Bitcoin mining remains an important topic within the world of crypto. Winning a block can lead to significant rewards, but usually requires significant computing power and the use of mining pools.
This article discusses a remarkable achievement by a solo bitcoin miner who managed to win a block at just 6.7 petahashes per second (PH/s) of hash rate. The miner received therefore a substantial reward of $148,000 in bitcoin (BTC).
Solo bitcoin Miner wins jackpot of $148,000
A solo bitcoin miner recently added block 780.112 to the blockchain, winning a reward of 6.25 BTC and a fee of approximately 0.63 BTC. This reward is worth approximately $148,000 at the time of writing.
The miner has used the Solo CK Pool mining service to set up a solo mining pool. With an average hash power at only 6.7 PH/s, the miner was able to win this block reward. It is striking that the miner was able to produce a valid hash, as this would normally take much longer with the limited computing power he was using.
Bitcoin miner had extremely small chance
It was pointed out on Twitter that the miner was lucky to produce a valid hash. It is not self-evident that a solo miner succeeds in this. When the solo miner added the block, this miner was only responsible for 0.002% of the total computing power of all miners. Mining pools are used precisely to increase the chance of producing a valid hash.
The won block contained 3,220 transactions worth approximately 16,940 Bitcoin. This shows that despite the small chance of success, a solo miner is still capable of winning big rewards.
Foundry USA is currently the largest mining pool in the world, with a hashrate approximately 15,970 times more powerful than the solo miner. Winning block 780,112 is therefore all the more impressive as it shows that it is still possible to be successful as a solo miner, even with a much smaller hashrate.