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 believed was humorous on the time since I didn’t have the assets to mine BTC in highschool.) However at present, I formally turned “nik CAN mine”.
The opposite week I bought 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
Establishing the system 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 option to introduce somebody to mining on a really small scale.
In fact, by connecting this miner to a pool, I wouldn’t stand to realize any actual revenue, as this miner is negligible in comparison with what energy is definitely wanted at present to profitably mine BTC at present. However solo mining with this machine is the place issues get a bit attention-grabbing.
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 at present price 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 probability per day! https://t.co/5Wtu9jydsF pic.twitter.com/D5sSzug42P
— Dr -ck (@ckpooldev) July 24, 2024
Knowledge reveals this miner had mined persistently with 500Gh/s price 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 chances 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 bought this machine totally free, so I believed why not plug it in and see what occurs? I’ll take care of the ability invoice later once I see how a lot it’s, and re-evaluate if that is price 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 be capable of make my a refund until I hit the lottery. However I’d possibly buy one simply to have as a enjoyable toy.
The percentages of me discovering a block is 0.001% per day, however it actually simply feels enjoyable to have operating in hopes of discovering a solo block. I can maintain my Bitaxe operating 24/7 if I need to, because it solely requires a 5-volt energy twine plugged into a standard electrical socket to function. I’ve bought it arrange proper right here on my desk subsequent to my monitor.
Along with a brand new Coldcard Q I simply bought, I couldn’t cease enthusiastic about how cool it could 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 isn’t any 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 solely the creator’s and don’t essentially replicate these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.