Solo miner strikes Bitcoin gold, capturing 3.164 BTC in revenue

An independent Bitcoin miner successfully packaged a huge chunk of blocks, earning a reward of 3.164 BTC, worth approximately $377,863 at today’s price. How did the miner do it?

On July 28 at approximately 05:43 AM, according to data from mempool, an independent miner successfully mined block number 907,465 and scored a major win. After mining the block, the miner uncovered idle revenue waiting for him of 3.164 BTC (BTC).

Many traders on X are hailing the solo miner, calling the win a ‘jackpot’ or ‘striking gold.’

“No pool. No noise. Just pure Proof-of-Work. This is what decentralization looks like,” said one trader on X.

“A solo Bitcoin miner has hit the jackpot,” said another trader.

After subtracting fees worth 0.039 BTC, the miner received a reward worth $377,863. At press time, BTC has been climbing up by 0.95%. It continues to flirt with the $120,000 threshold, reaching a peak of $119,754 before dipping slightly. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap is trading hands at $119,647.

Solo Bitcoin mining vs pool mining

Considering most miners choose to join a pool in order to mine more blocks, increasing the chances of mining a block that contains BTC rewards, one downside is that the rewards would have to be split evenly within the pool.

A solo miner is someone who mines without joining a pool, meaning they work alone, with just their own computing power. Since Bitcoin mining is highly competitive, solo miners usually don’t find blocks often unless they have a lot of hash power or get lucky.

In this case, the solo miner used CKPool, a mining pool designed to let miners with lower hash rates try their luck as an independent miner. When a solo miner does find a block, they get to keep the entire reward instead of having to split it with a pool.

With the majority of blocks out there mined by large pools, it’s highly very unlikely for a small miner to succeed. However, this independent miner’s win shows that even with today’s massive industrial mining operations, a single miner can still get lucky and hit the jackpot.