Solo Bitcoin miner wins the 3.125 BTC lottery, solving valid block

As a crypto investor, it’s exciting to see a solo miner defy the odds and mine a Bitcoin block alone, earning the full 3.125 BTC reward. On April 29, software engineer Con Kolivas of ckpool announced that one of their miners had solved Bitcoin’s 282nd solo block in history. With a hash rate of around 120PH at the time, equivalent to about 0.12 EH, and an average of around 12PH weekly – roughly 0.02% of the total network hash rate – this miner’s achievement was quite remarkable (Image 1).


One Bitcoin miner has surprisingly succeeded in mining a Bitcoin block on their own, earning them the entire reward of 3.125 Bitcoins (BTC).

On April 29th, Con Kolivas, a software engineer and administrator at the solo mining pool ckpool, announced via X that a miner had successfully mined Bitcoin’s 282nd solo block in the cryptocurrency’s history.

The lone miner’s hash rate was approximately 120 petahashes at that point, translating to about 0.12 exahashes. On average, he mined at a rate of around 12 petahashes per week, equating to roughly 0.02% of the entire network’s hash power.

As a researcher studying the intricacies of the Bitcoin network, I’ve come across an interesting development. The reward for solving block number 841,286 in the Bitcoin blockchain was recently diminished from 6.25 Bitcoins to 3.125 Bitcoins during the Bitcoin halving that occurred at block 840,000 on April 20th. Consequently, this reduction brought down the value of this reward to approximately $200,000 based on the Bitcoin price levels prevailing then.

Solo Bitcoin miner wins the 3.125 BTC lottery, solving valid block

Kolivas examined the block-solve summary, postulating that this large miner either recently switched from pooled mining post-halving “presumably for no longer recouping their electricity costs” for a chance at a solo block. Either that or they have been “intermittently hashing/renting large amounts solo,” he added.

Mining a valid block by oneself is an exceptionally uncommon achievement, akin to hitting the jackpot in the lottery. This scarcity is evidenced by the fact that it has transpired just 282 times out of the approximately 841,300 blocks mined since Bitcoin’s creation 14 years ago.

Mining BTC requires participants to input computational power to solve and add the next block to the network.

With the asset’s price surge, mining has gained massive appeal, leading to heightened competition in the form of increased difficulty and hash rates. This makes it extremely challenging for an individual miner to crack a block on their own.

In March 2023, an individual miner successfully mined a new block in the Bitcoin network and received the entire 6.25 BTC reward. At that time, Bitcoin prices were significantly lower, meaning this reward translates to approximately $150,000.

A solitary miner successfully mined the latest block on April 5, approximately two weeks prior to the halving event. This miner, working alone, solved block number 837,814 with a hash rate of roughly 7PH, earning a reward worth around $422,750 at that moment in time.

The current average network hash rate stands at approximately 618 exahashes per second (EH/s), surpassing its all-time high of 728 EH/s reached on April 23, as reported by Bitinfocharts. This figure represents a remarkable increase of over 90% compared to the same period last year, making recent solo mining feats even more noteworthy.

Solo Bitcoin miner wins the 3.125 BTC lottery, solving valid block

Read More

2024-04-29 06:57