A Bitcoin miner has achieved the rare feat of processing a block on their own which netted a payday of around $180,000.
Block 860749, mined on Sept. 10, contained 5,935 transactions with a reward of 3.169 Bitcoin (BTC) worth around $182,505 given to the mining pool Solo CK, according to Bitcoin block explorer Mempool.space.
Solo miners solving blocks is rare due to the hashrate requirements, but it’s not impossible. Source: Mempool.space
Despite its name, Solo CK is a mining pool combining the hashrate of multiple smaller miners — but it only distributes the reward to the one responsible for solving the block.
In this case, the successful miner used 629 petahashes worth of hashrate when the block was solved, a tiny 0.098% of the total power securing the blockchain, which clocked in at 644.91 exahashes per second (EH/s), data from Bitcoin transaction tracker YCharts shows.
The Bitcoin hashrate recently hit a new all-time high of 742 EH/s on Sept. 1, jumping 62% from a year ago when the hashrate was 395.70 EH/s.
A higher hashrate requires miners to use more computing power, increases energy costs, and increases verification and transaction times, making it challenging for solo miners to validate a block successfully.
The Bitcoin network hashrate spiked to a new all-time high at the start of September. Source: Ycharts
A solo miner has managed to solve a block only 290 times from the total 859,000 blocks produced since Bitcoin went live in 2009.
Large mining firms such as Bit Digital, Riot Blockchain and Marathon Digital generally validate the most blocks as they each command massive amounts of hash power.
Related: Bitcoin miners see worst revenues in 11 months as difficulty climbs
The Solo CK pool has been responsible for solving another 14 other blocks in the last year, receiving 59.3 Bitcoin for the effort, currently worth $3.4 million.
A miner from the Solo CK pool also processed a block on Aug. 30, providing a nearly $200,000 payday for the miner.
Another solo miner from Solo CK also hit the jackpot after they solved block 853,742, netting a reward of around $210,000 on July 25.
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