A miner with a fairly inexpensive setup won 6.25 bitcoins, or around 200,000 euros. He solved a valid block without anyone’s help and won the full reward. Its configuration is based on nine USB keys created to mine cryptocurrencies. He is the third in a few weeks to win a nice sum.
Earlier this month, we reported in our columns that an American had managed to buy just under 80 GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards, those that are particularly hard to find, in order to mine cryptocurrencies. He completed this set with 65 GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. It will have cost him all the same $56,000. According to the miner, this amazing configuration dubbed Berta 2 would be Profitable within 4 to 6 months. And all this in the midst of a shortage of graphics cards and electronic components.
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Of course, spending $56,000 all at once to design an extremely powerful mining rig is not for everyone. There are many opportunists who want to mine cryptocurrencies, but do not have the financial means to align themselves. For them, there are more affordable, but less powerful solutions. This is the case of Gekkoscience Compac F. It is a small computing unit whose power is 200 gigahashes per second, but which can reach 350 gigahashes when overclocked. It costs $250.
This lucky miner won the jackpot with USB keys
Some miners therefore adopt these Compac Fs. They buy a bunch of them and connect them via USB to one or more bases designed to power and control them (the base costs around 90 dollars). This is the case of a minor equipped with nine USB keys of this type, for a total output of 86 terahashes per second. The image that illustrates this article is a photo shared on Twitter of its configuration. He alone took charge of solving a bitcoin network block. And this block happened to be valid. So he got the whole mining reward. Or 6.25 bitcoins.
The miner therefore carried out a very fine operation, since he won the equivalent of $215,000, a little less than 200,000 euros. Of course, the story doesn’t tell what he gained previously and what it costs him in energy. Or how long he will have waited to be given a valid block. Because there is also a question of luck. According to Bitcoin Magazine, three miners managed to solve a valid block solo in January. The previous two lucky winners won $270,000 and $260,000 respectively with close configurations.
Source: bitcoin magazine