On Thursday, a solo bitcoin miner, operating at approximately 230 terahashes per second, successfully validated block 943,411 and received a reward of 3.139 BTC, valued at around $210,000. This achievement is notable given the miner's relatively small contribution to the total network hashrate, which is nearly negligible. The miner was connected to solo.ckpool.org, a solo mining pool that has been in operation since 2014 and allows miners to retain their full block rewards, minus a 2% fee.
Con Kolivas, the developer of CKpool, confirmed the win, highlighting that the miner had approximately 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/s, solved the 312th solo block. This block represents a significant achievement, considering the miner's relatively small size, which is roughly 0.00002% of the total estimated hashrate of the bitcoin network. For comparison, listed miner Riot Platforms operates at a hashrate of over 30 exahashes, which is approximately 130,000 times the hashrate of the winning miner.
The block is the first solo win registered on CKpool since February 28, ending a 33-day drought. Over the past 12 months, solo pools have found a total of 20 bitcoin blocks, resulting in a combined reward of 62.96 BTC. This win continues a pattern of solo miners overcoming significant odds to claim substantial rewards, with previous instances including a 270 TH/s miner claiming a $284,633 reward in December and a 6 TH/s miner claiming a $265,000 reward in November.