Key Points
- A solo Bitcoin miner successfully mined a block, earning a total of 3.433 BTC ($218,544).
- The miner used CKpool’s solo mining software, overcoming odds of 0.02% to claim the full reward.
A Bitcoin miner, working independently, successfully mined a block and received the entire subsidy and transaction fee reward late on Sunday.
The miner earned 3.433 Bitcoin (BTC), equivalent to $218,544. This sum included 3.125 BTC ($198,937) in block subsidy rewards and 0.308 BTC ($19,607) in transaction fees.
Beating the Odds
The miner used solo Bitcoin-mining software provided by CKpool. The hash rate was about 120 PH/s, compared to the total Bitcoin network’s approximately 638 EH/s. This means the odds of this solo miner solving the block were around 0.02% – or more than 1 in 5,000.
This is not the first time a solo miner has claimed the entirety of the block rewards. For instance, a miner with a hash rate of just 126 TH/s overcame odds of 1 in 1.3 million to mine a block in 2022, earning about $260,000 in rewards. However, such instances are relatively rare.
Post-Halving Mining
The Bitcoin’s fourth halving event occurred on April 20 at block height 840,000, reducing miners’ block subsidy rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. This event may have prompted the miner to switch from pooled mining to solo mining, potentially due to no longer covering electricity costs. Alternatively, they might have been intermittently hashing or renting large amounts solo.