“Every hash counts” is not a slogan. It is a technical statement about how Bitcoin works. Every single SHA-256 computation submitted to the network — whether it comes from a warehouse full of S21s or a Bitaxe plugged into a USB charger on your kitchen counter — has an equal, independent chance of finding the next block. There is no seniority. There is no privilege. The protocol does not care who you are or how much hashrate you control. It only cares about the math.
This article is D-Central Technologies’ manifesto on solo mining. We have been building, repairing, and shipping Bitcoin mining hardware since 2016. We manufactured the first Bitaxe Mesh Stand. We designed custom heatsinks for Bitaxe and Bitaxe Hex before anyone else did. We ship from Canada, we accept Bitcoin, and we believe that the decentralization of mining is not optional — it is existential for Bitcoin’s survival.
This is why we solo mine. This is why you should too.
The Centralization Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About
Bitcoin was designed to operate without a single point of failure. No central bank, no payment processor, no government intermediary. Satoshi’s whitepaper describes a system where transaction validation is distributed across thousands of independent nodes and miners, each one enforcing the same consensus rules without requiring permission or trust.
Look at mining today. Two pools — Foundry USA and AntPool — routinely control over 50% of Bitcoin’s total hashrate. Two entities. Two points of failure. Two phone numbers a regulator could call.
This is not some abstract philosophical concern. In 2023, Marathon Digital’s MARA Pool began filtering transactions to comply with OFAC sanctions, literally censoring which Bitcoin transactions could be included in blocks. They reversed the policy after backlash, but the precedent was set: pools can and will censor transactions when pressured by governments.
When two or three pools control the majority of hashrate, Bitcoin’s censorship resistance becomes a polite fiction. Any government that wants to censor a transaction only needs to pressure a handful of pool operators. Those operators are known entities with legal names, physical addresses, and bank accounts. They are regulable. They are compellable. They are the exact kind of centralized intermediary that Bitcoin was invented to eliminate.
The mining pool model has a deeper structural problem. When you point your ASIC at a pool, you are not validating transactions — the pool operator is. You are renting your hashrate to someone else’s block template. You do not choose which transactions go into that block. You do not enforce your own consensus rules. You are, functionally, a sharecropper: you own the hardware, but someone else decides what to do with your work.
Solo mining eliminates this entirely.
How Solo Mining Strengthens Bitcoin
Every solo miner is an independent block producer. When you solo mine, you construct your own block template from the mempool. You choose which transactions to include. You enforce your own consensus rules. Nobody can tell you to filter, censor, or reorder transactions. Nobody can force you to comply with regulations that violate Bitcoin’s principles.
Even if your hashrate is tiny — a single Bitaxe doing 500 GH/s against a network running at 800+ EH/s — your contribution matters in ways that go beyond the probability of finding a block.
Network diversity. Every independent miner adds entropy to the distribution of hashrate. The more miners operating independently, the harder it becomes for any pool or coalition to execute a 51% attack, censor transactions, or manipulate block ordering. Your 500 GH/s might be a rounding error in the hashrate charts, but it is one more independent voice in the consensus process.
Censorship resistance by design. A solo miner cannot be censored because there is no intermediary to apply censorship. Your miner connects to the Bitcoin network directly (or through a solo mining proxy like ck pool). There is no pool operator between you and the blockchain. If a government wanted to censor your block templates, they would need to identify and coerce you individually — and there are thousands of solo miners around the world.
Philosophical weight. Bitcoin’s security model is not just about hashrate — it is about the distribution of hashrate. A network with 800 EH/s concentrated in five pools is less secure than a network with 400 EH/s distributed across ten thousand independent miners. Solo mining increases the number of independent actors in the network, which is the actual measure of decentralization.
When you solo mine, you are not just running a miner. You are casting a vote for censorship resistance. You are telling the network: “I am here, I am independent, and I will not outsource my sovereignty to a pool.”
The Lottery: Understanding the Odds
Let’s address the elephant in the room. Can you realistically find a block with a Bitaxe? The honest answer: the odds are long. But they are not zero — and this is where it gets interesting.
Bitcoin block rewards are currently 3.125 BTC plus transaction fees. At any given Bitcoin price, a solo block find is a life-changing event. And solo miners do find blocks.
Block 853742. On June 29, 2024, a solo miner running a Bitaxe — a single-chip, open-source miner producing roughly 480 GH/s — found a valid Bitcoin block. Against a network hashrate of approximately 620 EH/s. The odds were approximately one in 1.29 billion per day. It happened anyway. Because that is how probability works: improbable is not impossible, and the Bitaxe was hashing 24/7. Check our Bitaxe Block Wins Tracker for a running tally of every confirmed solo block found by a Bitaxe.
