October 26–27, 2026 · UTC
About 3.15 BTC in one block. About 3.14 BTC in another the next day. If those October 2026 records made you curious about a desktop miner, the next question is what you would want from owning one.
It is easy to picture the possibility: you set up a miner, watch it work, and wonder whether it might one day find a Bitcoin block. A small hashrate can participate, even though its chance of success is very small.
That possibility is part of solo mining’s appeal. So is the experience of learning how the hardware works. The decision is whether you would enjoy taking part—and could afford to keep doing so—even if a block reward never arrived.
The two October records give us a concrete place to begin.
Two October dates, two block records
| Block | Block-header timestamp, UTC | Mempool service label | Subsidy plus transaction fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| #973262 | October 26, 2026, 17:06:00 | FutureBit Apollo Solo | 3.15418892 BTC |
| #973413 | October 27, 2026, 15:11:56 | Solo CK | 3.13968422 BTC |
Their recorded header timestamps are less than 24 hours apart. Each total includes the 3.125 BTC block subsidy plus transaction fees. These are gross block amounts, not verified personal receipts; the service names are Mempool’s attribution labels. The block fields were cross-checked against Blockstream.
This is a story about these two identified records on successive UTC dates. They do not establish a “three blocks in five days” claim, a trend in home-miner success, or which physical machines found the blocks.
The attraction: taking part yourself
For someone who enjoys Bitcoin and hardware, a suitable desktop miner can make an abstract process tangible. You connect a device, configure its network and mining service, watch hashrate and temperature readings, and learn what submitted work means.
Solo mining adds the possibility that your own work might find a block. You do not need to own a mining farm to participate, but a small setup’s chance of winning remains small.
That makes your goal worth deciding before your model. If you want to learn, experiment and can accept receiving no block reward, solo mining may be a hardware hobby worth exploring. If you need predictable cash income, it cannot fill that role.
New to the idea? Read what a solo miner is and how it participates in Bitcoin mining for the basic mechanism before comparing equipment.
Behind a 3.14 BTC headline
Which device actually did the work?
In its October 27 post, equipment seller Altair Technology suggested that the device behind #973413 was likely an Avalon Nano 3S. The word “likely” matters: this is the poster’s inference. An explorer’s service label cannot establish the physical model, number of devices, owner or household location. The evidence reviewed does not attribute either block to a Ustarminer device.
Hashrate reports also need context. One account can contain multiple workers; a worker is a logical connection or identifier, not necessarily one machine. A short-window estimate can differ from a longer average. Without the winning accounts’ historical records, we do not use circulating TH/s figures to calculate either winner’s odds—or guess why different reports disagree.
How much of the block total reaches the miner?
As checked on October 28, 2026, Solo CK’s official site stated a 2% fee. That is a term of this specific service, not a fee to assume for FutureBit or every solo service. Check the provider’s current terms before connecting.
Solo services can provide mining work and submit blocks while offering a solo-style reward arrangement; that differs from running the entire block-building infrastructure yourself. A gross block amount near 3.14 BTC therefore does not establish a personal net receipt of 3.14 BTC. We have not reconstructed the coinbase outputs and specific distributions for these two blocks, and do not state exact personal payouts.
Your miner does not build up credit toward a win
A small miner being able to find a block is different from a particular small miner being likely to find one.
Consider an illustrative 1 TH/s of effective hashrate running continuously for 365 days, with difficulty held at the approximately 140.58 trillion recorded for #973413. The chance of finding at least one block during that year is approximately 0.0052%, or about 1 in 19,000.
That is a hypothetical example, not a measurement of either winning setup or a product forecast. Future difficulty changes, and downtime, stale work and submission losses affect real results.
At an unchanged target, someone else’s recent win does not improve your next hash’s chance. Running for a long time does not accumulate credit toward a result. An average waiting time is a statistical expectation, not a deadline at which a reward becomes due.
How the example is calculated. With independent hash attempts and a Poisson approximation, λ ≈ h × t / (D × 2^32) and P(at least one block) ≈ 1 − exp(−λ). Here h is 1,000,000,000,000 hashes per second, t is 31,536,000 seconds, and D is 140,577,680,051,919.62, from the October 27, 2026 block record. Bitcoin’s block-header rules supply the hash-target condition behind the model. The example holds effective hashrate and difficulty constant and excludes operating losses; it is an explanation using a historical snapshot.
Power bills do not wait for a block
Alongside the purchase price, ask a practical question: would I be comfortable with the running costs if no block reward arrived?
For example, a whole setup averaging 20 W at the wall, running 24 hours a day for 30 days at US$0.20/kWh, would use 14.4 kWh and cost US$2.88 in electricity. These are hypothetical inputs, not a Ustarminer measurement or a local electricity quote. Equipment purchase and other applicable ownership costs are additional.
The calculation is average watts ÷ 1,000 × hours × price per kWh. For time-of-use rates, calculate each period separately and add the costs. Match each average power reading to the same time window; measure idle periods too, rather than assuming standby consumption is zero. Include the power supply and cooling equipment. An adapter’s maximum output rating is not its average wall draw.
Sound, heat and space also shape the experience. Waste heat may be useful in some settings, but any heating savings depend on the season, room and system it displaces. Useful heat does not make electricity free. Before planning a bedroom setup, look for relevant sound and temperature evidence; this article offers no measured noise ranking or bedroom guarantee.
From curiosity to a first setup
A block story can make hashrate feel like the only number that matters. Start instead with where you would put the device, what you want to learn and the ongoing costs you can accept.
- Your budget: purchase and running costs should be affordable without a block reward.
- Your space: allow adequate airflow and consider the complete setup’s sound and heat.
- Your configuration: match the board’s voltage label, power supply and supported firmware. Similar names do not make 5V and 12V versions interchangeable.
- Your service: understand its fees, reward arrangement and your own wallet settings.
To turn that checklist into a comparison, use the Bitaxe buying guide to hashrate, power and setup requirements. It explains the tradeoffs to consider before choosing a model.
Ready to compare specific equipment? The official Ustarminer Bitaxe Gamma 601 1.2T specifications and power requirements and Ustarminer NerdQaxe++ 4.8T specifications and cooling configuration give you two concrete configurations to examine. These are manufacturer-listed specifications. Use them to assess your own setup; the reward in someone else’s headline is not a specification for your device.
Make the next headline more useful
Around 3.14 BTC can spark curiosity. Whether solo mining belongs in your home comes down to the experience you want, the costs you can carry and your acceptance of uncertain results.
For future explanations of solo-mining events, equipment choices and important technical changes, choose the format that suits you:
- Email updates: receive explanations that connect verified events and equipment changes to home-mining decisions.
- Telegram updates: follow relevant solo-mining, hardware and firmware developments, with source links and the conditions that matter.
The aim is to help you understand what changed and what it could mean for your setup. You can keep learning before deciding whether to buy; the core explanation stays available in this article.
Block dates use UTC header timestamps. The records and service terms were checked on October 28, 2026. Probability and electricity figures are conditional illustrations, not product measurements or return forecasts.
