On October 24, 2024, a solo miner found a block and earned more than $200,000.
Solo miners compete against large mining companies and mining pools.
Solo Bitcoin (BTC) mining is a method where a miner uses their own resources to attempt to process and resolve transaction blocks on the Bitcoin network.
If you would like to advance with this activity alone, you can mainly choose two options or paths: mining through your own means, truly alone, or through connection to a pool solo bitcoin mining (such as Solo CK).
However, in recent years other proposals have emerged that you could consider, such as the use of power from hash rented through the cloud on various platforms on-line.
Solo Bitcoin Mining the Old Fashioned Way
“Traditional” solo Bitcoin mining is one in which miners have only their own resources and do not rely on pools or third parties, facing all the expenses to carry out this activity. In this way, the first participants in the network mined, having only their own computers and the electrical supply at home or at their workplace.
To become a true solo Bitcoin miner today, however, you will need hardware specialized high-power, such as mining machines ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits). This is because using the computer to mine is no longer a feasible way to obtain hash rate, due to its low power.
In addition, you will require a stable internet connection, a software properly configured to connect to the Bitcoin network and a large electrical power supply.
He software mining acts as an interface between your hardware and the Bitcoin network, allowing data on pending blocks to be received from the nodes and sending results back to the network.
If you want to operate completely independently, you will need run a full Bitcoin node in your home. This node connects to software mining and sends the block data so that your equipment used can perform the necessary calculations and find the solution (the hash target) for each block. Running a node allows you validate transactions and blocks independently, without depending on third parties.
If your mining equipment finds the hash correct for a block, it will broadcast this block to the network. Upon validation, you will receive the full block reward (subsidy). This could be the main advantage of solo mining, since you will not share the reward with anyone for your task.
On the other hand, the most notable disadvantage you will face as a lone wolf is the enormous difficulty of mining a block with such limited hash power. Although achieving this depends on luck, you will probably still need a large initial investment. All costs of mining alone, without the help of pools or any third party, are under your responsibility.
The best mining equipment costs thousands of dollars and involves expensive maintenance due to cooling costs given the heat emitted by these machines. Electricity consumption can also be expensive.
For example, to make an estimated calculation, the highest power equipment on the market (which will be available from November 2024) will be the Bitmain Antminer S21E XP Hyd 3U. This apparatus It has a consumption of 11180 watts and a computing power of 860.00 Th/s (terahashes per second).
Using the site report as a reference Statista Regarding electricity prices in 2023, it is perceived that in Latin American countries, such as Brazil and Mexico, the value of energy was 0.17 dollars per kilowatt per hour ($/kWh) and in Mexico 0.12 dollars .
Thus, calculating how much energy this device would consume at that price, you should consider an approximate and tentative value 45 dollars a day in Brazil and 32 dollars in Mexico.
According to Whattomine This equipment would generate a gross daily profit of almost $49 (expenses would have to be deducted from this number).
On the other hand, some portable solo mining rigs have also been developed the size of a mobile device or even smaller, such as a USB, which consume much less power, but have vastly lower computing power to traditional ASIC equipment. These minimalist options are suitable if your initial investment capacity for solo mining, without pools, is limited.
Solitary Bitcoin mining, but in pools dedicated
To be a solo miner you can also opt for Bitcoin mining from a pool specialized in grouping unaffiliated individuals, such as Just CK.
To access this format, you will need mining equipment, a stable internet connection, and the appropriate configuration that connects your devices to the pool.
In Solo CK the rate hashwhich is currently 129 PH/s (petahashes per second), is made up of all the users of this poolwho individually contribute their own hashrate.
However, unlike what happens in the pools traditional mining systems in which users form a single hashrate to participate in the Bitcoin network, in Solo CK You will compete against other users as well.
For this reason, the reward is not distributed among everyone according to their contribution, but if you manage to process the next block, you will get the total reward, in exchange for a commission that is kept by the pool.
That they compete with each other means that in a pool In the style of Solo CK, you and the rest of the miners work independently, but using the infrastructure of pool. To contribute to the rate of hash of Solo CK, you must configure your mining equipment to the server.
Although your team is still trying to find blocks on their own, the pool It will facilitate your connection to the network and allow you to carry out the mining process without setting up a full node in your home. This reduces technical requirements and costs.
To have an idea of the performance of these poolsOnly CK, as reported by CriptoNoticias, has an average of 1 block found per month over the last four months. See, however, the contrast: a traditional pool like AntPool found almost 30 blocks in the last 24 hours, at the time of writing this article.
Cloud Mining, the most comfortable way to mine Bitcoin
Cloud mining or cloud mining It is a way to participate in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining without the need for you to manage the hardware physical.
Through this practice you will rent power hash of data centers or platforms on-line who own and operate the hardware mining. Instead of purchasing and maintaining your own equipment, you’ll pay a fee to use the power that hash “unaffiliated”.
So, in this variant To participate in cryptocurrency mining, you will not face the technical and operational challenges associated with “traditional” mining.
After acquiring that processing power, you will need to configure the hash rented to work directly on the Bitcoin network or to a pool solo mining like Solo CK. Once this is done, you can try to mine individually.
When renting hashyou will avoid the costs of acquiring and maintaining specialized mining equipment (ASICs).
In addition, this modality will allow you to rent hash for short or specific periods (hours, days) and adjust the power based on your resources and objectives.
However, the rental costs can be high and the results are uncertain, since it depends on the miner managing to find a block during the rental time.
It is not easy to decide to mine alone
Behind him halving As of April 2024, the fixed subsidy fee that a miner receives when finding a block is 3,125 BTC, which is equivalent at the time of this writing to more than $210,000. Since then, each miner receives less subsidy for their work.
On October 24, CriptoNoticias reported, not surprisingly, about a solo miner who managed to mine a block, which gave him a total profit of more than $222,000. This reward proves that solo mining is possible.
As demonstrated by some lucky solo miners, the reward is high, but although possible, the probability of success is low. This is because a lone miner competes against large mining corporations and pools Bitcoin mining facilities that house greater computing power.
For example, Foundry and AntPool, both pools largest BTC mining companies, currently hold 25% and 27% respectively of the entire power of hash that miners contribute to the Bitcoin network. In other words, two pools concentrate more than 50% of the hash power of Bitcoin mining.
These figures show how difficult it is to mine alone and make this activity profitable. They also symbolize the challenges you will have to overcome if you want to become an independent miner.
