Solo Miner Wins 3.15 BTC Jackpot After Beating 1-in-180-Million Odds To Mine Bitcoin Block

On Friday, a solo home miner mined a Bitcoin block to earn about 3.15 BTC in rewards and fees, worth $264,558 at current prices, beating unbelievable odds in the process.

Bitcoin miners compete against each other using specialized computers that are purpose-built for constantly trying to solve complex cryptographic problems in a race to find a “nonce” – a number used once – as part of Bitcoin’s proof-of-work (PoW) consensus. Their payout for finding the “block” comes in the form of freshly minted BTC.

Solo Miner Solves Bitcoin Block Using Bitaxe Gamma Home Miner, Wins 3.15 BTC Lottery

According to on-chain data from CKPool, a mining pool that provides resources for people to mine Bitcoin without the need to run their own full Bitcoin node, the miner was using a device designed for hobby miners, supplying just 6 tera hashes per second (TH/s) of total computing power at the time the block was mined.

The Bitcoin network’s average hash rate hit 855.7 exahashes per second (EH/s) in October. For context, 6 TH/s is roughly 0.0000007% of 855.7 EH/s, or 7 billionth of 1% of that number. This means the miner only had a one-in-180-million chance of solving Bitcoin’s cryptographic puzzle that day.

The individual mined block 924,569, which also marked the 308th solo block mined using the CKPool software, and the first one on the pool in about three months. The miner ultimately received 3.146 BTC in rewards, which includes 0.125 BTC in fees, for processing a block that contained 1,351 transactions.

While bitcoin mining establishments use massive amounts of computational power to solve a block, the mystery person in question earned the block reward seemingly using the Bitaxe Gamma – a compact, hobbyist mining rig that retails for about $100, and produces an average hashrate of 1.2 TH/s.

The miner’s setup apparently includes 6 Bitaxe Gamma rigs working together.

Bitcoin mining rig retailer Solo Satoshi confirmed in an X post that it was a “solo block for sure,” but it is impossible to know unless the individual responsible comes forward to identify themselves.

Bitcoin Community Praises Solo Miners For Protecting the Network’s Decentralized Nature

Back in April, another solo miner processed a block using the Bitaxe Gamma to bag a 3.125 BTC payday. At the time, this reward, which also includes transaction fees, was valued at $259,637. It was estimated that the miner had a 0.00068390% chance of mining the block that day.

This year has seen an uptick in the number of solo miners who have beaten all odds to mint BTC, but experts compare the possibility of winning blocks without the support of a big pool was like “playing the lottery”.

Although CKPool has been responsible for several solo miners mining blocks this year, a winner has only been crowned 13 times. According to Mempool Space, the chances of that happening are a little over once every month. In 2022, solo miners on CKPool solved seven blocks, and the following year, that number jumped to 12. In 2024, 16 Bitcoin blocks were solved by miners using the software.

While solo miners are motivated by the prospect of a heavy payday, they also involuntarily contribute to the blockchain’s overall security and stability in the process. Bitcoin’s proponents say this cohort is instrumental in ensuring the network’s decentralization.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $83,927 – up 0.42% in the last 24 hours.

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