Once 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 assumed was humorous on the time since I didn’t have the assets to mine BTC in highschool.) However immediately, 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 system that lets you hook up with a mining pool or solo mine by yourself.
nik CAN mine pic.twitter.com/Mv1OuTyvBM
— Nikolaus (@nikcantmine) October 8, 2024
Organising the system was pretty straightforward. Tinkering with it was enjoyable and being able to carry a miner within the palm of my hand felt fairly cypherpunk. It appears like a cool method 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 immediately to profitably mine BTC immediately. However solo mining with this machine is the place issues get a bit fascinating.
Earlier this summer time, a Bitaxe solo miner really beat the chances and mined a solo block, incomes the block reward of three.25 BTC presently 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 constantly 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 presently 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 chances of discovering a block with this little hash fee 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 assumed why not plug it in and see what occurs? I’ll take care of the facility invoice later after I see how a lot it’s, and re-evaluate if that is value it to maintain working. Having used it, I in all probability wouldn’t buy one primarily based on the economics of it alone, since I wouldn’t be capable to make my a reimbursement except I hit the lottery. However I might perhaps buy one simply to have as a enjoyable toy.
The chances of me discovering a block is 0.001% per day, nevertheless it truthfully simply feels enjoyable to have working in hopes of discovering a solo block. I can maintain my Bitaxe working 24/7 if I wish to, because it solely requires a 5-volt energy twine plugged into a standard 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 fascinated with how cool it might be to win a solo block mining with this and have that BTC reward despatched to a model new bitcoin pockets.
This may imply there is no such thing as a public report of me receiving both the Bitaxe or Coldcard (other than this text), and I’d have some candy KYC-free Bitcoin.
This text is a Take. Opinions expressed are completely the writer’s and don’t essentially replicate these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.