Tiny Home Bitcoin Mining Device Strikes Gold, Earning Over $200K

A home Bitcoin mining device with a hashrate of only 500 gigahashes per second (Gh/s) achieved a remarkable feat. On July 24, it mined a block worth approximately $206,000 in Bitcoin. This astonishing accomplishment was announced by Altair Technology on X (formerly Twitter), according to Cointelegraph.

The device, known as a “Bitaxe,” was produced by D-Central Technologies and is roughly the size of a human hand. It was connected to the Solo CKPool infrastructure service, which allows miners to mine solo, offering an alternative to traditional mining pools.

The chances of such a device mining a block are minuscule, approximately 1 in 1.1 billion every 10 minutes, considering the current total Bitcoin network hash power of 552.49 exahashes per second (Eh/s). This makes the Bitaxe’s success a rare event akin to winning a lottery.

The mined block, number 853,742, was confirmed by blockchain data. The Solo CKPool service emphasized that it is not a traditional mining pool, despite its name, which highlights the significance of this solo mining achievement.

Solo Bitcoin mining is often likened to a lottery due to the high electricity costs miners incur without guaranteed rewards. However, the lucky miner’s decision to mine solo paid off handsomely in this case.

This achievement has sparked discussions in the Bitcoin community about the centralization of the network. Many Bitcoin enthusiasts worry that pooling hash power could lead to centralization, thus championing solo mining as a viable alternative. 

In a similar event in April, another solo miner using a 120 petahashes per second (Ph/s) device mined a block, but with significantly more power. The Bitaxe’s success with far less power highlights the unpredictability and potential rewards of solo mining.