A solo Bitcoin miner beat extreme odds on December 18 by successfully mining an entire Bitcoin block after renting hashpower through the NiceHash marketplace, according to blockchain data.
The miner discovered Bitcoin block 928,351, earning the full block reward plus transaction fees. The total payout came to around $271,000, despite the miner spending only about $86 to rent hashpower for the attempt.
Because the block was mined outside of a mining pool, the entire reward went to the individual miner. In most cases, miners work together in pools and share rewards, but this miner chose to go solo—and won.
That outcome is extremely rare.
Today, Bitcoin mining is dominated by large industrial operations running massive facilities filled with specialized hardware. These companies control most of the network’s computing power, making it incredibly difficult for small or solo miners to compete.
Due to the high network difficulty, solo mining usually results in no reward at all. That’s why most miners join pools, which provide smaller but more consistent payouts over time.
Still, Bitcoin’s design allows anyone to mine a block, regardless of size or resources, as long as they follow the network’s rules. Block rewards are based purely on computational work, not identity or capital.
NiceHash plays a key role in this story. The platform allows users to rent hashpower without owning any physical mining equipment. Buyers pay sellers who already operate mining hardware, making it possible for anyone to try mining—even for a short time.
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty adjusts roughly every two weeks, depending on how much computing power is securing the network. Current difficulty levels reflect the massive scale of global mining operations.
This isn’t the first unlikely win. In November, another solo miner using just six terahashes per second successfully mined a block, earning nearly $265,000.
These rare events show that while solo mining is usually a long shot, Bitcoin’s system still allows for unexpected victories—where even a small player can, once in a while, beat the odds.
