined with Pearl. That has ended:
- F2Pool closed its MDL pools on 8 October. Earnings stay visible until 8 November.
- HeroMiners writes that the modelOS network has shut down.
- AlphaPool tells former MDL miners to swap their
+mdl1…suffix for+nacr1p….
Any guide that still tells you to add an mdl1 address is out of date.
Dual mining is something else
BzMiner v100.51 (24 October) added dual mining: Pearl and a second algorithm (C29) on the same NVIDIA card, both through MoneroOcean, paid in Monero. Unlike merged mining, the card splits its work, so your Pearl hashrate drops. In BzMiner's own table an RTX 3090 does 89 TH/s of Pearl while dual mining. It only pays if the second algorithm earns more than the Pearl you give up.
Is it worth it?
Merged mining costs you nothing but a minute of setup, so if your pool offers it, there is little reason not to add the address. Just keep expectations low: the extra coin is small next to PRL, it may have a high minimum payout, and a pool can pause it at any time.
PearlStation tracks your PRL. NOCK and NACR balances show on your pool's own page. Comparing pools? See Pearl mining pools compared, and check what each one really pays you on the Earnings page.
