In an unprecedented and remarkable moment of good fortune, a lone Bitcoin miner has successfully mined a block independently, earning a substantial 6.25 BTC reward, or approximately $373,000. According to data from Solo Ckpool, the miner accomplished the feat at block height 851,307 while working alone without the support of a large mining pool.
Considering the amount of hashpower needed to solve a block, this occurrence is extremely uncommon. Large industrial operations or mining pools with enormous computational resources currently mine the majority of Bitcoin blocks. Winning a block is like winning the cryptocurrency lottery for a lone miner, who is probably using a simple setup with much less power.
How Rare Is This?
Instead of putting their processing power into a pool, solo miners try to locate a legitimate block on their own. A solo miner’s chances of success are extremely low given the current difficulty level and network hashrate of Bitcoin; depending on their setup, they are estimated to be less than 0.0001% per block.
The miner’s platform, Solo Ckpool, was created especially to let small-scale miners try their hand at solo block discovery. The platform verified the victory and pointed out that the miner’s hashrate was comparatively low, which made the victory even more remarkable.
Why It Matters
The Bitcoin community is reminded by this type of victory that the network is permissionless, meaning that anyone, regardless of size, has the potential to mine a block and get the entire reward. It also harkens back to the early days of Bitcoin, when mining alone was more popular and lucrative.
The event has sparked a renewed interest in solo mining and rekindled discussions about decentralization and the original spirit of Bitcoin, even though it is not a sustainable approach for most.
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