Another solo Bitcoin miner scored big Monday, mining a block and bagging a 3.125 BTC reward without the help of a major company’s resources. 

As first flagged by journalist Pete Rizzo, an unknown miner on Monday processed Bitcoin block 883,181. The block contained 3,071 transactions and the miner received a payout of 3.125 BTC, as well as 0.033 BTC in fees. 

That’s a grand total of 3.158 BTC. At Bitcoin's price of about $98,300 per coin at the time of the block win, that adds up to a reward of around $310,000.

It isn’t clear how the miner managed to mine the block, but some speculated on X (formerly Twitter) that they may have used a $200 hobby machine. 

Bitcoin miners are operations that work to process transactions and keep the Bitcoin network secure.

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Mining Bitcoin gets gradually harder—and more energy-intensive—as the years go on, and therefore requires more resources.

Most blocks mined on a day-to-day basis are done via huge industrial operations: warehouses full of expensive and noisy mining machines run by companies, many of which are public ones trading on U.S. stock exchanges.

Image: PalSand/Shutterstock

Did a $400 Bitcoin Mining Rig Really Just Mine a $330K Reward? Not Exactly

It’s what every Bitcoiner dreams of: buying a cheap hobby miner, processing a block with little effort (or energy), and taking home the jackpot.  And that’s what initially appeared to happen this week, when journalist Pete Rizzo flagged on X (formerly Twitter) that a solo miner using just a cheap home machine (valued at about $400) managed to mine a block and take home a reward of 3.125 Bitcoin—worth almost $330,000 at today’s prices.  But the reality is perhaps a bit more complicated than appea...

NewsCoins
3 min read
Mat Di Salvo

But every so often, a “solo miner” may get lucky and mine a block. The chances of doing this, though, are slim—and it has become a bit like winning the lottery.

Just last month, a solo miner managed to mine a block using an old, cheap machine—but it later emerged that the operation had received hash power from a bigger, more established miner to help do the work.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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