I just saw something pretty crazy on the Bitcoin network. An individual miner managed to validate a full block (block 938,092) by spending just $75 on rented hashrate, and took home 3.125 BTC as a reward, which at current prices is over $200,000. Basically, they bought a lottery ticket for a few bucks and hit the jackpot.

What’s interesting is how this worked. The person rented 1 petahash per second of computing power through CKPool, a service that allows individual miners to work independently. When the network processes transactions in blocks approximately every 10 minutes, all miners compete by solving a cryptographic puzzle. Usually, you’re competing against massive industrial operations, so the odds for a small miner are ridiculous. But someone has to win each block, right?

What’s surprising is that this is no longer as rare as it used to be. According to data I saw, over the past year roughly 21 individual miners have successfully validated blocks, earning a total of 66 BTC. That’s a 17% increase year over year. The reason is that now you can rent hash power for a few dollars through cloud services, without needing to buy expensive hardware. Solo mining has shifted from something for large operations to more like a scratch-off ticket with transparent odds.

Additionally, the timing was perfect. The network difficulty just increased by 15%, but right before that, there was an 11% drop due to storms in the United States. That window of time was enough for this miner with their small rented power to find their lucky block. It’s basically like earning 2,600 times your initial investment. Crazy.