In a surprising turn of events, a solo bitcoin miner, operating with approximately 230 terahashes per second of computing power, successfully validated block 943,411 on Thursday. This achievement earned the miner a significant reward of 3.139 BTC, valued at around $210,000. Notably, the miner's share of the total network hashrate is so minimal that it is virtually negligible on most dashboards. The solo mining pool, solo.ckpool.org, which was introduced in 2014 and allows operators to retain their full block rewards minus a 2% fee, was used by the winning miner.
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.
For perspective, this hashrate represents about 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 using home-scale ASICs, rather than a large industrial operation. In contrast, listed miner Riot Platforms alone operates with 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, which translates to roughly one solo block every 18.7 days on average, 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 and November, where miners overcame significant odds to claim substantial rewards.