On April 2, a solo Bitcoin miner using minimal computing resources successfully validated block 943,411, earning 3.139 BTC. This reward, valued at around $210,000 based on current prices, included both the standard subsidy and transaction fees.
Operating with approximately 230 Terahash/s per second, the miner represented a mere 0.00002% of Bitcoin’s total estimated hashrate of about 1 Zhash/s. Solo mining involves solving cryptographic puzzles to secure block rewards, which was once feasible with CPUs but now demands significant computing power due to an “arms race” that led miners from GPUs to specialized ASIC rigs. While large pools dominate today, solo miners occasionally win the so-called “lottery.”
CKpool developer Con Kolivas tweeted that this miner had about a 1-in-28,000 chance of finding a block daily. For context, major operations like Riot Platforms operate roughly 30 exahashes—about 130,000 times the hashrate of the solo winner on April 2.
The winning miner used solo.ckpool.org, an anonymous solo mining pool started in 2014 that allows operators to keep full rewards minus a 2% fee. This success comes as major entities like Riot Platforms and MARA Holdings reduce their Bitcoin holdings amid shifts toward AI infrastructure, with Riot selling $250 million worth of BTC last week and MARA offloading $1.1 billion in Bitcoin the previous month.
Despite being rare, solo mining victories occur more frequently than expected. In December, a miner secured a $282,000 reward, followed by two separate miners each earning about $300,000 within days in January, and another who netted $200,000 after renting just $75 worth of hash power in February.