Lone Bitcoin Miner Defies All Odds, Hits $200,000 Jackpot with Block Reward
A solo Bitcoin miner, contrary to all predictions, won a $200,000 jackpot as a block reward. The payment went to an address linked to CKPool, a solo-mining service. This was the 317th solo block found by the pool.
The reward consisted of the 3.125 BTC fixed subsidy and about 0.032 BTC in transaction fees from 4,243 transactions. CKPool operator Dr -ck (Con Kolivas) confirmed the win, noting the miner's hashrate was "extremely volatile, presumably rented," peaking at 100 PH/s. This represented about 0.011% of Bitcoin's total network hashrate. At that level, a miner could statistically expect to find a block roughly every 64 days, far more likely than for a typical small home setup.
Solo mining differs from pool mining, where rewards are shared based on contributed work. In solo mining, a miner gets nothing unless they personally find a block, but then receives the entire reward. CKPool charges a ~2% fee on blocks found.
Dr -ck noted the hashrate pattern suggested rented computing power, a practice making solo wins more accessible. He also highlighted this was the first mainnet block mined after integrating Stratum V2 code into ckpool, though the block itself was found using the older Stratum V1 protocol.
Against a backdrop of mining concentration in large industrial pools, such solo finds remain rare but demonstrate that anyone with sufficient hashrate can claim a full reward without corporate or government permission. The block subsidy will remain 3.125 BTC until the next halving around April 2028.
The miner's identity remains unknown, as is typical. Bitcoin's mining difficulty is due for an adjustment, and network hashrate has declined from late 2025 peaks, partly due to competition for power and hardware from AI data centers.
cryptonews.ru08/06 20:34
