Solo Bitcoin Miner Snags $200,000 Block Reward, How Did They Do It?

A solo Bitcoin miner has struck gold after successfully claiming a $200,000 block reward. The considerable achievement has captured the attention of fellow miners and crypto enthusiasts, highlighting the potential for lone miners to effectively compete with larger mining operations 

Lone Bitcoin Miner Hits Jackpot

On October 28, a software engineer of Bitcoin CGMiner and an admin of Solo Ckpool, Dr. Con Kolivas congratulated a lone Bitcoin miner in an X (formerly Twitter) post for accomplishing a rare milestone by solving the 278th solo block at Solo Ckpool. 

The lucky miner used 11 PH/s of hash power to discover block 814,308 and claimed a $200,000 (6.25 BTC) block reward.

“Congratulations to miner 3KCykmdpBpNKTtZJAvp3u2N2EQjGzbUF7c with ~11PH for solving the 278th solo block on solo.ckpool,” Dr. Kolivas stated. 

Presently, large-scale mining operations and pools are dominating the Bitcoin mining industry. When blocks are discovered, these mining companies often share the rewards. In contrast, mining pools like Solo Ckpool offer lone miners a higher level of independence allowing them to earn almost all rewards when they discover a block. 

This recent solo mining achievement has not been the only accomplishment this year. In August, a solo Bitcoin miner solved block 803,821, claiming 6.25 BTC worth $160,000. Multiple solo miners have also discovered substantial blocks and reaped significant rewards in the last few months. 

The lure of solo mining pools is growing as many miners are looking to increase their chances of earning large rewards while reclaiming a sense of independence in the competitive Bitcoin mining market. 

BTC Mining Hashrate On The Rise

Bitcoin Hashrate has continued to increase following the recent surge in the value of BTC. Earlier on October 12, the hash rate saw an alarming increase to 456 exahash per second (EH/s). Following this increase, the hash rate stabilized slightly dropping down to 443 EH/s sometime on October 28. 

Despite the increased level of mining difficulties, hash rates are rising. Bitcoin hash rate is slightly back up today to 452.63 EH/s with an estimated difficulty adjustment of 12.78% and network difficulty of 62.46T. The average block time for mining is also approximately 8 minutes and 52 seconds. 

In the past month, mining hash prices fell to significant lows, depicting the possibility of chain validators experiencing higher mining difficulties and pressure. Now, hash rates are on the rise and Bitcoin miners are taking advantage of these opportunities to increase their earnings.

Bitcoin price chart from Tradingview.com

‘Bitcoin Rush’: Small-Time Solo Miners Strike Gold With Full BTC Blocks

Small-time bitcoin miners are making headlines for essentially hitting the jackpot by mining full blocks all on their own. In what has become a modern-day ‘gold rush’, bitcoin enthusiasts are now taking to booting up small USB miners will tiny hash rates to try their luck in what is eerily similar to buying lottery tickets. Among the miners who have rushed to this, a few have hit the ultimate prize.

Solo Bitcoin Miner Gets Full Block

In an unlikely event, a solo miner was able to mine a full bitcoin block with a low hash rate. This was made public by Dr. Kolivas, a software engineer that contributed to the development of the Cgminer. He revealed that the solo bitcoin miner had been able to solve a full block by themselves using only 86TH. This took place at a block height of 270,175.

Congratulations to another miner with approximately 86TH solving a solo block on https://t.co/UWgBvLkDqc ! There are a lot more miners now on the solo pool and if enough people are mining solo, someone will eventually be the lucky one as here. https://t.co/Hqte2achR4 pic.twitter.com/0ZT635LicD

— Dr. Con Kolivas (@ckpooldev) January 24, 2022

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The miner who is part of a mining pool that allows solo miners pool their hash rates together to increasing their chances of solving a block was able to get the full block reward after solving. The miner had gotten the full block reward of 6.25 BTC, netting them a total of more than $220,000 at current prices, in addition to the transaction fee paid to the block miner.

With such low computational power as the one possessed by this miner, it makes it near impossible for them to be able to mine a block by themselves. They would not be the first to get lucky.

Two weeks ago, another solo miner from the same mining pool had hit the same jackpot, mining a block and earning the full block reward plus transaction fees.

The BTC Rush

One thing about proof of work mechanisms is the high computation power required to mine bitcoin blocks. As more players enter into the mining space, armed with millions of dollars in institutional backing, being a small-time miner is nearly unprofitable. This is why mining pools like the ckpool exist.

BTC recovers above $36,000 | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

In these pools, solo miners are able to bring their low computational power together to increase their chances of finding a block. Dr. Kolivas explained that while this miner had fluctuated in their mining power, they were able to solve the block with only 8.3 terahashes.

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Laying out the math, he explained that by pooling their hashes, miners were able to increase their chances of solving a block to a 1 in 5 chance or a 20% chance. As more miners join the pool, the chances to go solve a block go up. In a reply to another user, Dr. Kolivas explains that if the current hashrate were to increase by 4, then the chances of mining a block jump to 63%.

Featured image from Pinterest, chart from TradingView.com