In an exceptional turn of events, a single Bitcoin miner has defied the odds by successfully solving a Bitcoin block alone, claiming the full 3.125 Bitcoin (BTC) block reward.
This accomplishment was announced by Con Kolivas, a software engineer and administrator from the solo mining pool, ckpool. According to Kolivas, this miner achieved the milestone on April 28 with an impressive hash rate of around 120 petahashes per second (PH/s) at that moment, equivalent to approximately 0.12 exahashes per second (EH/s). This hash rate translates to roughly 0.02% of the total network hash rate.
The Bitcoin block reward was recently halved from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC at block 840,000 on April 20, making block 841,286 worth approximately $200,000 at the time.
Kolivas speculated that the miner may have switched from pooled mining after the halving, possibly due to no longer recouping their electricity costs, or they have been intermittently hashing or renting large amounts solo.
Mining a valid block solo is an exceedingly rare event, akin to winning the lottery, as evidenced by its occurrence only 282 times out of the 841,300 blocks produced since Bitcoin’s inception 14 years ago. This rarity is due to the increasing competitiveness and hash rate of Bitcoin mining, making it nearly impossible to solve a block alone.
Despite the challenges, Bitcoin mining has surged in popularity, driven by the asset’s price increase. The average network hash rate currently stands at 618 EH/s, having reached an all-time high of 728 EH/s on April 23, according to BitInfoChart, reflecting a more than 90% increase over the past 12 months. This makes the recent solo mining achievement even more exceptional in the context of Bitcoin’s mining landscape.
RELATED: Bitcoin Miner Marathon Raises Its Hash Rate Target For 2024 to 50 EH/s
It’s worth noting that this achievement is not the first of its kind. In March 2023, a solo miner claimed the entire 6.25 BTC reward for solving a block when prices were much lower, resulting in a reward of around $150,000.
The most recent solo-mined block before this achievement occurred on April 5, when a solo miner solved block 837,814 with a hash rate of 7 PH/s, earning a reward of approximately $422,750 at the time.
If you want to read more news articles like this, visit DeFi Planet and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and CoinMarketCap Community.
“Take control of your crypto portfolio with MARKETS PRO, DeFi Planet’s suite of analytics tools.”
