Diving into the bitcoin mining pool doesn’t require wealth, but it does require patience, as some compare it to winning the lottery.
Bitcoin mining, once the domain of tech enthusiasts, has grown into a significant industry worldwide. These days, large-scale operations often have their own power plants and sophisticated hardware.
However, for a price roughly equal to that of a smartphone or game console, small mining rigs can be built. But there are a few things to consider before building a small scale miner.
The setup includes three main components: Raspberry Pi Zero W 2, single board computer priced at $22; a USB-based bitcoin miner equipped with Antminer’s BM1397 ASIC chip, costing $325; and a $19 heatsink case to manage the heat generated.
This tiny setup, capable of delivering up to 350 gigahashes per second (GH/s), incorporates the same chip found in the well-known Antminer S17 and S17 Pro.
Some call this approach “Lotto Mining,” referring to the slim odds of successfully mining a Bitcoin block with such a small setup. Statistically speaking, with a hash rate of 350 gigahertz/s, lone miners could mine a block after roughly 21,400 years of operation.
Complicating matters is the fact that bitcoin block rewards are set to run out by 2140, due to network “halving” events that lower the issuance rate every four years.
To put things in perspective, Marathon Digital, a major player in the bitcoin mining world, generated 2,195 BTC ($60 million) in the first quarter of this year, averaging 24 BTC ($656,300) per day.
Commercial miners achieve this by using tens of thousands of ASICs, which greatly increases their chances of solving blocks.
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However, there is a glimmer of hope for the lone miners. They can boost their odds by joining mining pools like Foundry, AntPool, and F2Pool. These pools, which are responsible for more than 70% of all bitcoin blocks, distribute rewards among all contributors whenever a block is successfully mined.
Despite the odds, there have been cases in the past year of lone miners independently mining their own bitcoin blocks using just a few mining chips. While the opportunities are slim, small-scale mining offers an entry point for those interested in exploring blockchain technology.