Another Bitcoin miner from the Solo CK mining pool single-handedly mined a new block on the Bitcoin blockchain, resulting in a block reward of 6.25 BTC (over $220,000 at current prices). The event took place on Monday at block height 720175.
Individual mining consists of one miner attempting to validate blocks without joining forces with other miners in the mining pool and running a full blockchain node. Without significant hashing capabilities, the likelihood of block validation is extremely low.
To increase these chances and avoid the costs associated with solo mining, miners usually pool together to pool their hash power, increasing the chances of validating a block and eventually splitting the mining if successful.
According to a recent post by CKPool admin Kon Kolivas, this solo miner had a hash power of approximately 86 terahashes per second. Hash power determines the computational speed with which a computer can perform the cryptographic functions required to mine cryptocurrency and validate a block for a proof-of-work blockchain such as Bitcoin.
Congratulations to another miner who solved a solo block at around #86 on https://t.co/UWgBvLkDqc! There are a lot more miners in the solo pool now, and if enough people are mining alone, someone will end up end up lucky like here. https://t.co/Hqte2achR4 pic.twitter.com/0ZT635LicD — Dr. Kon Kolivas (@ckpooldev) January 24, 2022
The miner in question had less hash power than a single S9 mining machine; a relatively small amount of processing power, making this a very unlikely event.
Even more remarkable is the fact that just two weeks ago, another solo miner from the Solo CK mining pool also completed a similar task, successfully solving a valid block. “To say it’s very rare is an understatement,” bitcoin board member Hass McCook said at the time.
Despite its name, CKPool is not a regular mining pool, it is a service that allows solo mining without the cost and hassle of running a full bitcoin node.
