After I first got here onto the Bitcoin scene in 2017, I had modified my Twitter (now X) deal with to “@nikcantmine.” (It was a joke I believed was humorous on the time since I didn’t have the sources to mine BTC in highschool.) However right now, I formally grew to become “nik CAN mine”.
The opposite week I acquired gifted a Bitaxe, a completely open supply (and really small) bitcoin miner, whereas attending the Human Rights Basis’s Bitcoin Summit in Nashville. It’s a reasonably neat gadget that permits you to hook up with a mining pool or solo mine by yourself.
nik CAN mine pic.twitter.com/Mv1OuTyvBM
— Nikolaus (@nikcantmine) October 8, 2024
Establishing the gadget was pretty simple. Tinkering with it was enjoyable and being able to carry a miner within the palm of my hand felt fairly cypherpunk. It seems like a cool technique to introduce somebody to mining on a really small scale.
After all, by connecting this miner to a pool, I wouldn’t stand to achieve any actual revenue, as this miner is negligible in comparison with what energy is definitely wanted right now to profitably mine BTC right now. However solo mining with this machine is the place issues get a bit attention-grabbing.
Earlier this summer season, a Bitaxe solo miner truly beat the percentages and mined a solo block, incomes the block reward of three.25 BTC at present value over $205,000.
Congratulations to miner with the primary bitaxe block, solely a tiny 3TH for locating the 290th solo block on solo ckpool! This a lot hashrate solely would discover a block as soon as each 3500 YEARS on common, or 1 in 1.2 MILLION likelihood per day! https://t.co/5Wtu9jydsF pic.twitter.com/D5sSzug42P
— Dr -ck (@ckpooldev) July 24, 2024
Knowledge exhibits this miner had mined persistently with 500Gh/s value of hashrate for weeks, after which had elevated its hashrate as much as 3TH proper earlier than the block was discovered. Which considerably encourages me understanding that my Bitaxe is at present mining at over 634Gh/s.
However I’m not getting my hopes up, contemplating I don’t have extra hashrate so as to add and the percentages of discovering a block with this little hash charge is round 1 in 1.2 million per day, in line with the Solo Ckpool admin, Dr -ck.
Nonetheless, I acquired this machine free of charge, so I believed why not plug it in and see what occurs? I’ll cope with the ability invoice later once I see how a lot it’s, and re-evaluate if that is value it to maintain operating. Having used it, I in all probability wouldn’t buy one primarily based on the economics of it alone, since I wouldn’t have the ability to make my a refund until I hit the lottery. However I might possibly buy one simply to have as a enjoyable toy.
The percentages of me discovering a block is 0.001% per day, but it surely truthfully simply feels enjoyable to have operating in hopes of discovering a solo block. I can maintain my Bitaxe operating 24/7 if I wish to, because it solely requires a 5-volt energy wire plugged into a traditional electrical socket to function. I’ve acquired it arrange proper right here on my desk subsequent to my monitor.
Along with a brand new Coldcard Q I simply acquired, I couldn’t cease serious about how cool it will be to win a solo block mining with this and have that BTC reward despatched to a model new bitcoin pockets.
This might imply there is no such thing as a public file of me receiving both the Bitaxe or Coldcard (aside from this text), and I’d have some candy KYC-free Bitcoin.
This text is a Take. Opinions expressed are fully the writer’s and don’t essentially mirror these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.