An individual crypto miner used a device with a computational power of only 500 Gh/s (gigahashes per second) to generate a block on the Bitcoin blockchain on Wednesday evening. The news was first shared on X by Altair Technology, a leading retailer of Bitcoin mining devices.
Altair Technology Reveals Mining Device Used to Produce the Block
Per Altair, the solo miner used a device known as Bitaxe, which D-Central Technologies manufactures. The miner connected their device to a node infrastructure platform, Solo CKPool, to mine the block. Data on Solo CKPool shows that the platform allows solo miners to participate in Bitcoin mining as individuals, not as a pool.
Meanwhile, crypto journalist Pete Rizzo says the solo miner generated block 853,742 and earned 3.19 Bitcoin, worth $210,000 as of this writing.
But why is this such a big deal? Well, given the current hash power of Bitcoin (553.49 Eh/s), the solo miner’s Bitaxe device, which, as mentioned earlier, produces 500 Gh/s, means that it had a 1 out of 1 billion chance of generating a block but still managed to do so.
Another Solo Miner Produces a Block
While such instances are rare, several solo miners have beat the odds to produce blocks in the past, earning BTC worth thousands of dollars. In April, an individual miner used a device with 120 Ph/s of computational power to mine a block of transactions. At the time, the miner received 3.125 BTC. It is worth mentioning that the device used was 200 times more powerful than Bitaxe.
Why Are Bitcoin Miners Necessary
Miners play a crucial role in the Bitcoin blockchain. They validate and add blocks of transactions to the network. Their contribution also helps to shield Bitcoin from attacks by bad actors. For every block produced, the miner involved receives BTC rewards.
As mining difficulty continues to increase, it has become extremely tough for solo miners to secure a block to process. Therefore, to increase their chances of getting a block, most of these miners join mining pools. For starters, a mining pool is a group of solo miners who pool their computational power to boost their odds of generating a block in exchange for rewards.
