An independent bitcoin miner operating on Solo CKpool achieved a remarkable feat on Friday, successfully mining a block and earning a reward valued at nearly $265,000.
The miner contributed just six terahashes per second (TH/s), representing a minuscule 0.0000007% of the total Bitcoin network hashrate, which recently surpassed 855 exahashes per second (EH/s).
Extreme odds for small miners
CKpool creator Con Kolivas highlighted the statistical improbability of such an achievement, commenting:
“A miner of this size has only a in 180 million chance of solving a block each day!”
This event marks the 308th solo block mined using CKpool software since its launch in 2014, and the first such block in approximately three months.
Solo mining pool mechanics
Solo.ckpool.org allows individual miners to participate anonymously and keep the entire block reward, minus a 2% fee, if they successfully solve a block.
Unlike larger mining pools, solo miners face daunting odds but receive the full payout when successful.
Comparison to past solo mining wins
Friday’s win is arguably among the luckiest in recent memory.
In 2022, a solo miner landed a block with 126 TH/s, beating 1-in-1.3-million odds at a time when the network hashrate was much lower, around 170 EH/s.
The latest win, however, stands out due to the even smaller hashrate and longer odds involved.
Ongoing rarity of solo wins
With the bitcoin mining difficulty and network hashrate at all-time highs, such solo victories remain rare exceptions in an increasingly competitive landscape.