The math behind solo mining odds is straightforward. Your probability of finding a block in a given period depends on your hashrate as a fraction of the total network hashrate, multiplied by the number of blocks in that period (roughly 144 per day). With a Bitaxe Supra running at 500 GH/s against an 800 EH/s network:
Daily probability = (500 GH/s / 800,000,000 GH/s) × 144 blocks ≈ 0.000009%
Annual probability ≈ 0.0033% — or roughly 1 in 30,400 per year
Odds of NEVER finding a block in 10 years ≈ 96.7%
Odds of finding at least one block in 10 years ≈ 3.3%
Is 3.3% a lot? That is roughly the odds of rolling a specific number on a 30-sided die. Not great, not impossible. But here is what makes solo mining fundamentally different from any other form of gambling.
Solo Mining vs. Lottery Tickets: A Cost Comparison That Changes Everything
People compare solo mining to playing the lottery. Fine — let us take that comparison seriously and see who wins.
A Bitaxe running 24/7 draws about 12 watts. At the Canadian national average electricity rate of roughly $0.12/kWh:
12W × 24h × 30 days = 8.64 kWh/month
8.64 kWh × $0.12 = $1.04/month
Annual electricity cost: ~$12.50
Now compare that to lottery tickets. A single Lotto 6/49 ticket costs $3. If you buy one per week, that is $156 per year. The odds of winning the jackpot? About 1 in 14 million per draw. Your ticket is valid for exactly one draw — miss it, and it is worthless paper.
| Factor | Bitaxe Solo Mining | Lottery Tickets |
|---|---|---|
| Annual cost | ~$12.50 electricity | $156+ (1/week) |
| Draws per year | 31,536,000 seconds of hashing | 52 draws |
| When you’re not playing | Never — runs 24/7/365 | Between draws: zero chance |
| Residual value | Hardware retains resale value | Zero — expired paper |
| Network contribution | Strengthens Bitcoin’s decentralization | Funds government programs |
| Censorship resistance | Yes — you are the block producer | N/A |
| Educational value | Learn Bitcoin at the protocol level | None |
A Bitaxe is a 24/7 lottery ticket that never expires, costs a dollar a month to run, teaches you about Bitcoin, strengthens the network, retains its resale value, and can be resold or upgraded at any time. A lottery ticket is a piece of paper that expires after one draw and funds government programs you probably disagree with.
The comparison is not even close.
The Sovereignty Stack: Your Keys, Your Node, Your Miner
Bitcoiners talk about sovereignty in layers. Self-custody: your keys, not your coins. Running a full node: your rules, not the pool’s. But there is a layer that most people never reach — and it is the most powerful one.
Your miner.
When you run your own miner, you complete the sovereignty stack. You hold your own keys. You validate your own transactions with your own node. And you contribute hashrate to the network on your own terms, constructing your own block templates, enforcing your own consensus rules, and keeping every satoshi of any block you find.
This is not about profit optimization. This is about principle. Running a full node without mining is like having a voice but never speaking. Your node validates blocks, but it does not produce them. Mining is the act of actively participating in Bitcoin’s consensus mechanism — the act of putting skin in the game, converting real-world energy into digital security, and saying to the network: “I am willing to do the work.”
Hal Finney understood this. His tweet on January 10, 2009 — “Running bitcoin” — was not about watching a price chart. It was about running the software, mining blocks, and participating in something that could change the world. Every solo miner today carries that tradition forward.
The full sovereignty stack:
| Layer | What It Means | What You Control |
|---|---|---|
| Self-Custody | Your keys, your coins | Storage and spending |
| Full Node | Your rules, your validation | Consensus enforcement |
| Solo Mining | Your hashrate, your blocks | Block production and transaction selection |
Most Bitcoiners stop at layer one. Some reach layer two. Solo miners reach layer three. It is the ultimate expression of “be your own bank” — because you are not just storing and transacting value, you are actively creating it.
Mining as Heating: The Canadian Advantage
Here is a fact that changes the economics of home mining entirely: 100% of the electricity consumed by a Bitcoin miner is converted to heat.
This is not a metaphor. It is thermodynamics. An ASIC miner is a space heater that also hashes. Every watt of electricity that enters the machine exits as heat — the SHA-256 computation is just what happens in between. If you live in a climate where you need to heat your home for six or more months of the year, that electricity was going to be spent on heating anyway. The mining is free. The sats are a bonus.
Canada is the perfect country for this. We have some of the cheapest electricity in the world, particularly in Quebec (hydroelectric) and British Columbia. We have winters that last from October to April. We already spend thousands of dollars per year on heating. Why not earn Bitcoin while you heat?
