In a remarkable turn of events, a solo Bitcoin miner has defied the astronomical odds and successfully processed a Bitcoin block, securing a windfall of just under $200,000. The miner achieved this feat at 4:21 pm UTC, processing block number 858,978, according to data from the Bitcoin block explorer Mempool.space. The block contained 2,391 transactions, for which the miner received 3.27 Bitcoin (BTC), worth approximately $199,094 at current market prices.
What makes this story particularly fascinating is the miner’s affiliation with the Solo CK Pool, a unique solo mining pool that operates differently from traditional mining pools. Unlike conventional pools that distribute rewards among participants based on their contributed hash power, the Solo CK Pool awards the entire block reward to the miner who successfully solves the block. This system is designed to give small miners a shot at the full block reward, despite their limited hash power.
The Solo CK miner who processed this block was utilizing 456 petahashes of computing power, a minuscule fraction—around 0.012%—of the average network hashrate, which currently stands at 665 exahashes per second (EH/s). This stark difference highlights just how improbable it is for a small-time miner to win the Bitcoin block reward, given the vast computational power wielded by large mining firms like Riot Blockchain and Marathon Digital.
Despite the daunting odds, this isn’t the first time a solo miner from the Solo CK Pool has struck gold. Over the past year, miners from this pool have successfully processed 14 Bitcoin blocks, earning a total of 59.3 Bitcoin, valued at $3.5 million. The pool itself has netted approximately $1.5 million during this period, proving that even in a landscape dominated by industrial-scale operations, solo miners can still make significant gains.
The rarity of this achievement cannot be overstated. Out of the nearly 859,000 blocks that have been mined since Bitcoin’s inception 14 years ago, only around 290 have been processed by solo miners. This latest success story serves as a testament to the unpredictable and thrilling nature of Bitcoin mining, where even the smallest players can occasionally hit the jackpot.
The previous solo mining triumph occurred just a month ago, on July 25, when another solo miner solved block 853,742, earning a reward of around $210,000. As the Bitcoin network continues to grow and evolve, these rare instances of solo miners beating the odds will undoubtedly remain a fascinating aspect of the cryptocurrency’s ongoing narrative.
BitminerFactory is brought to life by Darrell Houghton, our astute publisher. With a deep-rooted passion for crypto and crypto mining spanning many years, Darrell’s unwavering enthusiasm fuels his daily quest for knowledge. He is eager to share the pivotal news stories of the day while also providing his own analysis and commentary with Bitminer Factory’s readers.
Source: Cointelegraph
