Solo mining with the Bitaxe – is it really worth it?

The honest answer up front: solo mining with a home miner is a lottery. A single Bitaxe contributes only a tiny fraction of the global computing power – the chance of finding a whole block on your own is very small. And yet tens of thousands of these devices run worldwide. In this guide we calmly work out what you can realistically expect, what operation costs and when solo mining is worth it anyway.

What does solo mining even mean?

With solo mining you try to find a complete Bitcoin block entirely on your own, instead of pooling your power with many others in a pool. If you find a block, you get the full reward; if you find none, there is nothing. It is all-or-nothing – with a very high jackpot and a very small stake.

The jackpot: a whole block

Whoever mines solo and actually finds a block collects the complete block reward of currently 3.125 BTC plus the transaction fees of the block – depending on the price, several hundred thousand euros. And yes, it happens: in recent years there have been several documented cases where a single solo miner found a block with a tiny device. It is exactly this lottery character that makes it appealing.

How high is the chance, concretely?

Let’s work it out. The global network hashrate is currently in the order of several hundred exahashes per second. Assuming around 800 EH/s, a Bitaxe with 1 TH/s contributes about one 800-millionth of the total computing power. Statistically it therefore finds on average:

• Bitaxe Gamma (~1.3 TH/s): one block roughly every ~12,000 years.
• NerdQaxe ++ (~4.8 TH/s): roughly every ~3,000 years.
• NerdOctaxe (~12 TH/s): roughly every ~1,300 years.

Important: these are statistical averages, not waiting times. Every single block is a new roll of the dice – in theory it can hit you tomorrow or never. And the values shift with the network difficulty, which rises over the long term. More on this in Lottery miner explained.

What does operation cost?

The stake for this lottery is manageable – it is essentially the electricity. At an electricity price of 30 ct/kWh you get roughly:

• Bitaxe Gamma (~15 W): around €3–4 of electricity per month.
• NerdQaxe ++ (~80 W): around €17 per month.
• NerdOctaxe (~200 W): around €44 per month.
• A nice side effect in winter: the waste heat helps heat the room.

The exact formula and more examples are in Calculating electricity costs for Bitcoin mining.

Solo or rather pool?

Whoever does not want a lottery but regular, predictable mini payouts runs the device in a classic pool instead. Then you get paid proportionally to your performance. The downside: with a single tiny device these payouts are often below the electricity costs. With solo you give up the regular cent amounts in favor of the small chance of the big hit. Both ways are more hobby than investment – how that adds up is shown in Calculating mining profitability realistically.

Most people run a home miner not as an investment but as a hobby: to support the network, understand the technology and have a piece of real decentralization standing at home.

Our honest conclusion

As an investment a single miner is no good – anyone hoping for a sure profit will be disappointed. As a cheap, educational and surprisingly exciting hobby that lets you actively take part in the Bitcoin network, it is hard to beat. More hashrate noticeably improves the chance but changes nothing about the lottery principle. Approach it with realistic expectations and solo mining is the most fun. The right entry is the Bitaxe Gamma 601; more block chance is offered by the NerdOctaxe.