A Bitcoin miner has achieved the rare feat of successfully processing a block and receiving a reward of up to $182,000, despite Bitcoin's hashrate being at a record high.

A Bitcoin miner has overcome the difficulty of solving a single block and received a reward of around $182,000. On September 10, block 860749 was mined, containing 5,935 transactions. The miner, who belongs to the Solo CK mining pool, received a reward of 3,169 Bitcoins, worth around $182,505, according to Bitcoin block explorer Mempool.space.

Solo CK acts as a mining pool that combines the power of many small miners. However, the block reward is only given to the miner who successfully solves the block. In this case, the lucky miner contributed 629 petahash (PH), which is only 0.098% of the total power of the Bitcoin network, while the entire network reached 644.91 exahash per second (EH/s), according to data from YCharts.

Although solo mining is difficult due to the computational power required, success is possible, albeit rare. Since Bitcoin launched in 2009, only 290 blocks out of over 859,000 have been solved by solo miners. As the Bitcoin network grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to successfully solve blocks, especially with competition from large mining companies.

Rising Hashrate Adds More Difficulty for Solo Miners

On September 1, 2024, Bitcoin's hashrate reached a record high of 742 EH/s, up 62% from a year earlier when the hashrate was 395.70 EH/s. This increase means that miners have to use more computing power to solve blocks. This is accompanied by higher energy costs, making it more difficult for solo miners to successfully solve a block.

However, the Solo CK mining pool has managed to solve 14 blocks over the past year. The pool has received a total reward of 59.3 Bitcoin, currently worth around $3.4 million. On August 30, another solo miner from the pool solved a block and received a reward of nearly $200,000. Additionally, on July 25, another Solo CK miner solved block 853742 and received a reward of around $210,000.

While large mining companies such as Bit Digital, Riot Blockchain, and Marathon Digital are increasingly dominating the space with their massive computing power, solo miners still have a chance to succeed. These companies often confirm the majority of blocks on the network due to their superior resources, but Solo CK's recent success shows that small miners can still compete in the challenging Bitcoin mining industry.