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On January 30, 2025, crypto influencers celebrated a “solo miner” who allegedly solved a Bitcoin block alone, claiming a 3.146 BTC reward ($330,000). The narrative unraveled hours later. Source: X The miner’s 881 Ph/s hashrate—enough to compete with industrial pools—came from 300+ donors in a 10-hour fundraiser organized by the 256 Foundation, a non-profit fighting mining centralization. Bitcoin Mining’s Impossible Odds In 2009, miners solved blocks with laptops earning 50 BTC rewards. Bitcoin mining difficulty has since surged 90 trillion times. Today, producing one block demands 3.125 BTC ($330,000) and a 1-in-560 trillion chance per hash attempt. By 2025, mining pools control 95% of Bitcoin’s hashrate (Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance). Solo miners face near-zero success odds without costly ASICs—machines costing $10,000+ each. – Advertisement – Yet the 256 Foundation’s event proved decentralized mining isn’t dead. Just crowdsourced. Source: X The 256 Foundation, launched in February 2024, aims to “dismantle proprietary mining empires.” Its January 30 fundraiser pooled hashrate from 350+ participants using FutureBit Apollo rigs—$400 devices designed for home mining. For 10 hours, contributors directed their combined 881 Ph/s (0.05% of Bitcoin’s total hashrate) to a single address. The strategy worked: they solved block 836,201, earning 3.146 BTC. Industrial mining dominates Bitcoin. Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms alone control 6% of the network. Their factories house thousands of ASICs, each generating 140 TH/s—350,000x faster than FutureBit’s Apollo. But centralized power risks security. A 2023 report warned that three pools could theoretically collude to attack Bitcoin (MIT Technology Review). The 256 Foundation’s open-source tools aim to redistribute hashrate, even marginally. The fundraiser echoed Bitcoin’s early days. In 2011, hobbyists mined with GPUs; a Starcraft 2 tournament even awarded 25 BTC ($0.30 at the time) as a booby prize. By 2013, ASICs erased DIY mining. Source: X FutureBit’s Apollo rigs, launched…

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Filed under: News - @ February 1, 2025 10:17 am