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 noteworthy, given that the miner's share of the total network hashrate is negligible, rounding to zero on most dashboards.
The miner was connected to solo.ckpool.org, an anonymous solo mining pool launched in 2014, which allows operators to retain their full block rewards, minus a 2% fee. Con Kolivas, the developer of CKpool, confirmed the win on social media, highlighting that the miner had roughly a 1-in-28,000 chance of finding a block on any given day. The winning miner, bc1qtt7cr9cxykyp9g4hq47zf5lq9t97cxvq72lun3, with a hashrate of approximately 230 TH, solved the 312th solo block. This achievement is significant, considering the miner's hashrate represents only about 0.00002% of bitcoin's total estimated hashrate of roughly 1 zetahash per second, as of early April.
For context, listed miner Riot Platforms operates with over 30 exahashes, 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, averaging one solo block every 18.7 days, with the longest gap being 58 days. This win continues a pattern that has repeated with surprising regularity throughout this cycle, with similar instances occurring in December, November, and late February, where miners overcame significant odds to claim substantial rewards.