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. Notably, this miner's share of the total network hashrate is so minimal that it is virtually unregistered on most dashboards. The miner was connected to solo.ckpool.org, a solo mining pool that has been in operation since 2014 and 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 a mere 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. At 230 terahashes, the winning rig represents a minuscule 0.00002% of bitcoin's total estimated hashrate of roughly 1 zetahash per second as of early April.
This output is consistent with a small-scale operation, possibly utilizing a few home-scale ASICs, rather than a large industrial operation. For context, listed miner Riot Platforms alone operates at 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 marks the first win since February 28, ending a 33-day drought.
Over the past 12 months, solo pools have found a total of 20 bitcoin blocks, distributing a combined 62.96 BTC, averaging approximately one solo block every 18.7 days. This win continues a pattern of unexpected solo mining successes.
In December, a 270 TH/s miner overcame 1-in-30,000 daily odds to claim a $284,633 reward. In November, a miner running just 6 TH/s beat 1-in-180-million odds to earn roughly $265,000.
Additionally, in late February, a miner transformed approximately $75 of rented cloud hashrate into a $200,000 reward by directing 1 petahash at CKpool for a short period.