A Bitcoin (BTC) miner from the Solo CK mining pool single-handedly mined a new block on the Bitcoin blockchain at block level 720,175 on Monday, earning a block reward of 6.25 BTC (over US$220,000 at the current rate).

In solo mining, a single miner attempts to validate blocks without joining other miners in a mining pool to do so. In doing so, this miner operates an entire blockchain node itself. If one cannot show a large hashrate, the probability of validating a block is extremely low. To increase the chances and reduce the costs associated with solo mining, miners usually join together in pools to pool their hash power and thus increase the chances of validating a block. If successful, the block reward is shared.

According to a tweet by CKPool administrator Con Kolivas, this solo miner had a hash performance of about 86 terahashes per second. Hash performance determines the computational speed at which a computer performs the cryptographic functions required to mine cryptocurrencies and validate a block in proof-of-work blockchains like Bitcoin. The miner had less hash power than a single S9 mining device. The processing power is so low that it is very unlikely that a block can be mined with it.

However, it is worth noting that just a fortnight ago a solo miner from the solo CK mining pool also managed to solve a valid block. Despite its name, CKPool is not a conventional mining pool, but a service that enables solo mining. In doing so, however, it saves itself the costs and efforts associated with operating a full Bitcoin node.