Solo mining

In plain words

Solo mining means competing for blocks with your own machines, no pool. Win, and the whole reward is yours — no fees, no permission, no one to trust. But weigh it: one modern machine against the world's entire hashrate wins a block, on average, once in decades. Solo mining is a lottery where you hold every ticket you paid for. Some people run one machine on principle, expecting nothing. Every so often, one of them wins.

Why it matters

• No pool fees, no pool's payout rules, no middleman between you and the protocol.
• Variance is brutal: income arrives as rare whole-block jackpots or not at all.
• Solo blocks still happen — small miners do occasionally beat the odds.

Not to be confused with

• Mining pool — thousands share the work and split rewards into steady drips.

Go deeper

• Mining pool
• Proof of work
• Hashrate