🎰 Solo & Lottery Mining — Beginner’s Guide

🎲 What Is Lottery Mining?

Every 10 minutes, the Bitcoin network needs someone to find the next block. The miner that finds it gets the full block reward — currently 3.125 BTC (plus transaction fees). At today’s prices, that is over $200,000.

Lottery mining means pointing a small, low-power miner at the network and hoping your device is the one that finds it. You are not earning steady income. You are not splitting rewards with a pool. You either find a block and get the entire reward, or you get nothing. Every hash your device generates is an independent random chance — like a lottery ticket that never expires.

The odds for a single Bitaxe Gamma (1.2 TH/s) against a network fluctuating between roughly 600–900 EH/s are in the range of 1 in 500 million to 750 million per block. That sounds impossible. But blocks have been found by these devices — multiple times, verified on-chain:

• July 2024: First confirmed Bitaxe solo block — Block #853,742. Reward: ~3.13 BTC. Reported by Solo CKPool.
• September 2025: NerdQaxe++ finds its first block — Block #913,272. Confirmed via OCEAN pool tag.
• October 2025: A Solo Satoshi customer running NerdQaxe++ Rev 6 units earned ~3.14 BTC (~$342,000) at Block #920,440 via a self-hosted Public Pool instance.
• 2024–2026: Multiple additional confirmed wins reported across Solo CKPool and Public Pool. According to Solo Satoshi’s published block wins table, combined payouts from open-source miners have exceeded $1 million.

Every Bitaxe you add increases your odds linearly. Two Gammas = twice the chance. Ten Gammas = ten times the chance. The odds are still long, but probability does not work on a timer. Someone has to find the next block — and every hash is a new shot.

💻 The Hardware — Every Model Compared

Most retail builds ship WiFi-enabled, use individual Bitmain ASIC chips (BM1366, BM1368, BM1370 — not full Bitmain boards), and mine SHA-256 (Bitcoin). The firmware is called AxeOS — browser-based, no command line needed. You manage everything from your phone or computer.

Prices change frequently and vary by seller. These are approximate ranges as of February 2026 — always check current seller listings before buying.

Device	Chip(s)	Hashrate	Power	Price	$/TH
Bitaxe Max (100)	1× BM1397	~400 GH/s	~15W	~$99	~$248
Bitaxe Ultra (200)	1× BM1366	~500 GH/s	~15W	~$120–150	~$240–300
Bitaxe Supra (400)	1× BM1368	~625 GH/s	~15W	~$150–200	~$240–320
Bitaxe Gamma (600)	1× BM1370	1.0–1.2 TH/s	~18–21W	~$190–300	~$158–300
Bitaxe GT (800)	2× BM1370	~2.2 TH/s	~30W	~$350–500	~$159–227
NerdQaxe+	4× BM1368	~2.5 TH/s	~55W	~$300–400	~$120–160
NerdQaxe++	4× BM1370	~4.8 TH/s	~72–80W	$240–500	~$50–104
NerdQaxe++ Rev 6.1	4× BM1370	6+ TH/s	~100W	$382–580	~$65–97

The $/TH column matters. That is how much you pay for each terahash of mining power. Lower is better. The Bitaxe Gamma is the most popular model, but at typical 2026 pricing, NerdQaxe++ models often offer significantly better hashrate per dollar spent.

🔧 First-Time Setup — Unbox to Hashing in 5 Minutes

This applies to most Bitaxe and NerdQaxe builds. They run AxeOS and the setup process is the same.

⚠ Wallets & Mistakes That Cost People Blocks

Before we talk about mistakes, let’s cover the basics. A lot of beginners jump straight into mining without understanding what a wallet is or where to get one.

🏊 Which Pool and Why It Matters

A solo mining pool is not really a pool in the traditional sense. It does not split rewards among participants. It provides the infrastructure (called stratum) so your miner can talk to the Bitcoin network without running your own full node. If YOUR miner finds a block, YOU get the full reward.

For most beginners with a Bitaxe: Start with Public Pool or Solo CKPool. Both are wallet-only (no account needed), both pay the full block reward directly to your address if you find a block, and both have good support for low-hashrate devices.

Pool fees vary and change over time. See our Mining Pools page for the current fee comparison across all pools and algorithms.

If you mine multiple SHA-256 coins (not just BTC), SoloPool.org supports solo lottery mining for BTC, XEC, BCH, DGB, and several other coins with coin-specific dashboards. For Scrypt coins (LTC, DOGE), SoloPool.org also has dedicated endpoints. See our Mining Pools page for the full pool comparison across all algorithms.

⚙️ Upgrades That Actually Help

Stock Bitaxe units work fine out of the box. But if you want to overclock for more hashrate, run quieter, or keep temperatures lower for longer hardware life, these are the upgrades people are actually using.

Heatsinks

The stock gold heatsink is fine at stock power settings. Once you raise the voltage or frequency, you will usually need more cooling headroom. Upgraded heatsinks can drop ASIC temperatures significantly, which means more stable hashrate and longer chip life.

• 52Pi Ice Tower — Raspberry Pi heatsink with copper heatpipe. Requires a 3D-printed adapter bracket. Available from Altair Technology as a complete kit with adapter, paste, and instructions.
• Dark Horse Heatsink — Custom designed for Bitaxe by Solo Satoshi. Drop-in replacement, no adapter needed. Nylon tension pins click into place.
• Bitchin’ Sink — CNC-milled aluminum heatsink by I Am GPIO. 73% more aluminum than stock, 34% more surface area. Available from The Solo Mining Co.

