In the early days of Bitcoin, anyone with a laptop could mine blocks from their bedroom and earn the block reward. Even as the move towards GPU mining, it was still possible for the average miner to compete from their bedroom.
But things have changed drastically with the industrialisation of Bitcoin mining. Today, Bitcoin miners compete at the corporate and even national level, deploying massive industrial operations with warehouses full of specialised hardware.
Yet despite the extensive global competition, some miners still choose to go it alone.
But why?
It’s already so hard out here for a pleb. What kind of 80 IQ psychopath would think they can beat the ever-shrinking odds of securing a block?
What is Bitcoin Solo Mining?
Bitcoin solo mining is the practice of attempting to mine Bitcoin blocks independently, without joining forces with other miners in a pool. When you solo mine, your mining hardware works alone to solve the cryptographic puzzle required to add a new block to the blockchain.
If you successfully mine a block, you receive the entire block reward—currently 3.125 BTC plus transaction fees—without sharing it with anyone else.
On average, every 10 minutes, one miner wins this computational lottery and adds the next block of transactions to the blockchain. The difficulty of these puzzles automatically adjusts to maintain this ten-minute average regardless of how much computing power is participating in the network.
When you mine solo, you’re competing directly against massive mining operations with thousands or even millions of specialised ASIC miners. Your individual hardware is racing to find a valid solution before anyone else on the entire network.
The odds are astronomical, but if you win, the reward is substantial.
Solo Mining vs. Pooled Mining: Understanding the Difference
The difference between solo and pooled mining comes down to probability, consistency, and reward distribution. These two approaches represent opposite strategies for dealing with the inherent variance in the mining process.
Pooling Together Hashrate
In pooled mining, thousands of miners combine their computational power and share rewards proportionally based on how much work each contributed. When the pool successfully mines a block, the 3.125 BTC reward plus fees are distributed to all participants according to their hash rate contribution.
For example, if you contribute 1% of the pool’s total hash rate, you receive approximately 1 % of each block reward the pool finds.
The key advantage of pool mining is predictability.
Instead of potentially waiting years or decades for a solo block, pool miners receive small, regular payouts—often daily or even more frequently. This consistency makes it possible to calculate expected revenue, plan expenses, and run mining as a sustainable business operation. Most commercial mining operations use pools specifically for this financial predictability.
The Solo Mining Mindset
Solo mining operates on an entirely different model.
Your hardware works independently, and you only receive a payout if you personally find a valid block. With typical home mining setups ranging from a single ASIC to a handful of machines, you might be contributing only a tiny fraction of 1% of the network’s total hash rate. This means your expected time to find a block could be measured in years, decades, or even centuries, depending on your hardware.
However, when you do find a block solo mining, you keep everything.
There are no pool fees, no sharing with other miners, and no pool operator taking a cut. You receive the full block reward directly from the Bitcoin protocol itself.
What Are Solo Mining Pools?
The term “solo mining pool” might sound contradictory, but these services offer an interesting middle ground. A solo mining pool provides the infrastructure and connectivity that helps you mine independently while still receiving the full block reward if you find a block.
Here’s how they work: instead of running your own full Bitcoin node and mining software, you connect your mining hardware to a solo mining pool’s servers. The pool provides you with work units to solve, validates your solutions, and submits any valid blocks you find to the Bitcoin network.
Critically, if you find a block, the pool distributes the entire reward to you alone, not to all pool members.
Solo mining pools typically charge a small fee, usually between 1 and 2 %, for this service. This fee covers their infrastructure costs and is significantly lower than traditional pool fees. The main advantage is convenience—you don’t need to run your own Bitcoin full node, maintain mining software, or handle the technical complexities of block validation and submission.
Popular solo mining pools include CK Pool’s solo mining option and several others in the mining ecosystem. They make solo mining accessible to people who want the thrill and potential of finding a full block without the technical overhead of running complete mining infrastructure.
Why Would Someone Choose Solo Mining?
Given the overwhelming odds against finding a block with modest hardware, why would anyone choose solo mining?
Several motivations drive this decision, ranging from philosophical to practical.
For some miners, solo mining represents the purest expression of Bitcoin’s decentralised ethos.
When Satoshi Nakamoto designed Bitcoin, the vision included individuals running nodes and mining independently. Solo miners keep this original spirit alive, demonstrating that Bitcoin remains accessible to individuals even as mining has industrialised.
There’s something deeply satisfying about potentially finding a block entirely through your own efforts, contributing directly to network security without intermediaries.
The financials can also favour solo mining in certain scenarios.
While your expected value over time is theoretically similar whether you mine solo or in a pool, solo mining eliminates pool fees entirely. If you’re patient and can afford to wait, you keep 100% of any block you find rather than paying 1% to 3% to a pool operator. For miners who view mining as a long-term lottery ticket rather than a consistent revenue source, this makes economic sense.
Some miners also solo mine as a hedge or for diversification.
