What Is Solo Mining?
Solo mining is the act of mining cryptocurrency completely on your own, without joining a mining pool. Instead of combining your hashpower with thousands of other miners and splitting the rewards, you point your hardware directly at the blockchain network and attempt to find blocks independently.
When you solo mine, the math is simple: if you find a block, you keep the entire reward. No pool fees. No shared payouts. Just you and the blockchain.
Solo mining is the purest form of cryptocurrency mining — one miner, one node, one chance at the full block reward.
How Does Solo Mining Work?
Every proof-of-work blockchain operates on the same fundamental principle: miners compete to solve a cryptographic puzzle. The first miner to find a valid solution (called a nonce) that produces a hash below the network’s difficulty target gets to add the next block to the chain and collect the reward.
Here’s what happens when you solo mine:
- Your mining hardware generates billions of hash attempts per second (your hashrate)
- Each attempt is essentially a lottery ticket — a random guess at the correct nonce
- If your hash meets the difficulty target, you’ve found a valid block
- The block reward (plus transaction fees) goes entirely to your wallet
- If someone else finds it first, the race resets and you start over
The key difference from pool mining is that there’s no middleman. Your miner connects to a full node (which you typically run yourself), and every block you find is 100% yours.
Solo Mining vs Pool Mining
Understanding the tradeoff between solo and pool mining is critical for making an informed decision.
Pool Mining: Steady and Predictable
In a mining pool, thousands of miners combine their hashpower. When anyone in the pool finds a block, the reward is divided proportionally based on each miner’s contribution. You earn small, frequent payments — but you also pay pool fees (typically 1–3%) and you’re trusting the pool operator to distribute rewards fairly.
Solo Mining: High Risk, Maximum Reward
With solo mining, you either find a full block or you earn nothing. There’s no in-between. The variance is enormous — you might find a block in a day, or you might mine for years without finding one. But when you do hit a block, the payout can be life-changing.
Consider this: A single Bitcoin block reward in 2026 is 3.125 BTC. At current prices, that’s a significant windfall — and it’s all yours if you’re mining solo.
The Quick Comparison
| Aspect | Solo Mining | Pool Mining |
|---|---|---|
| Reward per block | 100% of block reward | Proportional share |
| Fees | None | 1–3% pool fee |
| Payout frequency | Very rare (luck-dependent) | Regular and predictable |
| Variance | Extremely high | Low |
| Trust required | None — you run your own node | Trust the pool operator |
| Privacy | Maximum — only you know your hashrate | Pool knows your hashrate and wallet |
| Setup complexity | Higher — need a full node | Lower — just point your miner at a pool |
The Math Behind Solo Mining
Your probability of finding a block is determined by a simple ratio: your hashrate divided by the total network hashrate.
If the Bitcoin network hashrate is 800 EH/s (exahashes per second) and your ASIC does 100 TH/s (terahashes per second), your share of the network is:
100 TH/s ÷ 800,000,000 TH/s = 0.000000125 (0.0000125%)
That’s your probability of finding any given block. Over a period of time, we calculate the probability of finding at least one block using:
P(≥1 block) = 1 − (1 − p)^n
Where p is your per-block probability and n is the number of blocks in the time period.
This is exactly the formula we use in the I Will Solo calculator — plug in your hashrate and see your real odds instantly.
Which Cryptocurrencies Can You Solo Mine?
Not all cryptocurrencies are practical to solo mine. The feasibility depends heavily on the network difficulty and your available hardware.
Realistic Solo Mining Targets
- Monero (XMR) — CPU-mineable with RandomX algorithm. One of the most accessible coins for solo miners since ASICs can’t dominate the network
- Kaspa (KAS) — kHeavyHash algorithm with relatively lower network difficulty. Growing community of solo miners
- Ravencoin (RVN) — KAWPOW algorithm designed for GPU mining. Active solo mining community
- Zcash (ZEC) — Equihash algorithm. Possible with ASIC hardware
The Long Shots (But Still Possible)
- Bitcoin (BTC) — Requires serious ASIC power. The odds are astronomical, but solo miners have found blocks with as little as a single S19 — it just took extreme luck
- Litecoin (LTC) — Scrypt algorithm. Feasible with ASIC miners, though the network is large
- Ethereum Classic (ETC) — ETChash algorithm. GPU-mineable with decent odds for medium-size farms
How to Get Started with Solo Mining
Step 1: Choose Your Coin
Pick a cryptocurrency that matches your hardware. CPUs work best for Monero, GPUs for Ravencoin and ETC, and ASICs for Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Kaspa.
Step 2: Run a Full Node
Solo mining requires a full node for the coin you want to mine. This means downloading the entire blockchain and keeping it synchronized. For Bitcoin, that’s over 500 GB of data. For Monero, it’s around 150 GB.
Step 3: Configure Your Miner
Point your mining software at your local node instead of a pool URL. The exact configuration depends on the coin and mining software you’re using, but the principle is the same — your miner submits work directly to your node.
Step 4: Set Up Your Wallet
Make sure you have a wallet address configured to receive the block reward. When (not if!) you find a block, the reward will be sent to this address.
Step 5: Monitor and Wait
Solo mining is a patience game. Set up monitoring to track your hashrate and any blocks found. Then let your hardware run — and hope that luck is on your side.
Is Solo Mining Worth It in 2026?
The honest answer: it depends on your goals.
If you’re mining purely for profit and need consistent income, pool mining is almost always the rational choice. The variance of solo mining means you could spend months (or years) earning nothing.
But if you’re in it for the dream — the chance to find a full block and keep every satoshi, every coin, every fee — then solo mining is the way to go. It’s the crypto equivalent of buying a lottery ticket, except you get to watch the draw happen billions of times per second.
Who Should Solo Mine?
- Hobbyists who enjoy the process and aren’t relying on mining income
- Privacy-focused miners who don’t want to share their hashrate data with a pool
- Optimists and dreamers who believe in the power of probability
- Miners with significant hashpower who have a reasonable shot at finding blocks regularly
- Idealists who believe in the decentralization of mining and want to run their own node
Calculate Your Solo Mining Odds
Ready to see your actual odds? Head over to the I Will Solo calculator and enter your hashrate. We support Bitcoin, Monero, Litecoin, Kaspa, Ravencoin, Zcash, and Ethereum Classic — with real-time network data and instant results.
All calculations happen in your browser. No data is ever sent to our servers. It’s just math — fast, private, and transparent.
Happy mining! ⛏️