Solo Bitcoin Miner Hits the Jackpot With $222,000 Reward

Bitcoin mining has become increasingly difficult, but solo Bitcoin miners are having a great year. On Thursday, an individual miner processed a block on the largest cryptocurrency's network, taking home 3.329 Bitcoin in total, worth $222,438 as a reward. Bitcoin mining is the energy-intensive job of processing blocks on the cryptocurrency's network, which are full of transaction data and are part of the Bitcoin blockchain. When blocks are processed, miners are given newly minted coins, a 3.125 BTC fixed reward, along with transaction fees paid by those using the network during that particular block window.

Bitcoin mining became harder in April when the network underwent its quadrennial halving event, which cuts miner rewards in half every four years. Miners now have to work harder and receive less Bitcoin for their work. Before the halving event in April, miners received 6.25 Bitcoin for each block they processed. Since the first Bitcoin halving in 2012, the coin has boomed, up 548,604% to a current price around $67,650.

Solo miners do exist and occasionally get lucky and process a block by themselves. This year, solo miners have won big in April, July, August, and September ahead of Thursday's individual haul.