Is solo mining more profitable than pooled?

No. Over the long run they pay the same — your cut of all the bitcoin mined tracks your share of network hashrate, fees aside, so the expected value is equal. The only real difference is variance: pooled trickles steadily, solo is all-or-nothing.

Do the odds of finding a block change between pools?

No. Block-finding odds are identical on every solo pool, and identical to mining truly solo. A pool only changes the fee, the payout style and the network latency. It never changes your luck.

If I solo mine, do I keep the whole block reward?

Yes. Solve a block and you keep the full reward — currently 3.125 BTC plus that block's transaction fees — minus only the pool's on-block fee. On SoloLuck that fee is 2%, taken as a single coinbase output and only when you actually win.

Can a small miner like a Bitaxe realistically find a block?

Realistically, almost never. At today's difficulty a single small miner might expect a block roughly once in thousands of years. It could still happen tomorrow — that is the whole point of the lottery. Run your exact hashrate through the odds calculator for an honest number.

Is my balance safe — can the pool run off with it?

On SoloLuck there is no balance to run off with. It is non-custodial: your bitcoin address is your username, and a solved block pays straight to that address on-chain. We never hold your coins.

SoloLuck

Solo vs pooled mining

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Solo vs pooled, in one breath

Same lottery, different ticket. Pooled mining pays you a steady trickle for the work your machine does — small, predictable, smoothed out. Solo mining pays you nothing, over and over, right up until the day your machine alone solves a block and keeps the whole reward.

The odds of solving a block are identical either way. A pool only changes how the winnings get sliced up, the fee it takes, and how far your shares have to travel. Everything below is really about one thing: variance.

How pooled mining works

In a pool, thousands of miners point their hashrate at one operator. Each machine submits shares — proof it's doing the work — and gets paid in proportion, whether or not it personally found the block.

Steady income. You're paid for shares, not for luck. The cheque is small, but it actually arrives.
Low variance. When the pool finds a block, everyone who contributed gets a cut. You effectively own a thin sliver of many blocks, instead of all of one.
A fee. Usually 1–3%, deducted continuously, or only when the pool finds a block.
Custody varies. Many pools hold your balance until you hit a payout threshold — that's a wallet you don't control.

For anyone treating mining as income, this is the rational choice. The numbers are boring, and that is exactly the point.

How solo mining works

Solo, your machine races the entire network on its own. No shares-for-pay, no slices. If you assemble the winning block, you keep the full reward — currently 3.125 BTC plus the block's transaction fees — minus only whatever the pool charges on that one block.

If you don't, you get nothing. Not a smaller payout — nothing. That's the deal, and it is the whole appeal: solo mining is a lottery, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

A "solo pool" sounds like a contradiction. It isn't. The pool just handles the plumbing — block templates, network relay, paying you on-chain — while every machine still mines entirely for itself. No hashrate is ever shared.

The math: same expected value, very different variance

Here's the part people get wrong. Over the long run, solo and pooled pay the same — your share of all the bitcoin mined is set by your share of the network's hashrate, full stop. Fees aside, the expected value is equal.

What changes is the shape of the payout:

Trait	Pooled	Solo
Payout	Frequent, tiny	Rare, enormous
Variance	Low — smoothed	Brutal — all-or-nothing
Expected value	Baseline	The same, minus fees
Usual result	Small steady income	Most never solve a block

A small miner — a Bitaxe, say — might statistically expect one block once in thousands of years at today's difficulty. It could land tomorrow, or never. Want the real figure for your hashrate? The odds calculator does the sum honestly.

So which should you actually pick?

Be honest with yourself about what you're after.

You want income. Pool. Every time. Solo's average return is the same, but you may wait several lifetimes to collect it. Don't mine solo with rent money.
You want the lottery. Solo. A cheap miner running solo is a bitcoin lottery ticket that also gently warms the room — and unlike a real ticket, it keeps playing 24/7.
You believe in decentralisation. Solo. Every independent solo miner is one more party who could build the next block, instead of a handful of giant pools deciding what goes in it. That's worth something beyond money.
You have a specific reason. Tax treatment of one lump versus a stream, heat you'd be generating anyway, hardware you already own, or you just like the idea. All valid.

There's no shame in either. There's only the wrong tool for the wrong goal.

Solo mining on SoloLuck

If solo is your game, SoloLuck is built for exactly this — true per-miner solo on ckpool -B, with nothing shared between miners.

Non-custodial. Your bitcoin address is your username. Solve a block and the reward is paid straight to that address on-chain. We never hold your coins.
2% only on a win. The fee is a single coinbase output, taken only from a block you actually solve. No block, no fee — 0% the rest of the time.
Close to home. Our Jakarta node sits roughly 6 ms from much of Indonesia and Asia, versus ~250 ms to US pools — fewer stale shares, less wasted work.
Pick a tier: :3335 Nano, :3333 Lite, :8081 Standard, :4334 Pro, :3334 TLS — all on host stratum.sololuck.io. Username is your bc1 address, password is anything.

Remember: the odds are the same on every solo pool on earth — a pool only changes the fee, the payout style and the latency. Run the numbers in the odds calculator, see how we stack up on /compare, then point your miner using /setup.

Full disclosure: no block has been solved here yet, and most of the hashrate so far is the operator's own test rigs. We'll keep saying so until that changes.

Ready to take a ticket?

Paste your address and copy the config from /setup, watch the pool on /status, and check every claim on /verify. Mine to your own address — that is what makes it truly solo.

Get the setup config →

Not ready to point a miner yet? Run your gear through the odds calculator, or join Telegram for block & record alerts — no rig required.

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