Introduction
A solo Bitcoin miner on the Bitcoin network has defied steep odds to successfully mine a block, securing the full reward of 3.128 BTC, valued at roughly $222,000 at current prices. The miner solved block 944,306 early Thursday using CKpool in a solo configuration, according to data from mempool explorers. The payout consisted of the standard 3.125 BTC block subsidy, worth about $221,800, along with 0.003 BTC in transaction fees, adding roughly $212 to the total.
Solo Bitcoin Miner’s Small Odds for Success
CKpool developer Con Kolivas confirmed the win, noting the miner operated with about 70 terahashes per second (TH/s) of computing power. That level of hashpower represents a fraction of the network and is comparable to a single Bitmain Antminer S17+ unit, a machine released in 2019. At that scale, the probability of mining a block is extremely low. Kolivas estimated the miner faced odds of roughly 1 in 100,000 per day, translating to an expected success rate of once every several centuries. Despite those odds, the miner managed to validate the block and claim the entire reward.
The miner’s contribution accounted for approximately 0.0000069% of the network’s total hashrate, which stood near 1.02 zettahashes per second on April 9. By comparison, large public mining firms such as Bitdeer and MARA Holdings operate at tens of exahashes per second, orders of magnitude higher than the solo participant.
While CKpool functions as a mining pool, it differs from traditional pooled mining setups. Most users on the platform engage in solo mining, meaning they do not combine hashpower with others to share rewards. Instead, participants accept a lower probability of success in exchange for retaining the full block reward if they find one, minus a small fee paid to the pool operator. This approach removes the need for bitcoin miners to maintain independent infrastructure while preserving the upside of solo mining. It also highlights the lottery-like nature of block discovery for smaller participants.
The latest success follows a similar event just days earlier, when another solo bitcoin miner using CKpool earned roughly $210,000 after mining block 943,411. That miner operated with higher hashpower and faced odds closer to 1 in 28,000 per day. Such outcomes remain rare but not unprecedented. Solo miners have occasionally secured full rewards despite minimal computational resources, reinforcing the probabilistic structure of Bitcoin mining, where any participant with hashpower retains a nonzero chance of success.