D-Central builds Bitcoin Space Heaters specifically for this purpose. Take an Antminer S9, S17, or S19, enclose it in a custom heater case with whisper-quiet 120mm or 140mm fans, duct the exhaust into your living space, and you have a 1000-1500W space heater that mines Bitcoin 24/7. Your electricity bill stays exactly the same — you were going to run that baseboard heater anyway. But now, instead of converting electricity into dumb heat, you are converting it into smart heat that earns sats.
For solo miners with a Bitaxe, the heat output is modest — about 12 watts, equivalent to a small LED bulb. But even that 12W warms the air around it. Stack a few Bitaxes on a Mesh Stand and you have a conversation piece that heats a shelf and hunts for blocks simultaneously.
The point is this: in cold climates, the “cost” of mining is not what it appears. If you subtract the heating value of the energy consumed, the effective cost of running a solo miner approaches zero — or even goes negative during the coldest months. This is the Canadian advantage, and it is one of the reasons D-Central is headquartered in Laval, Quebec. We are the North. We mine with the cold.
D-Central’s Mission: Decentralize Every Layer
D-Central Technologies was founded in 2016 with a single mission: the decentralization of every layer of Bitcoin mining.
We are not a retailer that happens to sell miners. We are Bitcoin Mining Hackers. We take institutional-grade mining technology — the same ASIC chips that power warehouse-scale operations — and hack it into solutions that anyone can run from home. Custom firmware. Modified hardware. Open-source designs. Heater enclosures. Repair services. Training. If it makes Bitcoin mining more accessible to individuals, we build it, sell it, or teach it.
Our involvement in the Bitaxe ecosystem goes back to the beginning. We were among the first to recognize that open-source ASIC miners could change the game for home mining. We manufactured the original Bitaxe Mesh Stand — the first company to produce it. We designed and built custom heatsinks for Bitaxe and Bitaxe Hex that are now standard accessories in the ecosystem. We stock every Bitaxe variant — Supra, Ultra, Hex, Gamma, GT — plus every accessory, power supply, and stand you could need.
But Bitaxe is just one piece. We carry the entire open-source mining lineup: Nerdminer, NerdNOS, NerdAxe, NerdQAxe, NerdQAxe++, NerdOctaxe Gamma. We repair ASICs — 38+ model-specific repair services, the most comprehensive ASIC repair operation in North America. We host miners in Quebec. We train new miners. We consult on mining operations from garage setups to small commercial facilities.
We do all of this because we believe in a future where Bitcoin mining is not controlled by a handful of publicly traded companies and state-backed operations. We believe in a future where every home has a miner — warming the house, earning sats, and strengthening the network. We believe every hash counts.
How to Start Solo Mining Today
You do not need a warehouse, a 240V circuit, or an engineering degree. You need a device, a WiFi connection, and a Bitcoin wallet address. Here is every option, organized by budget, from educational entry point to serious hashrate.
| Budget | Device | Hashrate | Power | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ~$50 | Nerdminer | ~50 KH/s | ~1W | Education, display piece, lottery ticket at near-zero cost |
| ~$70 | NerdNOS | ~500 KH/s | ~1W | Upgraded Nerdminer with OLED display and ESP32-S3 |
| ~$190 | Bitaxe Supra / NerdAxe | ~500 GH/s | ~12W | Real ASIC chip, real solo mining odds, silent, USB-C powered |
| ~$320 | Bitaxe GT | ~1.2 TH/s | ~15W | Highest single-chip hashrate, BM1370, serious solo contender |
| ~$500 | Bitaxe Hex | ~3 TH/s | ~72W | Six BM1366 chips, real mining power, compact form factor |
| ~$600 | NerdQAxe++ | ~3.2 TH/s | ~60W | Four BM1370 chips, incredible efficiency, XT30 powered |
| ~$850 | NerdOctaxe Gamma | ~5 TH/s | ~90W | Maximum open-source hashrate, eight chips, the solo mining beast |
Every single one of these devices connects to WiFi, points at a solo mining pool (like solo.ckpool.org or public-pool.io), and starts hashing. Setup takes minutes, not hours. No special wiring. No noise complaints. No permission from anyone.
For a complete walkthrough, visit our Bitaxe Hub — the most comprehensive Bitaxe resource on the internet. Every model, every setup guide, every accessory, every tip. Built by the team that has been in the Bitaxe ecosystem since day one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is solo mining actually profitable?
If you define profit as guaranteed regular income, no. Solo mining is not meant to compete with pool mining for consistent payouts. But the expected value calculation is identical — over infinite time, a solo miner earns the same per-hash as a pool miner, minus pool fees. The difference is variance: a pool miner gets small, steady payments; a solo miner gets nothing or everything. The real profitability question is: what is it worth to you to strengthen Bitcoin’s decentralization, learn at the protocol level, and hold a perpetual lottery ticket that costs a dollar a month? For most Bitcoiners, that is worth more than pool payouts.
