In an era dominated by industrial-scale operations and publicly traded miners, the odds of a solo miner striking a Bitcoin block are almost impossible, yet it still happens. Last week, at block height 920,440, a solo miner running a self-hosted pool on an Umbrel server hit the jackpot, earning 3.141 BTC (≈ $347,000). It’s a powerful reminder of Bitcoin’s original ethos: anyone, anywhere, can still participate in securing the network and be rewarded directly by the protocol itself. This issue explores what solo mining really means today, how it compares to pooled mining, if it still makes sense and what solo mining pools are.
A True Solo Victory
What Is Solo Mining?
Solo Mining vs Pool Mining
Embracing Variance
Why Miners Go Solo
At least 25 Solo Blocks Found in 2025
The Risks of Solo Mining
Does Solo Mining Still Make Sense?
Premium Members Only:
What Are Solo Mining Pools?
What Is MARA Pool and Is It Solo Mining?
NiceHash EasyMining, Solo Mining Simplified
A True Solo Victory
Last week, at block height 920,440, another solo miner beat the odds, finding a full Bitcoin block entirely on their own while running a self-hosted pool on an Umbrel server. No custodians. No third-party control. Just one miner, one node, and pure sovereignty.
The block was mined using a NerdQaxe++, an open-source miner hitting a block on open-source pool software. It’s a reminder that even in an era dominated by industrial megawatts and publicly traded mining firms, solo miners can still strike gold when luck and decentralization align.
What Is Solo Mining?
Bitcoin solo mining means your hardware competes independently to find and validate a new block. If you win, you receive the entire 3.125 BTC block subsidy plus transaction fees, paid directly to your wallet, no sharing, no middlemen.
When you mine solo, you’re effectively buying a ticket to Bitcoin’s most competitive lottery, competing against exahashes of global compute. The odds are microscopic, but the payout is meaningful, often worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the case of block 920440, the payout was 3.141 BTC and equivalent of $347,455.
In the early days, solo mining was the norm. Anyone with a CPU and later a GPU could mine from their laptop and earn full rewards. But as ASICs and industrial facilities took over, the chances of a small operator winning a block shrank dramatically.
Solo Mining vs Pool Mining
The difference between solo and pooled mining comes down to variance, predictability, and control. In pooled mining, thousands of miners combine their hashrate to find blocks collectively. When the pool finds one, rewards are distributed among participants based on their contributed hashpower.
This model reduces variance and creates predictable, steady payouts. For most miners this is essential for covering OPEX, power bills, and financing. Most commercial miners use FPPS or PPS+ payout pools precisely because they can forecast income.
Embracing Variance
Solo miners reject predictability. You only get paid if you find a block. For a home miner contributing 0.00001% of the network hashrate, the expected time-to-block might be decades. Even mid-sized operations with 1 PH/s would statistically wait tens of thousands of years to strike a block, while a 1 EH/s setup might expect one roughly every month. In other words, solo mining is not about steady income — it’s about conviction. When it happens, you keep everything. No pool fees. No counterparty risk. No shared payout scripts. Just one direct transaction from Bitcoin’s protocol to your wallet. Solo mining is less a business model and more an ideological statement, proof that Bitcoin’s permissionless nature still extends to individuals.
Why Miners Go Solo
The reasons vary, but most are around independence and conviction.
Sovereignty & Ideology: Solo mining keeps Bitcoin’s grassroots alive. Running your own node, validating your own blocks, and earning rewards directly from the protocol embodies the network’s founding ethos.
No Fees, No Middlemen: Pool fees typically range from 1 – 4%. Solo miners avoid them entirely. Over long-time horizons, expected value remains similar, but keeping 100% of rewards, if luck hits, is enticing.
Asymmetric Upside: A single block can pay for years of power bills. For hobbyists or pleb miners using low-cost setups, solo mining functions like a long-shot lottery with non-KYC Bitcoin as the prize.
Diversification: Some industrial operators allocate a small portion of hashrate to solo mode as a “variance hedge.” The majority of their fleet mines via pools for stability, but a fraction plays for jackpot blocks.
The Thrill: Pool mining can feel like watching paint dry; solo mining brings adrenaline. Every nonce could change your financial trajectory.
At least 25 Solo Blocks Found in 2025
Despite the astronomical odds, solo miners still managed to win multiple blocks this year. In 2025, Digital Mining Solutions verified a total of 25 solo-mined blocks. 12 found via Solo CKPool, 1 using CKPool solo code on a full Bitcoin node, 1 from a self-hosted Umbrel pool, and 11 through NiceHash EasyMining.
The Risks of Solo Mining
Solo mining isn’t for the faint-hearted. The revenue swings are enormous. You could mine for years without earning a single sat, then suddenly strike a block worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Statistically, the expected value mirrors that of pooled mining, but the payout distribution is far more extreme.
There’s also a clear opportunity cost. While you wait for that once-in-a-lifetime block, your machines keep consuming power and depreciating in value. Pool miners, by contrast, convert their hashrate into steady, predictable income over the same period.
Does Solo Mining Still Make Sense?
Solo mining today is best viewed as a high-variance, low-probability strategy rather than a revenue stream. It makes sense if you value decentralization and want to directly support Bitcoin’s network, treat it as an educational or hobbyist project or you enjoy the thrill of possibly hitting a once-in-a-lifetime block.
For businesses seeking predictable returns, pool mining remains the rational choice. But for hobbyists, educators, and ideological miners, solo mining keeps the cypherpunk dream alive.
🔒 The next section is exclusive to Premium members.
What Are Solo Mining Pools?
What Is MARA Pool and Is It Solo Mining?
NiceHash EasyMining — Solo Mining Simplified
If you want to understand how miners leverage services of solo mining pools and how new models like EasyMining are reshaping solo mining, this section is for you.
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