Bitcoin mining difficulty had its biggest drop in a very long time of 7.5% to ~117T. Still insanely high but won't last and will no doubt return to the same level as previously once the weather in Texas becomes inclement. It will also take less time to return to its former self.
npub1q0k5...7wtf
npub1q0k5...7wtf
Saturn captured on 2025-06-10 UTC. The rings are now just barely visible.
If it wasn't clear, I will continue to run core relay/mempool rules on the solo pools as I always have for all the technical reasons already outlined in a myriad of other places.
By all means feel free to run whatever client you feel is appropriate or mine wherever you like, but I implore you to read arguments instead of listening to them for the person delivering verbal messages can have more influence on your decision making than it can in text.
Saturn captured 2025-05-18.
Saturn captured this morning 2025-05-12. I've added a version with gamma applied which makes the very thin rings visible.
This is a great new multisig hardware wallet device one of the local bitdevs in our meetup has been working on and is coming out soon. Uses taproot and allows dynamic adding and removing signatures.
Frostsnap
Frostsnap - Bitcoin Security
Take Bitcoin Savings Seriously.
Congratulations to miner bc1~nnc5 with ~230TH for solving the 299th solo block mined at http://solo.ckpool.org! A miner of this size has about a 1 in 30,000 chance of finding a block each day.
The Mempool Open Source Project®
Explore the full Bitcoin ecosystem with The Mempool Open Source Project®. See the real-time status of your transactions, get network info, and more.
Congratulations to miner bc1qq926qlrhc2pvxzc5f0zswnvqqddqqj3tz2amla with a sizeable 2.5PH/s for solving the first EU solo block and the 298th block at solo.ckpool.org!
A miner of this size has about a one in 2,000 chance if finding a block per day.
The Mempool Open Source Project®
Explore the full Bitcoin ecosystem with The Mempool Open Source Project®. See the real-time status of your transactions, get network info, and more.
Congratulations to a super lucky miner bc1qaxccz85rx6ywy2xw6ugtm6u37mvew6qqn7lgtd with only 3.3TH who solved the 297th solo block at with a 480GH bitaxe!
A miner of this size has only less than a 1 in a million chance of finding a block per day, or put alternatively, would take 3500 years to find a block on average.
Solo CKPool - Anonymous Bitcoin Mining
The Mempool Open Source Project®
Explore the full Bitcoin ecosystem with The Mempool Open Source Project®. See the real-time status of your transactions, get network info, and more.
Re: http://eusolo.ckpool.org, sadly the anonymous individual who offered to fund the server's running has retracted their offer. This & the stats incident has confirmed my belief I should not rely on others. I will likely now fund it myself but will need to migrate the service.
Prove to me you don't understand why bitcoin and not shitcoins without saying you don't understand bitcoin...
Three people came to me this week asking for orange pills.
The EU solo ckpool is up and running! Connect to the pool via instructions at Graphical stats available at Miners in Europe and Africa are encouraged to move to the new pool. Miners in The Americas and Asia-Pacific should still use but the sister pool can be used as backup.
This is an entirely separate pool from and neither shares nor stats are shared across instances for overhead reasons. They only help propagate each others' blocks. Both will solve blocks with the same coinbase signature though.
EU Solo CKPool - Anonymous Bitcoin Mining
CKstats
Real-time and historical statistics for the CKPool Bitcoin mining pool using data from their API.
Solo CKPool - Anonymous Bitcoin Mining
Solo CKPool - Anonymous Bitcoin Mining
Here's a little podcast I did with bitcoin mining world.
I've tentatively set up a new stats site courtesy of MrV_777 for trial. I'm personally hosting this one, but I've left his donation link intact since he did the work. Some other web devs are also working on alternatives, so do not assume this is the final form but please test it out. I may be hosting multiple in the future whilst testing them out.
Http only for now:
CKstats
Real-time and historical statistics for the CKPool Bitcoin mining pool using data from their API.
Saturn captured in excellent conditions 2024-09-27
A phenomenon known as the Seeliger effect means Saturn's rings appear brighter when it's at its closest approach to Earth. This animated gif shows the alternating captures at opposition 2024 and two weeks later demonstrating this effect.
Saturn captured in infrared 2024-08-18
Congratulations to miner 36AisvWi1UiwLTeTZxLzindAkorqeUc3tT for solving the 291st solo block on http://solo.ckpool.org! This hefty miner with 38PH would solve a block on average once every ~4 months.
The Mempool Open Source Project®
Explore the full Bitcoin ecosystem with The Mempool Open Source Project®. See the real-time status of your transactions, get network info, and more.
Is there any way to post polls on nostr?