In a surprising turn of events, a Bitcoin mining device known as Bitaxe, with a modest hashrate of 500 gigahashes per second (Gh/s), managed to successfully mine a block on July 24. This remarkable feat earned the lucky miner a substantial reward of $206,000 in Bitcoin. The device, produced by D-Central Technologies, is surprisingly compact, approximately the size of a human hand, as demonstrated in a video on the popular YouTube channel “How Much?”
The astounding accomplishment of the Bitaxe device was quickly confirmed by the Bitcoin mining device retailer Altair Technology via an X post. The specific block, numbered 853742, was mined at 11:43 am UTC on July 24, resulting in a reward valuation of approximately $206,000 based on the current BTC price. The blockchain data from Solo CKPool further revealed that a total of 2,652.36 BTC worth $176,896,079 were transacted in the block, with the average transaction amounting to 0.6093 BTC worth $40,636.53.
Interestingly, the Bitaxe device was connected to Solo CKPool, a node infrastructure service that allows miners to mine solo, providing an alternative to directly mining to a Bitcoin core node. Despite its name, Solo CKPool is not a traditional mining pool. The service earned a total reward of 3.13 BTC worth $208,751, including transaction fees from 4,353 transactions included in the block.
To put the impressive success of the Bitaxe device into perspective, the current total hash power of the entire Bitcoin network is a staggering 551.30 exahashes per second (Eh/s), equivalent to 551,303,337,631,415,300,000 H/s. This immense figure is approximately 1.1 billion times more powerful than the Bitaxe device. Therefore, the device’s odds of mining a block every ten minutes were an astonishing 1 in 1.1 billion, highlighting the rarity and significance of this achievement.
Bitcoin mining is widely recognized for its energy-intensive nature, with miners facing significant electricity costs regardless of their mining success. Engaging in solo Bitcoin mining is akin to participating in a high-stakes lottery, where the financial risk is considerable. However, for the fortunate miner behind the Bitaxe device, the gamble undeniably paid off, showcasing the unpredictable and potentially rewarding nature of the cryptocurrency mining industry.