On Thursday, a solo bitcoin miner, operating with approximately 230 terahashes per second of computing power, successfully validated block 943,411, earning a reward of 3.139 BTC, valued at around $210,000. This achievement is notable, given that the miner's share of the total network hashrate is negligible, effectively rounding to zero on most dashboards.
The miner was connected to solo.ckpool.org, a solo mining pool that allows operators to retain their full block rewards, minus a 2% fee. Con Kolivas, the developer of CKpool, confirmed the win, highlighting that the miner had only a 1-in-28,000 chance of finding a block on any given day.
The winning miner, bc1qtt7cr9cxykyp9g4hq47zf5lq9t97cxvq72lun3, with a hashrate of approximately 230TH, solved the 312th solo block. This achievement is a testament to the unpredictability of bitcoin mining, as a miner of this size has a minimal chance of solving a block. The winning rig, operating at 230 terahashes, represents a mere 0.00002% of bitcoin's total estimated hashrate of roughly 1 zetahash per second. For comparison, listed miner Riot Platforms operates at over 30 exahashes, which is roughly 130,000 times the hashrate of Thursday's winner.
The block is the 312th solo win registered on CKpool since its inception and the first since February 28, ending a 33-day drought. Over the past 12 months, solo pools have found just 20 bitcoin blocks, distributing a combined 62.96 BTC, with an average of one solo block every 18.7 days. This win continues a pattern of surprising regularity, with previous instances of miners beating significant odds to claim substantial rewards, including a 270 TH/s miner in December and a 6 TH/s miner in November.