logo

Hundreds of Dollars Turned into 260,000, Independent Miner Frequently "Hits the Jackpot," Is Mining the New Gold Rush?

By: blockbeats|2025/04/08 19:45:03
0
Share
copy
Original Article Title: Solo Bitcoin Miners Are Winning More Blocks Lately—What Gives?
Original Article Author: Mat Di Salvo, Decrypt
Original Article Translation: Lila, BlockBeats

Last week, another solo Bitcoin miner successfully mined a block and received a reward of 3.125 bitcoins (including transaction fees), worth nearly $260,000. This is just one of several recent instances where independent miners have struck it rich.

So, was this miner just lucky? Is solo mining becoming more common? Can an average person with a basic mining rig challenge the large mining farms with their relatively modest hashing power?

The answers vary. While recently there has indeed been an increase in the number of blocks mined by "solo miners" (here referring to individual enthusiasts or some low-profile small mining groups), the growth has been modest and is unlikely to skyrocket.

Hundreds of Dollars Turned into 260,000, Independent Miner Frequently

Scott Norris, CEO of the independent mining firm Optiminer, bluntly states that solo mining still feels like "buying a lottery ticket."

According to data, in 2022, there were 7 successful block mines through Solo CKPool (a service platform that allows anonymous users to mine without running a full node); this number increased to 12 in 2023 and reached 16 in 2024.

It is worth noting that Solo CKPool is not a traditional mining pool. Despite the name including "Pool," it only provides an entry point. Once a miner finds a block, they can take away the vast majority of the reward themselves. However, this does not mean that blocks mined through Solo CKPool are mined by a single individual sitting in their bedroom using very low hashing power. There is a significant misconception about this on some platforms, with some people even promoting this view vigorously without data to support it.

The current mining pool industry is still dominated by a few giants, such as Foundry, AntPool, and F2Pool. Miners typically join these large pools, share hashing power, and distribute rewards proportionally. Miners accessing Solo CKPool can keep almost all of the rewards for themselves.

As the Bitcoin network continues to grow, the search for the computing power and resources needed to find a block has become increasingly competitive. As a result, most mining activities are now industrialized operations run by publicly traded companies on a global scale. Some Bitcoin core supporters believe this is detrimental to Bitcoin's decentralization.

Today, some hobbyist mining devices like Bitaxe and FutureBit Apollo, priced between $200 and $500, are gaining popularity among Bitcoin extremists. In January of this year, a FutureBit Apollo successfully mined a block — albeit under the condition that a nonprofit organization donated hashing power to it. An anonymous miner known as Econoalchemist wrote on X at the time that the organization's goal was to "break the proprietary mining empire and make Bitcoin and free tech available to all."

While the probability of success is extremely low, it may be that the increasing number of "amateur miners" is driving a significant increase in individual mining success rates. Econoalchemist pointed out that the trend of independent miners' success has become more pronounced in recent years. "Every so often (and more and more frequently), a small device like Bitaxe quietly running in a corner of someone's home suddenly hits a block," he said.

Norris from Optiminer added that it could also be the case that some large institutions mine blocks with their own computing power without joining large mining pools — appearing "independent" in form but not in reality.

Even Solo Satoshi, a company based in Houston, Texas, that sells mining devices like Bitaxe Gamma, states on its website that the probability of mining a block with a $180 device with a hash rate of 1.2 TH/s is only 0.00068390% per day.

But Matt Howard mentioned that engaging in solo mining is not necessarily about making money. "The main goal is to promote decentralization. Finding a block and getting Bitcoin is just a bonus," he said. "For Bitcoin extremists, mining must be decentralized."

Original Article Link

You may also like

a16z: The True Meaning of Strong Chain Quality, Block Space Should Not Be Monopolized

Essentially, this attribute allows stakeholders to have a "virtual lane" within a high-throughput blockchain to ensure their transactions can be included.

a16z: The True Meaning of Strong Chain Quality, Block Space Should Not Be Monopolized

Essentially, this attribute allows stakeholders to have "virtual lanes" within a high-throughput blockchain, ensuring that their transactions can be included.

2% user contribution, 90% trading volume: The real picture of Polymarket

Is Polymarket a battleground for retail investors or an arena for institutions?

Trump Can't Take It Anymore, 5 Signals of the US-Iran Ceasefire

From Oil Prices and Elections to Secret Negotiations, Are the US and Iran Really Heading for a Ceasefire?

Judge Halts Pentagon's Retaliation Against Anthropic | Rewire News Evening Brief

The "Orwellian" Term Stymies Pentagon's Supply Chain Risk Label for Anthropic

Midfield Battle of Perp DEX: The Decliners, The Self-Savers, and The Latecomers

Hyperliquid has captured this wave of geopolitical market trends with commodity contracts. Decentralized exchanges are moving from internal competition within the crypto industry to a genuine alternative to traditional financial infrastructure, and this direction has only just begun.

Popular coins

Latest Crypto News

16:42

In 2024, a whale that liquidated over 100 million dollars in positions deposited 400,000 dollars into the HL account and bought 10,000 HYPE

According to Arkham monitoring, the whale "2TheMoon" was forcibly liquidated, with positions worth over $100 million being cleared, resulting in a total loss of $15 million.The whale just deposited $400,000 into the HL account and purchased 10,000 HYPE tokens.
16:42

Bitcoin may drop below $60,000, and the return period could extend to 2027, with increased selling pressure from whales intensifying downside risks

According to Cointelegraph, the latest data shows that if Bitcoin further falls below $60,000, the time for the market to recover to historical highs may be delayed until 2027.Analysis indicates that Bitcoin has retraced about 48% from its peak of approximately $126,000 in 2025. According to histori...
16:42

BNB Chain: The first phase of the BNB Beacon Chain recovery tool will end in 3 days

BNB Chain posted on platform X that the first phase of the BNB Beacon Chain recovery tool will stop operating in 3 days. If users hold BEP2 tokens on the BNB Beacon Chain, they should migrate them to BSC as soon as possible to expedite processing.
16:42

Binance CEO: In the first two months of this year, Binance's OTC trading volume has reached 25% of last year's total

Binance CEO Richard Teng tweeted that the OTC trading volume of Binance in the first two months of 2026 has reached 25% of the total volume for the entire year of 2025.
16:42

Data: In the past 24 hours, the total liquidation across the network was 439 million USD, with long positions liquidated at 383 million USD and short positions liquidated at 55.1725 million USD

According to Coinglass data, in the past 24 hours, the total liquidation across the network was $439 million, with long positions liquidated at $383 million and short positions liquidated at $55.1725 million. Among them, Bitcoin long positions were liquidated at $167 million, Bitcoin short positions...
Read more
Community
iconiconiconiconiconiconicon

Customer Support Bot：@WEEX_support_smart_Bot

VIP Services：support@weex.com