Against all odds, a single Bitcoin miner managed to recently mine block number 903,883. With the help of new non-profit service Solo CK, they successfully claimed their reward of 3.173 BTC (~$349,028). The stunning action occurred late Thursday night. It’s a perfect illustration of the chaotic and chance driven solo Bitcoin mining, where individuals compete against huge industry mining pools. This small-scale miner overcame unthinkable hardships and emerged victorious. They showed that you can succeed in crypto’s decentralized environment, even on a shoestring budget.

Our lucky miner beat extraordinary odds of 1 in 2,800 each day on the job. This would be the equivalent of them striking gold about once every eight years. The miner's hash rate was just 0.00026% of the total hash rate, and 0.000847% of the hash rate of the previous block's miner, Foundry USA.

The Power of Solo CK

Solo CK is a non-profit, community-oriented service enabling Bitcoin miners of all shapes and sizes to test their lucks at solo block mining. Solo CK users mined 5,222 BTC since 2014, worth $594.9 million at current BTC prices. Through utilizing Solo CK, the winning miner paid only a 2% fee. This setup enabled them to escape the heavy ongoing losses that come with running a premium-grade Bitcoin mining rig.

Dr. CK, who we assume is the operator of Solo CK, went wild celebrating the win on social media.

"Congratulations to miner bc1q~9sj3 with 2.3PH for solving block number 301," - Dr. CK

At the time, that miner who found block 903,883 was mining with a hash rate of 2.3 PH. Meanwhile, the estimated overall hash rate is already approaching a staggering 881.11 EH/s.

Odds and Unpredictability

Her success as a solo miner is especially impressive when you look at the long odds.

"A miner of this size has about a 1 in 2,800 chance of solving a block every day, or once every 8 years on average." - Dr. CK

These figures put into perspective the competitive and luck-driven reality of solo mining. Back in the end of August, another Solo CK user managed to mine a block. They were subsequently awarded a bounty of 3.15 BTC, approximately $330,300 at the time. Prior to that, the prior victory was three months in the past.

Market Dynamics and Hash Rate

The Bitcoin network has seen a rapid increase in hash rate. This uptick is a result of the increasing computational power that’s being deployed to settle transactions. 881 EH/s is 46% higher than the hash rate one year ago. The increase in network hash rate increases the difficulty in competing as a miner, especially for the individual miner. As it stands, big mining pools—with their deep pockets—have written the playbook.

Solo mining is frequently referred to as a lottery, in which miners have an extremely slim chance to win a large payout. Even if the odds are against them, the potential payout — sometimes in excess of a billion dollars — can be life-changing. As Scott Norris, Chief Executive of Optiminer once explained, solo mining is “akin to playing the lottery.”