One in a Billion: Tiny Bitcoin Mining Device Defies Odds, Earns $206,000 Block Reward

A Bitcoin mining device with a hashrate of only 500 gigahashes per second (Gh/s) managed to mine a block on July 24, earning a reward of $206,000 in Bitcoin.

This event stands out given that the device has only a 1 in 1.1 billion chance of achieving this approximately every ten minutes.

$206,000 Block Reward

The device, named “Bitaxe,” is produced by D-Central Technologies and is approximately the size of a human hand, as showcased by the YouTube channel “How Much?”

The accomplishment was confirmed by Bitcoin mining device retailer Altair Technology through an X post.

🏆Congratulations to the miner who likely mined the first solo BTC block with a Bitaxe on @ckpooldev with ~500 Gh hashrate!

👏Props to @skot9000, @Public_Pool_BTC & @osmu_global on the project!

You can buy these proven winners here👇
🛒https://t.co/fiEPh4pRA8#WeMineBitcoin pic.twitter.com/C6D9Jj1HlR

— Altair Technology® ⛏️ (@altair_tech) July 24, 2024

On July 24, at 11:43 am UTC, Bitcoin block number 853742 was mined, earning the lucky miner a reward worth approximately $206,000 based on the current BTC price. Blockchain data from Solo CKPool revealed that a total of 2,652.36 BTC worth $176,896,079 were sent in the block, with the average transaction being 0.6093 BTC worth $40,636.53.

Solo CKPool, the node infrastructure service to which the Bitaxe was connected, earned a total reward of 3.13 BTC worth $208,751, including an additional 0.0675 BTC worth $4,501.83 paid as transaction fees from 4,353 transactions included in the block.

Solo CKPool, as described on its website, provides “a service to allow miners to mine solo as you cannot mine directly to a Bitcoin core node.” It also emphasizes that the service is not a traditional mining pool despite its name.

1 in 1.1 Billion Odds

To put this situation into perspective, according to Bitcoin analytics platform CoinWarz, the current total hash power of the Bitcoin network stands at 551.30 exahashes per second (Eh/s), which is equivalent to 551,303,337,631,415,300,000 H/s.

This figure equates to approximately 1.1 billion times the power of the Bitaxe device. Thus, the device’s chances of mining a block roughly every ten minutes were a mere 1 in 1.1 billion.

Bitcoin mining is notoriously energy-intensive, with miners incurring electricity costs regardless of whether they successfully mine a block. This financial burden makes solo Bitcoin mining similar to a high-stakes lottery. However, for this fortunate solo miner, the gamble has undoubtedly paid off.