David Edwards
In a rare stroke of luck, a solo Bitcoin miner operating with just 2.3 petahashes per second (PH/s) has successfully mined an entire block, earning a reward of 3.173 BTC, valued at approximately $349,028 at the time of mining. This outcome highlights the probabilistic nature of Bitcoin’s proof-of-work algorithm and underscores the viability—however improbable—of small-scale solo mining in a market dominated by industrial operations.
A 1-in-375K Shot Pays Off
Bitcoin historian Pete Rizzo confirmed the miner’s feat occurred on block 903,883, noting they had “beat incredible odds.” The administrator of CKpool, the mining pool responsible for the block discovery, estimated the miner’s chances at about 1 in 2,800 per day, which equates to a successful block once every eight years on average. SoloChance, a mining probability tracker, pegs the odds at roughly 1 in 375,300 per block under current difficulty conditions.
Despite the odds, the solo miner netted the full block reward independently—a striking contrast to the industry’s increasingly consolidated hashpower distribution.
Modest Hardware, Monumental Reward
Though the exact configuration of the rig remains unknown, experts suggest it may consist of older-generation ASIC miners capable of generating 2.3 PH/s. For context, hobbyist units like the Bitaxe Gamma, FutureBit Apollo BTC, and Canaan Avalon Nano 3 produce significantly lower hash rates—typically measured in terahashes per second (TH/s).
At the extreme low end, devices such as the NerdMiner Pro v2 offer only kilohashes per second (kH/s), rendering block discovery effectively impossible.
To consistently mine a single block per month, one would need approximately 166,000 TH/s—equivalent to nearly 500 Antminer S21 Hydro units. Such capacity would demand millions in capital expenditure, underscoring the disparity between large-scale and hobbyist operations.
