CKPool miner discovers $200K Bitcoin block with 100PH rented hashrate

Someone just hit the Bitcoin mining equivalent of a scratch-off jackpot. A solo miner on CKPool solved a block using rented hashrate that peaked at 100 PH/s, earning an estimated $200,000 in rewards. The cost of that rented computing power? About $25,000 per week. That’s roughly an 8x return, assuming the timing worked out favorably. The block, announced by CKPool developer Con Kolivas, marked the pool’s 317th solo block discovery. The economics of a mining lottery ticket The reward for this particular block came to approximately 3.125 BTC plus transaction fees, totaling around $200,000. That 3.125 BTC figure is the standard post-halving block subsidy that’s been in effect since April 2024, when Bitcoin’s fourth halving cut miner rewards in half. What makes this case interesting is the rental angle. The miner didn’t own the hardware. They rented hashrate, likely from a cloud mining or hashrate marketplace, and pointed it at CKPool’s solo mining infrastructure. The hashrate showed “extreme variability” according to the pool’s data, a telltale sign of rented capacity that gets switched on and off. CKPool operates with a 2% fee structure and doesn’t require registration or operator wa...