An operation might direct most of its hash rate to pools for steady income but point a portion toward solo mining for the chance at a windfall. This strategy provides income stability while maintaining upside potential.
Finally, there’s the undeniable thrill factor.
Finding a Bitcoin block solo is like hitting a massive jackpot. At current prices, a single block is worth over $200,000. For hobbyist miners who aren’t depending on mining income, the excitement and possibility make solo mining an entertaining pursuit even if it’s statistically unlikely to pay off.
Even a semi-serious solo miner who nets a block could extend their runway to mine indefinitely, given their ultra-low cost basis and running costs.
The Risks and Realities of Solo Mining
Solo mining carries substantial risks that anyone considering this approach must understand clearly. The primary risk is opportunity cost. While your hardware hashes away, hoping for a block, you’re forgoing the steady income you could earn from pool mining. With a small mining operation, you might realistically go years without finding a block, during which your equipment depreciates, consumes electricity, and generates no income.
The variance risk is extreme.
Unlike pool mining, where your revenue closely tracks your hash rate contribution, solo mining is winner-takes-all. You could get extraordinarily lucky and find a block within days, or you could mine for your hardware’s entire operational lifetime without success. This variance makes solo mining unsuitable for anyone depending on mining revenue to pay bills or service equipment loans.
There’s also operational risk.
If your mining setup experiences downtime due to hardware failure, internet issues, or power outages, you lose potential chances to find blocks. Pool miners lose some expected revenue during downtime, but solo miners lose lottery tickets. Given that your probability of finding a block in any given moment is already infinitesimal, any downtime significantly reduces your already slim chances.
Equipment obsolescence represents another challenge.
Mining hardware becomes less competitive over time as more efficient models are released and network difficulty increases. A machine that gives you a one-in-ten-thousand chance of finding a block this year might have a one-in-fifty-thousand chance next year.
Solo miners race against this clock, hoping to find a block before their hardware becomes hopelessly outclassed.
Weighing the Pros and Cons
The advantages of solo mining include keeping 100% of block rewards with no pool fees, maintaining complete independence without relying on pool operators, supporting network decentralisation by running your own infrastructure, and experiencing the excitement of potentially finding a full block. For the right person with the right expectations, these benefits can be compelling.
The disadvantages are equally clear.
Income becomes highly unpredictable, with potentially years between payouts; you face a high risk of never finding a block during your hardware’s operational lifetime, regular income for covering expenses is essentially impossible, and significant technical knowledge is required to run nodes and mining software.
Additionally, small miners face infinitesimally small chances of success compared to industrial operations.
How to Start Solo Mining
If you’ve decided solo mining aligns with your goals and risk tolerance, getting started involves several steps.
First, you’ll need mining hardware—specifically Bitcoin ASIC miners, as GPU or CPU mining is completely obsolete for Bitcoin. Even a single modern ASIC miner represents a significant investment, typically thousands of dollars.
However, the growing pleb mining movement has started to provide cheaper options, so look into the BitAxe, NerdAxe, NerdMiner and other pleb mining projects.
These smaller miners are ideal for lottery mining operations since the hash rate they produce won’t net you very many hash rate shares in a pool, and your drip of Satoshis would be pretty tiny and take years to reach any payout threshold of a modern pool, even if they support Lightning payouts like OCEAN.
Next, you must run a Bitcoin full node.
This requires downloading and syncing the entire Bitcoin blockchain, which exceeds 650 GB and takes considerable time on initial setup. Your full node validates the entire blockchain and creates the block templates your mining hardware will attempt to solve. Popular node software includes Bitcoin Core, which is the reference implementation.
You’ll also need mining software that connects your ASIC hardware to your Bitcoin node. Software like Braiins, CGMiner or BFGMiner can coordinate your hardware and submit any valid blocks you find. Configuration requires technical knowledge about networking, command-line interfaces, and Bitcoin’s technical specifications.
Alternatively, you can use a solo mining pool like CK Pool’s solo option. This approach requires only that you configure your ASIC to point at the pool’s servers—much simpler than running your own full infrastructure. You sacrifice a small fee but gain significant convenience.
Finally, ensure you have reliable power and internet connectivity.
Mining hardware draws substantial electricity and must run continuously to have any chance of finding blocks. Budget for these operational costs carefully, as they represent ongoing expenses regardless of whether you find blocks.
The Solo Road
Bitcoin solo mining represents a high-risk, high-reward approach that appeals to those who value independence, support decentralisation, or enjoy the thrill of the chase.
You can think of it as buying a lottery ticket every 10 minutes. A lottery that would pay you non-KYC sats.
For most miners, especially those depending on mining revenue, pool mining makes far more economic sense.
However, if you accept the long-shot odds, can afford the uncertainty, and want to experience Bitcoin mining in its purest form, solo mining offers a unique way to help secure the network while maintaining the possibility—however remote—of claiming an entire block reward for yourself.
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