- A Bitcoin miner solved a whole block alone, earning a $180K reward.
- Block 860749, mined on September 10, included over 5,900 transactions.
- Solo mining is difficult due to the high computational power required; a solo miner has solved a block only 282 times.
- Solo CK, a mining pool, supported the solo miner’s success with a small hashrate (0.098% of total network power).
Who said you can’t do it alone?
Solo CK single-handedly solved a Bitcoin block and netted a sweet $180K. That feat has only happened 282 times before in the history of $BTC mining.
So is Solo CK charting a new path for $BTC mining? And how is $BTC’s increasing hashrate impacting both big and small miners?
Let’s see what Solo CK did, how they did it, and what it all means.
Rare Solo Miner Victory
A $BTC miner solved Block 860749, earning $182,505. The ‘solo miner’ title is a bit misleading. While the block reward (3.125 $BTC) did go to a single miner, Solo CK is actually a mining pool.
The Solo CK pool combines smaller miners’ power, which facilitated the win. The block included 5,935 transactions., yet Solo CK completed it using just 0.098% of network power.
It’s extremely rare for a single miner to win a block; high computational power and increasing hashrate make solo mining punishingly difficult.
That’s even more true since the $BTC halving event in April of this year, which helped push the hashrate to a recent all-time high of 742 EH/s.
Mining Industry Landscape
Major mining firms dominate, but Solo CK miners have had multiple successes, earning millions in rewards with 14 blocks won in the last year.
Is that a sign of changing times in $BTC mining? Unlikely. The hashrate steadily increases, and $BTC mining has never been more difficult.
In other words, big miners will likely stay big, competing on economies of scale to deal with rising electricity prices and find more efficient hardware.
But it does point to an interesting use case. While large miners have to bear energy and equipment costs themselves, mining pools can somewhat offset those burdens with the pool format.
In the case of Solo CK, the pool averaged an impressive hashrate the week before the win, setting themselves up for success even though the odds were still stacked against them.
The Continued Rise of Mining Pools?
Mining pools could grow in popularity as the price of $BTC rises, with participants viewing it as a worthwhile gamble rather than a steady investment.
Truly solo wins have been done before, but with such long odds, there’s clearly a different approach behind it all.
For both single-miner and mining pools, $BTC mining is increasingly not about profit.
It’s about beating the odds.
And with $BTC mining getting harder, those odds are not in your favor.
References
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not constitute financial advice. We encourage readers to conduct their own research and determine their own risk tolerance before making any financial decisions. Cryptocurrency is a highly volatile, high-risk asset class.
