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Individuals have been turning to small USB-based mining rigs, and some have been hitting the jackpot. These tiny miners have been growing in popularity, and solo mining pools have sprouted up to cater to the increasing number of individuals getting back into Bitcoin mining.
According to a computer hardware outlet, Tom’s Hardware, one miner recently solved a block with a rig that had a hash rate of approximately 8.3 TH/s (terahashes per second). This yielded a reward of more than $215,000 in BTC.
The solo.ckpool.org pool, which offers “2% fee anonymous solo bitcoin mining for everyone,” reported the big win for the mini-miner on Jan. 24.
Congratulations to another miner with approximately 86TH solving a solo block on https://t.co/UWgBvLkDqc ! There are a lot more miners now on the solo pool and if enough people are mining solo, someone will eventually be the lucky one as here. https://t.co/Hqte2achR4 pic.twitter.com/0ZT635LicD
— Dr. Con Kolivas (@ckpooldev) January 24, 2022
Mini-Mining Rigs
These tiny USB mining rigs are hard to come by, however. Stocks are limited though they can be found on retail outlets such as eBay and Amazon for a couple of hundred dollars if lucky.
The fluky solo miner had a rig that was operating at a tenth of its 86 TH/s hash rate, Tom’s reported. By comparison, Bitmain’s recently announced the Antminer S19 Pro+ Hyd offers a hash rate of 198 TH/s and weighs in at more than $14,000.
It is not the first time someone in the Solo CK Pool has hit the jackpot. On Jan. 11, a solo miner with a 120 TH/s rig struck digital gold, adding a new block and netting a reward of more than $270,000 from the 6.25 BTC at the time.
Another solo miner using a 116 TH/s also managed to find a valid block and receive over $260,000 a few days later.
At the time, Solo CK Pool administrator Dr. Con Kolivas said that it was not a sentinel event and there was nothing wrong with proof-of-work or the Bitcoin network before adding:
“My solo mining service doesn’t have a back door to solve blocks faster. With enough miners mining, someone eventually solves a block, and it can be a miner of any size.”
And here are some images of his mini-farm that solved the block, and his cgminer running showing his best share of 35.5T pic.twitter.com/0J5s1gujON
— Dr. Con Kolivas (@ckpooldev) January 24, 2022
Earlier this month, CryptoPotato reported that Jack Dorsey’s Block (formerly Square) was rolling out an open Bitcoin mining system.
Ethereum Block Reward Winner
Bitcoin is not the only fruit, however, as Ethereum mining can still be profitable for individuals. Last week a solo ETH miner hit a jackpot of 168 ETH, roughly equating to $540,000 at the time.
The miner was in a solo ETH mining pool producing around 1.5 TH/s, but the individual was only contributing around the average of 2.25 GH/s.
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