Solo Bitcoin Miner Hits the Jackpot, Scoring $266K Reward

A solo Bitcoin miner hit the jackpot early Friday, mining a block without a pool of supporting miners and bagging a $266,000 reward in the process. But just how realistic is such a feat?

On Friday, an unknown miner processed Bitcoin block 888,737. The block contained 2,327 transactions and the miner received a payout of 3.125 BTC, as well as 0.032 BTC in fees. 

At today’s Bitcoin price of $84,257 per coin, that’s a more than $266,000 payday.

Bitcoin miners work to process blocks on the cryptocurrency’s network. Blocks are full of transaction data and are part of the Bitcoin blockchain.

Miners are given newly minted coins: a 3.125 BTC fixed reward, along with the transaction fees paid by those using the payment system during that particular block window. 

As the network has grown, mining operations have become more energy-intensive, and are typically now industrial-sized setups consisting of warehouses full of machines. 

But occasionally, a solo miner can score big using a home hobby machine. In this case, according to blockchain data, the miner was using a DIY FutureBit Apollo machine. 

However, experts told Decrypt that things might not be as simple as they sound: “solo mining,” per blockchain jargon, technically refers to any miner that’s not in a mining pool. Pools are groups of crypto miners that share their resources so that they have a better chance of processing a transaction. But they also then share the reward.

“The term ‘solo miner’ is a really broad term,” pseudonymous Bitcoin miner Econoalchemist told Decrypt. “It could just be one dude in his apartment, or a warehouse full of high-powered miners.”

Ultimately, this means that a “solo miner” could have a room full of hobby miners all switched on and working to secure a transaction. Such an operation wouldn’t necessarily be as easy—or cheap—to set up, though it would give the miner a better shot at securing a block win.

Still, with solo miners securing numerous block wins in recent months, Friday’s news may spur more Bitcoiners to try and have a go at home mining.

Edited by Andrew Hayward