Fans

Stock fans work but can be noisy and do not move enough air for overclocked settings.

• Noctua NF-A4x20 5V PWM — The gold standard for quiet Bitaxe fans. ~$15. Significantly quieter than stock while moving more air.
• Arctic P9 Max — Higher CFM option (4,300 RPM) for maximum cooling. Louder than Noctua but moves significantly more air. Good for aggressive overclocks.

Thermal Paste

• Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut — High-performance paste used by most upgraders in the community. ~$10–15. Apply a thin, even layer on the ASIC chip when swapping heatsinks.
• Noctua NT-H2 — Another solid option, often bundled in upgrade kits.

VRM Copper Heatsinks

The voltage regulator module (VRM) on the back of the board generates heat that most people ignore. Small copper heatsinks ($5–10 for a pack) stuck to the VRM can drop temperatures by up to 15°C. Solo Satoshi has placement guides showing exactly where to stick them on each board.

Power Supplies

Stock PSUs are usually fine for stock settings. If you overclock, you may need more headroom. The 80% rule applies — do not run a PSU above 80% of its rated capacity continuously.

• Mean Well LRS-50-5 — 5V / 50W. Good for a single overclocked Bitaxe.
• Mean Well LRS-350-5 — 5V / 350W. For running multiple Bitaxe units from one PSU.
• Mean Well LRS-600-12 — 12V / 600W. For NerdQaxe++ builds or multi-unit setups.

📱 Fleet Management & Remote Access

One Bitaxe is easy. Five are manageable. Once you have ten or more, you need a way to monitor them without opening ten browser tabs. And if you want to check on your miners when you are away from home, you need remote access.

AxeOS Dashboard (Built In)

Every Bitaxe and NerdQaxe has a browser dashboard at its local IP address. From there you can see hashrate, temperature, fan speed, pool connection, uptime, and shares. This is the first thing to check when something looks off. Bookmark each miner’s IP on your phone.

Pool Dashboard

Both Solo CKPool and Public Pool show all workers connected to your wallet address on a single page. This is the fastest way to see if any device went offline — just check your pool dashboard. If you use worker names (the .WorkerName after your wallet address), each device shows up individually.

Remote Access with Tailscale

Tailscale creates an encrypted mesh VPN between your devices. Install it on a Raspberry Pi or always-on computer on the same network as your miners, plus your phone. You can then access every miner’s local dashboard from anywhere, as if you were on your home WiFi.

No port forwarding. No dynamic DNS. No exposing your network to the internet. Tailscale is free for personal use (up to 100 devices).

Static IP Addresses

By default, your router assigns a new IP address to each miner every time it reconnects. This means your bookmarks break. To fix this, log into your router and assign a DHCP reservation (static IP) for each miner’s MAC address. Most routers have this under LAN settings. Once set, each miner keeps the same IP every time.

☀️ Solar + Lottery Mining

Lottery mining and solar power are a natural fit. These devices use so little power that even a small solar setup can run them for free during daylight hours. If your electricity is the main cost holding you back from adding more miners, solar changes the equation.

Power Budgets

Here is what you can run with different solar panel sizes, assuming 5.5–6.5 peak sun hours per day (typical for Texas and the southern US) and a battery or grid-tie system:

The numbers above are conservative. Actual output depends on your latitude, panel angle, shading, and inverter efficiency. Texas gets some of the best solar in the country — a 400W panel in DFW will reliably produce 300+ usable watts for 5–6 hours most days of the year.

Grid-Tie vs. Off-Grid

If your home has rooftop solar with net metering, your Bitaxe fleet is already running on solar during the day and grid at night. No extra hardware needed — just plug them in.

If you want a dedicated off-grid setup (a panel, charge controller, battery, and inverter), expect to spend $200–500 for a small system that powers 2–4 Bitaxe units indefinitely with no electricity bill. The payback period is measured in years unless you hit a block.

💰 When the Math Talks

This section is not about telling you what to buy. It is about making sure you see the full picture before you spend money. The Bitaxe community is passionate, supportive, and building something important for Bitcoin decentralization. That is real. But the numbers are also real, and you deserve to see them.

Cost Per Terahash — The Number That Matters

In lottery mining, your chance of finding a block is directly proportional to your hashrate. More terahashes = more chances. So the question is: how much does each terahash cost you?

A fleet of 10 Bitaxe Gammas costs roughly $2,500 and gives you about 12 TH/s. A single pre-built Loki rig at $500–900 gives you 30–35 TH/s. At typical 2026 pricing, the Loki rig offers significantly more hashrate per dollar — but the two serve different purposes.

This does not mean Bitaxes are a bad purchase. If you are running solar and have free electricity, if you value the open-source project, if you enjoy building a fleet, or if you simply want a quiet miner on your desk that costs pennies to run — a Bitaxe makes sense. It is a lottery ticket that costs almost nothing to keep playing. The point is to understand what you are buying and why.

The Loki Kit — A Tool You Should Know About

The Loki Kit is a product from Pivotal Pleb Tech (Utah) — a pleb-mining company, not a corporation. It is a small circuit board that tricks a Bitmain X19/X21 hashboard into running independently on any 12–15V DC power supply. This enables running a single hashboard on a standard 120V outlet with an APW3 or APW7 PSU. No electrician. No 240V wiring.

One hashboard produces 30–35 TH/s at roughly 1,200–1,400 watts. That is more hashrate than an entire fleet of Bitaxes. The kit itself is ~$50–75, but a complete pre-built rig (hashboard + PSU + kit + enclosure + fans) runs $500–900 depending on the build and seller.