A tiny Bitcoin miner with only about 5 terahash per second (TH/s) has defied astronomical odds to find a block on Ocean Mining's solo mining pool, netting 3.134 BTC worth approximately $347,968. The device, a Nerdminer QAxe++ priced at around $500 and drawing 72-76 watts, typically would require over 3,500 years to find a block at current network difficulty.
Against All Odds: The Lottery Win
The miner, identified on social media as @snednode, used a Nerdminer QAxe++ connected to a Start9labs Bitcoin full node via Ocean Mining's DATUM (Decentralized Alternative Templates for Universal Mining) protocol, enabling direct block submission without intermediaries. At the time block 913272 was discovered, the global Bitcoin hashrate stood at approximately 960 exahash per second (EH/s). The 5 TH/s miner represented just 0.0000000052% of that total. With the current difficulty of 136.04 trillion, finding a valid block requires roughly 5.84×10²³ hash attempts. At 5 trillion guesses per second, the average expected time to find a block is about 3,700 years. The chance of hitting one block in a single day is approximately 1 in 1.35 million.
A Milestone for Decentralized Mining
Ocean Mining celebrated the event on X, stating: "Block 913272 was found yesterday by a small miner: @snednode revealed that it was him, using a QAxe++, a Start9labs and DATUM on OCEAN. Seeing miners of all sizes have their voices heard by mining their own blocks and seeing decentralization happen in real time is why we do this." Many traditional mining pools enforce strict minimum hashrate thresholds, often excluding low-power devices. However, pools like Ocean and Solo CKPool do not impose formal minimums and are designed to support both solo and pooled mining. This lucky find demonstrates that even with minimal hardware, individual miners can still participate directly in securing the Bitcoin network and potentially hit the jackpot.
Not the First Time for Baby Miners
This is not the first instance of extreme luck for low-hashrate devices. In July 2024, Solo CKPool developer Dr -ck reported that a 3 TH/s Bitaxe miner had found the pool's 290th solo block. "This much hashrate only would find a block once every 3,500 YEARS on average, or 1 in 1.2 MILLION chance per day," he noted at the time. These events underscore the power of permissionless mining protocols like DATUM and the ongoing efforts to make Bitcoin mining more decentralized and accessible to all, regardless of hashing power.