A solo miner was able to mine a full block in Bitcoin’s blockchain, collecting a 6.25 block reward for his efforts. The approximate value of the reward at the time of this writing is over $150,000. The miner was fortunate to have after mining for only two days produced a valid hash. That in itself is a rare event, as it can take several months for one single miner to generate a valid hash.
The event took place on March 10th and was only the 270th block to be mined solo in the history of Bitcoin. The occurrence is uncommon due to the fact that on average a solo miner typically solves a block approximately once every ten months.
The miner created their own pool via the Solo CK Pool mining service, after which they managed to mine a valid block and were compensated with 6.25 Bitcoin. Con Kolivas, an administrator at Solo CK mining pool, stated that the miner could possibly have rented hashing power, at least temporarily, to produce the hash.
Bitcoin mining involves miners using computational power to solve and then add the next block to the network. With the increasing popularity of mining and the continuous increase in the network’s hash rate and the availability of highly effective mining rigs, it’s nearly impossible for one solitary miner to solve a whole block by themselves.
A valid block is often produced through the use of the computational power of several rigs, all working on mining the next block. The reward is dispersed based on the hash rate that each miner has contributed to the mining pool. Solo CK has been linked to several solo-mined blocks in the past. Two of which were mined in January 2022. The first occurred on January 11, 2022, followed by the second on January 24, 2022.