Solo Miner Secures Bitcoin Block, Earning $218,500

On April 29, a solo miner with equipment hash rate of 120 PH/s added block #841,286 to the blockchain of the first cryptocurrency. This was reported by CKPool administrator Con Kolivas. 

Congratulations to miner 365ughTgK9Q7rXXTM7vubqy1awZ2AZJijP for solving the 282nd solo block solved at https://t.co/UWgBvLkDqc with a large ~120PH at the time (12PH average over a week) https://t.co/btUXBoC8Yd pic.twitter.com/yh0VkuAI5b

— Dr -ck (@ckpooldev) April 28, 2024

Following the recent halving, the reward for Bitcoin miners was reduced from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. The solo miner earned 3.433 BTC (~$218,544), including fees. 

Kolivas speculated that the user switched from pool to solo mining because “it does not cover their electricity costs.” He also suggested the possibility of hash rate rental. 

Solo mining of a block is a relatively rare occurrence. Over the 14-year history of the first cryptocurrency’s blockchain, this has happened 282 times. 

According to BitInfoCharts, the average network hash rate is 591 EH/s. The figure reached a record high of 728 EH/s on April 23. Over the past year, it has increased by more than 90%, further complicating solo mining. 

Earlier, on April 5, a solo miner with equipment hash rate of 7 PH/s mined block #837,814. 

In October 2023, a solo miner added a block to the Bitcoin network with device power of 11 PH/s.