What are the actual odds of finding a block with a Bitaxe?
With a Bitaxe Supra (~500 GH/s) against an 800 EH/s network, your daily probability is approximately 0.000009%. Annualized, that is roughly 1 in 30,400. With a Bitaxe Hex (~3 TH/s), odds improve to roughly 1 in 5,000 per year. With a NerdOctaxe Gamma (~5 TH/s), roughly 1 in 3,000 per year. These numbers change with network hashrate. The key insight: every hash has an equal, independent probability. Your first hash on day one has the same chance as your billionth hash on day 365.
Don’t I need a full node to solo mine?
Not necessarily. Most solo miners use a solo mining proxy like solo.ckpool.org or public-pool.io, which handles the connection to the Bitcoin network on your behalf. These proxies construct block templates and distribute work to your miner, and if you find a block, the reward goes directly to your wallet address. Running your own full node alongside your miner is the ultimate sovereignty setup, but it is not required to start solo mining today.
Is solo mining legal in Canada?
Yes. Bitcoin mining is legal in Canada at both the federal and provincial level. There are no specific regulations prohibiting individuals from mining Bitcoin at home. Your miner is simply a computer performing calculations — no different legally from running any other computing workload. Mined Bitcoin is taxable income in Canada and should be reported at fair market value when received. Consult a tax professional for specifics on your situation.
Can I solo mine with a regular Antminer instead of a Bitaxe?
Absolutely. Any ASIC miner can be pointed at a solo mining pool. An Antminer S19j Pro running at 100 TH/s has dramatically better odds than a Bitaxe — roughly 1 in 150 per year at current network hashrate. The trade-off is noise, power consumption (3,050W), and 240V requirements. D-Central’s Bitcoin Space Heaters solve the noise problem by enclosing the ASIC in a heater case with quiet fans, letting you solo mine from your living room while heating your home.
What happens if I find a block? How do I receive the Bitcoin?
When your miner finds a valid block, the solo mining proxy broadcasts it to the Bitcoin network. The block reward (currently 3.125 BTC plus transaction fees) is sent directly to the Bitcoin address you configured in your miner’s settings. The coins are subject to a 100-block maturation period (~16.5 hours) before they become spendable. Make sure your configured payout address is correct and that you control its private keys — there is no undo button on the blockchain.
Why does D-Central promote solo mining instead of pool mining?
We promote both, depending on your goals. Pool mining makes financial sense if you need consistent revenue from a mining operation. Solo mining makes philosophical sense if you care about Bitcoin’s decentralization, censorship resistance, and long-term survival. We believe the Bitcoin network is strongest when hashrate is distributed across as many independent miners as possible. Pool mining concentrates block production authority in the hands of pool operators. Solo mining keeps it in yours. For home miners running open-source hardware, solo mining aligns perfectly with the ethos of why Bitcoin exists.
I live in a warm climate. Does solo mining still make sense?
Yes — especially with low-power devices like the Bitaxe. At 12 watts, a Bitaxe produces less heat than a laptop charger. You will not notice it. The electricity cost is around $1/month. Even without the heating benefit, you are running a perpetual lottery ticket for less than the cost of a coffee, while contributing to Bitcoin’s decentralization. The heating argument is a bonus for cold climates, not a requirement for solo mining to make sense.
Every Hash You Submit Makes Bitcoin Stronger
Bitcoin is not a company. It has no CEO, no board of directors, no marketing department. It is a protocol — a set of rules enforced by the people who run it. Every node. Every miner. Every individual who chooses to participate rather than delegate.
When you plug in a solo miner, you are not just chasing a block reward. You are making a statement about what kind of financial system you want to live in. You are saying: I will not outsource my participation in this network to a pool operator. I will not let someone else decide which transactions are valid. I will run my own hardware, enforce my own rules, and contribute my own hashrate — no matter how small — to the security of a system that gives financial sovereignty to every human being on Earth.
That is what “every hash counts” means. Not that every hash will find a block. But that every hash strengthens the network. Every hash is a vote for decentralization. Every hash is a middle finger to the idea that Bitcoin mining should be controlled by corporations, governments, and sanctioned entities.
D-Central Technologies has been building tools for this mission since 2016. We are Bitcoin Mining Hackers from Canada. We take institutional technology and put it in the hands of individuals. We ship from Laval, Quebec. We accept Bitcoin. We answer the phone.
Every hash counts. Start mining today.
Bitcoin accepted | Canadian warranty | Expert support from D-Central’s ASIC repair team | Pioneer of the Bitaxe ecosystem since day one