Solo Miner Receives $180K in Block Rewards
An anonymous solo Bitcoin miner beat the odds to win a block, which led them to receive $180,000 worth of mining rewards. Data from mempool.space shows that the block was mined by a member of Solo CK, a mining pool that does not distribute mining rewards among its users.
Besides earning mining rewards, the solo miner pocketed all the gas fees paid by Bitcoin users whose transactions were in the mined block.
The achievement is relatively impressive, considering that the hashrate on the Bitcoin blockchain has been tapping all-time highs in recent months, making the mining sector more competitive and difficult for solo miners to win blocks.
Moreover, with BTC posting sideways performance over the past few weeks, solo mining has increasingly become economically risky. That means a solo miner might incur higher electricity costs than the value of BTC rewards.
Why Bitcoin Miner Prefer Joining Mining Pools to Solo Mining
In most cases, Bitcoin miners, including well-known publicly traded mining firms with energy-efficient machines, opt to pool their computing power to mine BTC rather than engage in solo mining. This increases their chances of winning a block, after which they split the earned rewards based on their contributed hash power.
Solo miners can join mining pools to enhance their likelihood of receiving BTC rewards. As of September 2024, Antpool and Foundry are the biggest mining pools worldwide, collectively providing nearly 58% of Bitcoin’s hashrate.
More Solo Miners Win Blocks in 2024
The unusual incidents of solo miners winning blocks have become common in recent weeks. A few days ago, a solo miner won Block 858978 and received BTC rewards worth $200,000. In late July, another solo miner mined Block 853742 to pocket $199,000 worth of Bitcoin.
Matthew Sigel, a researcher at VanEck Digital Assets, says solo miners are winning blocks despite increased Bitcoin’s hashrate due to reduced electricity costs in the United States. He further claims that miners may not be too quick to sell their BTC rewards if mining expenses remain low. As such, the Bitcoin market could witness declining selling pressure.
