A solo miner working through Braiins Solo discovered block 966351 and collected the entire block reward of 3.147 BTC, worth approximately $244,920. The win came after nearly 40 days without a solo block on the Bitcoin network.
Braiins CEO Eli Nagar acknowledged the achievement on social media, highlighting the rarity of solo mining victories in the current network environment.
Solo Mining in a Dominated Landscape
Bitcoin mining today is heavily concentrated among major pools. The five largest pools—Foundry, Antpool, F2pool, ViaBTC, and Spiderpool—command approximately 78.31% of the network's total hashrate, while all other miners share roughly 20%.
Solo mining presents a stark contrast to pool mining. In pool mining, participants contribute computing power and receive payouts based on their contribution when the pool discovers a block. Solo mining, by comparison, offers no reward unless the individual miner discovers a complete block themselves.
Two Paths to Solo Mining
Solo miners can operate in two ways. The first involves running a Bitcoin node independently, constructing custom block templates, and managing the necessary infrastructure without external assistance. The second relies on solo mining services such as Solo CKPool or Braiins Solo, which provide technical infrastructure while miners retain all block rewards.
The Previous Solo Victory
The previous solo block discovery occurred on August 2 at block height 960804, when a miner using Solo CKPool collected 3.1569 BTC. That victory marked the network's last solo win prior to the current one.
