Solo Miners
Frequently Asked Questions about Solo Miners
What is solo mining?
In solo mining your miner works directly against the Bitcoin network without a pool. If you find a block, the full reward is yours: currently 3.125 BTC plus transaction fees — straight to your own wallet, no pool, no KYC, no middleman. The network finds a new block roughly every 10 minutes, and every block is a new ticket.
What are the odds of finding a block?
Your odds per block equal your hashrate divided by the hashrate of the entire network — at 1 to 6 TH/s that is tiny per block; solo mining is a lottery. But you are not playing once a week: you play every 10 minutes, around the clock. And it does happen — even small solo miners have found blocks. Many people also run solo miners out of conviction, because every device strengthens the decentralization of the network.
How much electricity does it use?
A Bitaxe or Nerdaxe draws around 20 W — about 0.5 kWh per day, roughly €4–5 per month at 30 ct/kWh. The Avalon Nano 3S runs at 140 W (about 3.4 kWh/day, roughly €30 per month) but delivers 6 TH/s. The waste heat warms the room — in winter, not a single watt is lost.
Do I need my own Bitcoin node?
No. A public solo pool is enough to get started — your miner works solo there and the block reward still goes entirely to your address. The most sovereign setup is solo mining against your own Bitcoin node. All devices here are freely configurable and can alternatively work in any regular mining pool.
Can I run a solo miner in my living room?
Yes — that is what they are built for. Bitaxe and Nerdaxe run at ~20 W over Wi-Fi with quiet fans (Noctua on the premium models); the Nerdaxe is whisper-quiet thanks to its ICE Tower cooler. Unlike large ASIC miners they need neither high-power circuits nor an exhaust setup. The Avalon Nano 3S works noticeably harder at 140 W but remains a desktop device.
What is the difference between Bitaxe, Nerdaxe, NerdQaxe++ and Avalon Nano 3S?
Bitaxe is the open-source classic: a single BM1370 chip (from the Antminer S21 Pro), 1.3–1.54 TH/s at ~20 W. The Nerdaxe uses the same chip class and adds a color display and ICE Tower cooling. The NerdQaxe++ scales to ~5 TH/s with BM1368 chips from the Antminer S21. The Avalon Nano 3S is Canaan's finished consumer device: 6 TH/s at 140 W, no DIY project.