A solitary bitcoin miner achieved a significant milestone over the weekend, independently solving block 910440 and earning 3.137 BTC valued at over $362,000.

This block included more than 4,100 transactions and was processed via CKpool, a platform that allows users to contribute hash power without joining a mining pool.

Key Points:

• The miner operated at approximately 9 petahashes per second, granting them a mere one-in-800 chance of successfully mining a block on any given day.
• CKpool’s administrator, Con Kolivas, noted this victory as the 305th solo block solved since its launch in August 2014, highlighting the rarity of such occurrences in today’s mining environment.
• Unlike mining pools, where rewards are shared (often incurring fees), solo mining enables miners to keep the entire prize, despite the daunting odds posed by Bitcoin’s increasing network difficulty.

The Bitcoin protocol continues to afford instances where smaller players can unexpectedly triumph and reap substantial rewards. At the time of the win, the cost of bitcoin hovered near $115,000, reflecting a 3% drop as traders considered macroeconomic indicators leading up to the Federal Reserve’s meeting in September.