A solo Bitcoin miner struck it rich last week with $372,000, mining block 907,283 through the Solo CK pool and receiving the full reward of 3.125 bitcoins $BTC . This is despite the fact that the network hash rate reached nearly record heights of 902 exahashes per second.
It would seem that logic suggests: the higher the total hash rate of the network, the less chance a solo miner has against an army of industrial farms. But reality brings surprises. In July, another solo miner with a power of only 2.3 petahashes managed to obtain the full reward for a block. Similar cases were recorded in June, March, and February.
Efficiency vs. Raw Power
We observe how solo miners win blocks not due to luck, but because they use powerful and efficient equipment. Modern miners can deliver a 'serious hash rate' without the monstrous energy consumption of older setups.
Take the KEYMINER A1: it consumes only 650 watts but delivers 1,100 terahashes per second on Bitcoin. The ASICKey equipment line also includes the KEYMINER X with a rate of 2,300 TH/s at 1,300 watts and the top PRO version — up to 5,800 TH/s at 2,800 watts.
But one should not be deluded. The chances of solo miners winning are still small. Solo mining remains mostly a lottery unless you control dozens of petahashes — that is a realistic minimum for a statistically measurable chance of success in a reasonable time frame.
With the current hash rate of the Bitcoin network, a miner with one petahash (1,000 terahashes) has about a 1 in 650,000 chance to solve a block every 10 minutes. The math is harsh, but some are not deterred.
Ideology vs. Self-Interest
Some miners choose solo not for predictable income, but for the possibility of a large reward — 6.25 bitcoins plus fees — which can radically change life in the event of a win.
Financial incentives play an important role, but there is also an ideological component. Some value the decentralization of the network and the ability to work independently of centralized pools.
And centralization is a real problem. According to Hashrate Index, the American pool Foundry USA controls 29.3% of the total Bitcoin hash rate. AntPool is second with 16.2%, while ViaBTC and F2Pool hold 12.0% and 11.6%, respectively.
While large pools share the lion's share of rewards among themselves, solo miners continue to challenge the mathematics. Sometimes they succeed.
