On Sunday, a solo miner successfully mined a Bitcoin block and received a reward of 3.137 BTC, which was approximately $371,000 at the time.
The miner successfully mined to block 910,440 through the Solo CK mining pool, obtaining the standard 3.125 BTC plus about 0.012 BTC in transaction fees. This block contained 4,913 transactions, with total fees reaching $1,455.
Although Bitcoin hashing power is mainly dominated by large industrial miners, small miners can, in a few cases, compete for equal block rewards with effective hardware.
This year, several solo miners have independently obtained block rewards in smaller setups. One miner successfully mined in February, while another won a reward of $350,000 on July 4 with limited computing power. On July 27, another miner independently mined a block and received a reward of $373,000.
Solo Bitcoin mining is still a 'lottery'
Li Mingxuan, the technical director of ASICKey, previously stated that solo miners do not win solely by luck; the key is 'efficient hardware.' Modern mining equipment can provide powerful hashing power without consuming excessive electricity, but this does not change the fact that solo miners' chances of winning remain relatively low.
Li stated that a miner with 1 PH/s hashing power has a probability of 1/650,000 of solving a block every 10 minutes.
Network difficulty rising squeezes large mining companies
Even well-known Bitcoin mining companies are feeling the constant rise in network difficulty and hashing power, as well as the reduction in block subsidies due to Bitcoin halving. CryptoQuant data shows that the current difficulty of the Bitcoin network is 1.29 trillion, close to historical highs, and the trend has been rising.
Large mining companies have turned to artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) to cope with intensified competition and the contraction of mining operations.
