Solo Bitcoin Miner solves block with hash rate of only 10 TH/s, beating extremely unlikely odds

A solo Bitcoin miner with an average hash power of only 10 TH/s (terahashes per second) won the race to add block 772,793 to the Bitcoin blockchain on Friday.

At the time the block was added, Bitcoin’s total hash rate was just over 269 exahash per second, meaning that the solo miner’s hash rate of 10 TH/s represented only 0.000000037% of the blockchain’s entire computational power.

Simply put: It was an extremely unlikely victory for an individual miner.

Despite the odds against them, the solo miner was the first to produce a valid hash for the block to be mined. In return, the miner received 98% of the total 6.35939231 BTC allocated for the block reward and fees. The remaining 2% went to Solo CK Pool, an online mining service that facilitates individual mining.

Bitcoin’s randomness and probabilities coded for luck and work

To add a block to a proof of work blockchain like Bitcoin, the miner must be the first to calculate a valid hash for the block, which can only be discovered using brute computing power.

Miners run an encryption algorithm to produce a hash that falls below a threshold specified by the network. If the algorithm produces a value that is above the hash target, the miner tries the algorithm again with a slightly changed input to produce an entirely new value for the hash. Miners built specifically to perform this function are capable of calculating trillions of unique hashes every second.

However, even if a miner’s machine was able to produce only one hash per second, it is theoretically possible that the algorithm’s first output could be a valid hash to solve the block.

What were the odds?

The chances of a solo miner adding a block is determined by the number of hashes the miner’s rig calculates per second in relation to the total number of hashes that all the machines on the network calculate each second.

According to a post from user Willi9974 on BitcoinTalk Forum less than an hour after block 772,793 was solved, the lucky solo miner had an average hash rate over the previous hour of 10.6 TH/s.

The information posted on BitcoinTalk also revealed that ~10 TH/s was the combined power of four machines (called “workers”). This suggests that the rig of this solo miner probably consisted of four USB stick Bitcoin miners, which individually can achieve a hash rate of around 3 TH/s and cost about $200 each.

Use the difficulty level including in block 772,793 and assuming that the solo miner’s rig calculated 10 TH/s, it is possible to calculate the total estimated hash rate of 269,082,950 TH/s at the time the block was solved.

Based on this, the odds of this solo miner being the first to solve the block with a valid hash are one in 26.9 million. Statistically, this means that if the same circumstances were repeated an infinite number of times, the solo miner would add the block 0.000000037% of the time on average.

Unlikely, but not impossible – and this has happened before

Although this scenario was extremely unlikely, similar “once-in-a-lifetime” events in Bitcoin mining have happened before.

One year agoin less than two weeksit was three different ones solo miners solving blocks with improbable hash rates – the third’s hash rate was apparently just 8.3 TH/s compared to the estimated total hash rate of 190,719,350 TH/s, which comes out to a 23 million chance (or 0.000000044%).

A hash is either valid and thus solves the block, or it is not. There is no strategy involved as the entire system is based on the random generation of hash values ​​and the response mechanisms of the network to maintain core probabilities. Bitcoin runs on code and formulas, so a solo miner somehow solving the next four blocks is entirely possible within Bitcoin’s mathematical system.

Mining pools remain the usual winners

Anecdotes of solo miners like these could end up introducing a new hobby to the ever-hopeful. However, the vast majority of blocks added to the Bitcoin blockchain today have been produced by large pools of mining rigs that combine hash power and equity earnings.

By doing this, each miner’s contribution is rewarded proportionally every time the pool mines a block.

According to blockchain explorer and mining pool BTC.comthe largest Bitcoin mining pool is currently Foundry USA, with its combined computing power of 90.19 EH/s making up 31.3% of the network’s total hashrate – meaning they earn a portion of the block rewards and fees for one of three blocks, average.

Mining pools dating back to 2010 and has steadily taken larger shares of the hash rate distribution year over year as the difficulty of mining increased and mining technology improved. Today, at least 98% of Bitcoin miners online belong to a mining pool.