Solo Mining: What It Is, Why It’s Rare, and What You Need to Know

When you hear solo mining, the practice of validating Bitcoin blocks using your own hardware without joining a mining pool. Also known as individual mining, it’s the original way Bitcoin was mined—back when a regular computer could find a block and earn the reward. Today, it’s like trying to win the lottery with one ticket while millions of others are buying thousands.

Hash rate, the total computing power used to mine Bitcoin and secure the network has exploded since 2013. Back then, a single CPU could mine a block in days. Now, the entire network runs at over 800 exahashes per second. That means if you’re using even the most powerful ASIC miners, specialized hardware built only for Bitcoin mining, your chances of finding a block alone are less than 1 in 10 million per day. The mining difficulty, a self-adjusting measure that makes mining harder as more power joins the network resets every two weeks to keep Bitcoin blocks coming every 10 minutes—no matter how many miners show up. That’s why solo mining is practically a gamble now. You could spend $5,000 on hardware and wait years for a payout—or never get one at all.

Most people who try solo mining don’t realize how much electricity and patience it eats. A single ASIC miner might use as much power as a fridge. If your electricity costs $0.15 per kWh, you’re burning $10–$15 a day just to keep the machine running. And if you don’t find a block for six months, you’ve lost thousands without seeing a single Bitcoin. Mining pools fix this by combining hundreds or thousands of miners. They share rewards based on how much work each person contributed. You get small, steady payments instead of waiting for a miracle. It’s not glamorous, but it works.

There are still people who mine solo—not because they expect to get rich, but because they believe in the original idea of Bitcoin: decentralized, individual control. Some run solo miners as a hobby, a test of endurance, or a way to verify the network without trusting a third party. But if you’re looking to earn Bitcoin reliably, solo mining is like trying to fill a swimming pool with a teaspoon. You might do it eventually, but you’ll be exhausted before you finish.

Below, you’ll find real-world reviews and breakdowns of mining tools, exchange restrictions, and crypto projects that touch on mining—some of them direct, others indirect. You’ll see how hash rate changes affect rewards, why pools dominate the space, and how regulations in places like Venezuela and Russia force miners to adapt. Whether you’re curious about the math behind mining difficulty or wondering if your old GPU can still do anything, these posts cut through the noise and show you what actually matters today.