- How Did It Happen?
- Types of Crypto Mining: Solo, Pool, and Beyond
- Why Solo Mining Is Now Almost Like a Lottery
- What It Takes to Succeed in Bitcoin Solo Mining
- Why Do Solo Miners Keep Trying
At the end of July 2025, the Bitcoin community was once again abuzz with news of an extraordinary stroke of luck: a solo miner successfully added block #907283 to the Bitcoin network, earning over $370,000 in the process. This rare event quickly drew widespread attention due to the growing difficulty of solo mining and the overwhelming dominance of large mining pools.
How Did It Happen?
The historic block was mined via CKPool, a platform designed for solo mining, where each participant is treated as an individual miner rather than part of a collective. The lucky miner used a rig with a hash rate of just 49 TH/s — minuscule by modern Bitcoin mining standards, where the total network hash rate now exceeds 900 exahashes per second (EH/s).
According to expert estimates, this miner’s odds of finding a block were roughly 1 in 130,000 per day, which equates to one successful block every few hundred years for a single machine like this. And yet, sheer luck brought him 3.154 BTC — the full block reward, including transaction fees from all 4,090 transactions included in that block.
Types of Crypto Mining: Solo, Pool, and Beyond
Today, there are several ways to mine cryptocurrencies, each with its pros and cons:
– Solo mining: You go it alone — searching for blocks independently and keeping 100% of the reward. But all the risk is yours too.
– Pool mining: Miners combine computing power and split rewards proportionally. This ensures steady payouts but reduces the maximum potential reward.
– Cloud mining: You rent hash power from a provider — no need to buy or maintain hardware, but it comes with the risk of scams and often lower-than-promised returns.
– GPU / CPU / ASIC mining: Depends on the type of hardware used — graphics cards, processors, or specialized ASIC chips. For Bitcoin, only ASIC mining is viable today due to the network’s high difficulty.
– Browser or mobile mining: Generates negligible income, mainly useful for educational purposes.
– Proof-of-Stake (PoS) “mining”: An alternative to Proof-of-Work. You earn rewards by holding and staking coins, used by other blockchains, but not Bitcoin.
Why Solo Mining Is Now Almost Like a Lottery
Back when Bitcoin first launched, practically anyone could mine it on a regular home computer. But today, things are very different:
1. Network difficulty: Bitcoin’s protocol automatically adjusts difficulty so that a new block is found approximately every 10 minutes, regardless of how many miners are participating. The more miners there are, the higher the difficulty.
2. Hashrate explosion: Most of the network’s computing power now comes from industrial-scale mining farms and pools, which run tens of thousands of ASICs with collective hash rates in the petahash range.
3. Vanishing odds for solo miners: A small-scale miner today might expect to find a block once every several hundred — or even thousand—year.
4. High capital requirements: To improve your odds, you either need industrial-scale operations or must rely purely on luck. Most opt for mining pools to ensure steady income.
Pros and Cons of Solo Mining
Pros:
– You keep the full block reward, including all transaction fees
– No revenue sharing with a pool
– No service fees or middlemen
Cons:
– Extremely low probability of success
– Highly unpredictable income — you could go months or years without a payout
– You bear all operating costs — electricity, maintenance, equipment wear
– Requires deep technical knowledge and system administration skills
What It Takes to Succeed in Bitcoin Solo Mining
Luck alone won’t cut it. If you’re serious about solo mining, here’s what you’ll need:
1. High-performance ASIC hardware — Only machines like the Antminer S19 (or better) give you any realistic shot
2. Reliable, low-cost electricity — Mining is power-hungry
3. Efficient cooling and infrastructure — Downtime kills profitability
4. Constant monitoring and maintenance — Avoid equipment failures and hash rate drops
5. Technical proficiency — You must be able to configure and run a full Bitcoin node
6. Clear financial planning — Understand your costs and accept the risk of earning nothing
7. Time and patience — You might wait months (or longer) for a payout
8. A little bit of luck — Still as important as ever
Why Do Solo Miners Keep Trying
The motivation often borders on philosophical. Solo mining is a personal challenge — a one-on-one match against the Bitcoin algorithm and the entire network. It’s a test of patience, skill, and determination. In many ways, it is a lottery — but one where the prize is massive and the independence is total.
And as the story of the 49 TH/s miner proves, despite increasing centralization, there’s still room for the little guy to win — if only rarely. As each year brings higher difficulty and more competition, these moments grow rarer, but they serve as a reminder that Bitcoin remains an open protocol, still offering the chance for even the smallest players to make their mark.
