A solo bitcoin (BTC) miner pulled off a rare feat over the weekend, solving block 910440 on their own and pocketing 3.137 BTC worth more than $362,000.
The block contained over 4,100 transactions and was processed through CKpool, a platform that allows individuals to contribute hash power without formally joining a mining pool.
The miner ran roughly 9 petahashes per second of computing power, giving them just a one-in-800 chance of landing a block on any given day. CKpool administrator Con Kolivas said it marked only the 305th solo block solved since the service launched in August 2014, showing how infrequent these events are in today’s industrial-scale mining landscape.
Solo mining differs from pooled setups in that there are no fees and the miner keeps the entire reward, but the odds are heavily stacked against individuals. Bitcoin’s rising network difficulty — a function of record-high global hash rates — means even powerful rigs can go weeks or months without success.
By comparison, pool mining offers more predictable payouts with rewards that diluted by being distributed across thousands of participants.
That dynamic has made solo wins increasingly newsworthy as large-scale operators with exahashes of capacity dominate block production across the U.S., Kazakhstan and China.
Still, the Bitcoin protocol allows for moments like this, where even smaller players can beat the odds and take home a windfall.
At the time of the win, bitcoin traded near $115,000, down 3% in the past 24 hours as traders weighed macro signals ahead of the Federal Reserve’s September meeting.