When you mine Bitcoin, you have a choice: go it alone for the full block reward, or join a pool and earn a steady share. Neither option is objectively better: the right choice depends on what you're mining for.
How Pool Mining Works
A mining pool combines the hash power of thousands of miners. When the pool collectively finds a block, the reward (3.125 BTC) is split proportionally among all participants based on how much work they contributed.
The mechanism uses shares. Miners submit proof-of-work solutions that meet a lower difficulty threshold than the actual block target. These shares demonstrate work without requiring a full block solution. The pool tracks each miner's submitted shares to calculate their proportion of the reward.
The result: small, predictable payouts. If your Bitaxe represents 0.0000001% of the pool's total hash rate, you'll earn roughly 0.0000001% of every block found. At current difficulty, a Bitaxe in a large pool might earn a fraction of a satoshi per hour, small amounts, but regular.
How Solo Mining Works
Solo mining means connecting directly to the Bitcoin network (or a solo pool that routes your work directly). You're competing independently for the full block reward. If your miner finds the right nonce, you win 3.125 BTC. If not, nothing.
The honest odds for a Bitaxe Gamma 601 at ~1.2 TH/s against a network of ~800 EH/s:
Network hash rate: ~800,000,000 TH/s
Your share: ~0.00000000015%
Expected time to find a block: roughly 1,800�2,200 years
But that's an average. You could find one tomorrow. Or never.
This is the lottery analogy, and it's accurate. Each hash is an independent trial. The Bitaxe doesn't "build up" toward a win, every attempt has the same odds as the last. Blocks have been found by solo miners with modest setups. It's rare, it's random, and it's real.
Why Choose Solo Mining?
The financial case for solo mining a Bitaxe is weak. If you're mining purely for expected return, a pool is more sensible. So why do people solo mine?
- Sovereignty: Your hash power supports the decentralised network directly, not via a pool operator
- The thrill: Finding a block solo is one of Bitcoin's most dramatic individual events, people screenshot it, frame it, and talk about it for years
- Decentralisation: Large pool operators accumulate significant influence over which transactions get included. Solo miners bypass this entirely
- Running costs are low anyway: At ~15W, the Gamma 601 costs roughly $0.50/day in electricity. It's more lottery ticket than investment
Why Choose Pool Mining?
- Predictable income: Small but regular payouts, useful for tracking performance and covering electricity costs over time
- Feedback: Pool dashboards show real-time accepted shares, making it easy to monitor your miner's health
- Lower variance: If you have multiple Bitaxes and want to track their combined output, pool mining gives you clearer data
Worth acknowledging: even in a pool, a Bitaxe earns fractional satoshis. Most pools have minimum payout thresholds (e.g. 0.001 BTC) that a single Bitaxe would take years to accumulate. Keep this in mind when setting expectations.
Pool Options Worth Knowing
- web.solo-pool.io. Our recommendation. OSMU affiliated, aligned with the open-source mining community.
- solo.ckpool.org. Established solo pool, simple and reliable. Long track record.
- Braiins Pool. Professional, good stats interface. Not open-source aligned.
- Ocean Pool. Decentralised payout model, ideologically aligned with Bitcoin ethos.
We cover these in detail in Block #008: Choosing a Mining Pool.
Our Take
For a single Bitaxe, we lean toward solo mining via web.solo-pool.io. The electricity cost is low, the upside is real (if remote), and you're supporting the network directly. If you have several Bitaxes and want measurable feedback, a pool makes more sense. Both are valid, and you can switch any time in the AxeOS settings.