What Is Solo Mining? The Complete 2026 Guide

Published July 20, 2026, 19:00 UTC

Solo mining is the purest form of cryptocurrency mining: you point your hardware at the network on your own account, and when one of your hashes solves a block, the entire reward is yours. No sharing, no middleman taking a cut of every block. This guide explains exactly how solo mining works in 2026, what the odds really are, what you need to start, and how a modern solo pool lets you keep the full reward without running your own infrastructure.

What solo mining actually means

Mining is a guessing game. Your machine repeatedly hashes a candidate block header, changing a nonce each time, hoping to land on a value below the network's target. Whoever finds a valid hash first gets to add the next block and collect its reward: the block subsidy plus every transaction fee in that block.

In solo mining, that reward goes entirely to you. Contrast that with a traditional shared pool, where thousands of miners combine their hashrate, and every reward is split among them in proportion to the work each contributed. Shared pools trade away the jackpot for a steady trickle. Solo mining does the opposite: nothing, nothing, nothing, then the whole block. If you want the full comparison, read solo mining vs pool mining.

The odds: solo mining is a lottery

Here is the part that trips people up. Every hash is an independent lottery ticket, and your chance of finding any given block is simply your hashrate divided by the total network hashrate. On Bitcoin, the network runs at hundreds of exahashes per second, so a home miner controls a vanishingly small slice of it.

That does not mean you cannot win. It means the expected time between wins is long, often measured in years or decades for a single small machine, and the actual result is random. You could hit a block tomorrow or never. The maths is unforgiving but honest, and it is worth internalising before you spend a cent on electricity. Our solo mining odds guide walks through the numbers, and the solo mining chance calculator lets you plug in your own hashrate to see your real probability over a day, a month, or a year.

Because it is a lottery, the healthy mindset is the one described in our lottery mining guide: treat the electricity as the cost of tickets, and any block as a windfall rather than income you are counting on.

What you need to start solo mining

Solo mining comes down to three ingredients:

A miner. Any SHA-256 machine works, from a Bitaxe drawing about 15 watts to a full Antminer. More hashrate means more tickets per second, but every ticket has the same odds, so small machines can and do win.
A wallet address. In solo mining your payout address is your identity. You mine to your own address and, on most solo pools, that address is literally your account name. Nobody custodies your coins.
A block builder. Something has to assemble the candidate block: choose transactions, build the coinbase, and hand your miner valid work. That is either your own full node or a solo pool that does it for you.

Two ways to solo mine

Fully independent. You run your own full node, connect your miner to it, and answer to no one. This is maximum sovereignty and privacy, and it is the ideological heart of solo mining. The cost is operational: you maintain the node, keep it synced, and handle your own uptime.

Through a solo pool. A solo pool runs the nodes and builds templates for you, but unlike a shared pool it does not split rewards. When you find a block, the pool submits it and the reward goes to your address. You get solo economics without running infrastructure. The important question to ask any solo pool is whether it is non-custodial, meaning the block pays your address directly rather than the pool's wallet. That is exactly the model mkpool uses: zero pool fees and no custody, on every chain it supports.

Which coins can you solo mine?

Bitcoin gets the headlines, but it also has the worst solo odds precisely because it is the largest network. Smaller SHA-256 chains give a home miner dramatically better chances per watt, which is why many solo miners run the same Bitaxe or Antminer against an altcoin. mkpool runs solo pools for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, DigiByte, eCash, and Zcash, among others. The hardware is the same; only the endpoint changes.

How to actually connect

Pick your chain and open its connect page, which lists every endpoint and difficulty tier.
Set your miner's stratum URL to the pool host, for example btc.mkpool.com, on a port that suits your hashrate.
Use your own wallet address as the username, add an optional worker name, set the password to x, and save.
Watch for accepted shares on the miners page. Shares are not payouts; they are proof your machine is working. The payout only comes if a share turns out to solve a whole block.

Is solo mining worth it?

If you are looking for predictable income, no: a small solo miner will usually earn more smoothly in a shared pool. Solo mining is worth it when you want the full reward, value sovereignty, enjoy the lottery, or mine a smaller chain where your hashrate is a meaningful slice of the network. Millions of home miners run a Bitaxe on solo precisely for that mix of principle and upside, treating the modest power bill as the price of a standing lottery ticket that also secures a network they believe in.

Ready to try it? Start with the complete mining pool guide for the bigger picture, or jump straight to a connect page and point a miner at the network today.

Frequently asked questions

What is solo mining in simple terms?

Solo mining is mining on your own account rather than pooling your work with others. When one of your hashes solves a block, you receive the whole block reward, including all transaction fees. The trade-off is that you only earn when you personally find a block, which is rare unless you control a lot of hashrate.

Is solo mining profitable in 2026?

On average, solo mining pays the same as pool mining minus fees, because the expected reward per hash is identical. The difference is variance: pool mining pays small amounts steadily, while solo mining pays nothing until a rare, large win. Whether it is profitable depends on your electricity cost and how long you can run before hitting a block.

Do I need a full node to solo mine?

Only if you want to mine completely independently. Running your own node gives you maximum sovereignty, but it is work to maintain. A solo pool builds valid block templates for you and submits your found block to the network, so you get the solo payout without operating node infrastructure yourself.

What hardware do I need to start solo mining?

Any SHA-256 miner works, from a tiny Bitaxe drawing about 15 watts to a full Antminer. More hashrate buys more lottery tickets per second, but even a small miner can win a block, since every hash has the same independent chance. Start with hardware whose electricity cost you are comfortable treating as a lottery budget.

Can a Bitaxe realistically find a block solo?

Yes, but it is extremely unlikely on Bitcoin in any given year, because a single Bitaxe is a minuscule share of the network. People still do it for the sovereignty and the lottery upside, and small networks or altcoins give a home miner far better odds than Bitcoin does.

How is solo mining different from a mining pool?

A traditional pool splits every block reward among all contributors in proportion to the work they submitted, so payouts are frequent and smooth. Solo mining keeps the full reward for the finder and pays nothing otherwise. A solo pool is a hybrid: it coordinates the connection and block building but still pays the entire reward to whoever finds the block.

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What Is Solo Mining? The Complete 2026 Guide

What solo mining actually means

The odds: solo mining is a lottery

What you need to start solo mining

Two ways to solo mine

Which coins can you solo mine?

How to actually connect

Is solo mining worth it?

Frequently asked questions

What is solo mining in simple terms?

Is solo mining profitable in 2026?

Do I need a full node to solo mine?

What hardware do I need to start solo mining?

Can a Bitaxe realistically find a block solo?

How is solo mining different from a mining pool?

Mining insights in your inbox

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Keep reading

Lottery Mining: What It Is and How to Play It Right

Solo Bitcoin Mining and Lottery Odds in 2026

We value your privacy

What solo mining actually means

The odds: solo mining is a lottery

What you need to start solo mining

Two ways to solo mine

Which coins can you solo mine?

How to actually connect

Is solo mining worth it?

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