Solo Mining Pool Comparison 2026: CKPool, Public Pool, or Your Own Node?
By Dominik Lederer, Founder, Hardware Engineer & Solo-Mining Expert · Polarblocks Manufaktur, Bavaria · August 1, 2026 · Reading time approx. 7 minutes
A solo mining pool is a Stratum server that assembles the block proposal for small miners and writes the miner's own Bitcoin address into the coinbase transaction, instead of distributing profits. This is precisely what distinguishes it from a classic mining pool: it holds nothing, calculates nothing, and pays out nothing.
The three relevant points of contact in 2026 are Solo CKPool (2 percent, only in case of success), Public Pool (0 percent, open source, self-hostable) and your own node with self-operated pool software. All three are non-custodial.
The number that ends the debate: A Bitaxe Gamma 601 with 1.3 TH/s has a block chance of 1 in 13,224 per year at a difficulty of 126,231,507,121,868. The statistical annual yield is therefore around 12.91 Euros. Two percent of that is 26 cents per year. If you switch pools for these 26 cents, you're optimizing the wrong number.
There's one question I get asked more often than any other in the workshop once a device is running: Which pool now? And almost always, in the same breath, comes the argument that supposedly drives the decision. One takes two percent, the other takes nothing, so the matter is clear.
It's not. I checked it with a calculator, and the result made even me pause for a moment.
What does a solo mining pool do at all if it doesn't pay out anything?
The name is misleading, and the best-known provider even says so himself. The solo.ckpool.org homepage states: “This is NOT a pool despite its name; it is a service to allow miners to mine solo blocks as you cannot mine directly to a Bitcoin Core node."
That's the whole truth in one sentence. Your miner speaks Stratum. A Bitcoin node does not speak Stratum. There's a translator missing between the two, and that's exactly what a Solo Pool is. It takes the current candidate block, inserts your address as the recipient of the coinbase transaction, breaks down the work into shares, and sends them to your device.
If you find a block, the reward of 3.125 BTC plus transaction fees appears directly on the blockchain at your address. No account, no withdrawal threshold, no trust needed. How this process works in detail and what belongs in the Stratum User field, I have explained in a separate article on the payout address.
What does the 2 percent fee at CKPool really cost per year?
Now for the calculation that nobody does. It consists of three steps, and you can verify each one yourself.
Step one, the chance. The expected waiting time for a block is calculated by difficulty times 2 to the power of 32 divided by your hashrate. With 126,231,507,121,868 and 1.3 trillion hashes per second, that's 417,046,303,702 seconds, or 13,224 years. I cross-checked the difficulty today using two independent methods: via the retarget history of mempool.space and via Public Pool's network interface, which reports exactly the same value at block height 960,519.
Step two, the value. One block yields 3.125 BTC plus transaction fees. At an exchange rate of 54,614 Euros per Bitcoin (Kraken, August 1, 2026, 06:10 UTC, exchange rate dependent), that's approximately 170,700 Euros in base reward.
Step three, the expected value. 170,700 Euros distributed over 13,224 years yields 12.91 Euros per year. Two percent of that: 26 cents. With the 1.5 percent provider AtlasPool, it's 19 cents, and with half a percent, it's 6 cents.
I'm not saying 26 cents don't matter. I'm saying they're not a decision criterion. Anyone who talks about cost optimization at this magnitude hasn't done the math on the magnitude.
Solo CKPool or Public Pool: Which one suits which miner?
The criteria that actually make a difference remain. I checked both operators directly today, not through secondary sources.
Solo CKPool has been running since 2014, is operated as a not-for-profit by Con Kolivas, and requires no registration. The fee is only incurred if a block is found, never otherwise. Interesting for German users: there is an endpoint in Germany (eusolo.ckpool.org), and the collective endpoint stratum.ckpool.org automatically selects the fastest connection and switches independently in case of failure. Stratum V2 is on port 3336. The operator also continuously publishes which transactions are in the current block proposal and states that it does not filter, but uses Bitcoin Core's default selection.
Public Pool charges 0 percent and is fully open source under the MIT license. According to the Open Source Miners United wiki, the backend of the official instance runs on hardware under the physical control of the developer, with only the interface in the cloud. Anyone can install the same software via Umbrel or Start9 on their own computer.
One thing I have to add, because otherwise it would be misleading: The only documented Bitaxe block found this summer, block height 957,382 on July 10, 2026, was via Public Pool. I verified this via their own interface; the worker there is simply called "bitaxe". Still, it's not an argument for Public Pool. A sample of one proves exactly nothing about pool quality. Anyone who builds a ranking from it is selling you randomness as insight.
Regarding Braiins Solo, I have to pass, and that's part of being honest. Comparison sites mention 0.5 percent. This number is not on the current operator page; I checked today. There are only the Stratum addresses and a note that the BTC address goes into the block template as the miner identifier. As long as the operator does not explicitly state the fee, I treat it as unconfirmed.
The pool can be switched in two minutes, the device cannot. Our entry-level model from the Eco Line runs at around 1.3 TH/s at about 17 watts, is hand-assembled in Bavaria and comes with a suitable power supply. You then decide at your leisure which Stratum endpoint to enter.
View Bitaxe Home Solo MinerStill undecided? The Home Miner Guide explains the basics without sales pressure.
Is running your own node as a solo mining pool worthwhile?
This is the premium option, and it has a real advantage that has nothing to do with money. If you run Public Pool or the open-source ckpool software yourself alongside your own Bitcoin node, you determine which transactions go into your block proposal. No third party sees where your hashrate goes. No operator can lock you out, and no one can manipulate the template.
The price is operational overhead. A node needs storage, power, and occasional maintenance. With the self-hosted ckpool variant, a 0.5 percent donation to the author is also pre-set, which can be changed in the configuration.
My assessment after two years: For the first miner, this is the wrong starting point. Start with a hosted endpoint, see if you enjoy it at all, and build the node if your curiosity remains. Otherwise, it just leads to frustration.
How do you recognize a solo pool you can trust?
Four points, in this order.
First: Does the reward land in the coinbase transaction at your address, or in an account with the operator? Anything that smells like balance, minimum payout, or wallet management is not solo mining. What happens when such an operator collapses was shown by the Poolin case: 163.7 million US dollars in frozen balances from around 11,700 customers, which can be read in my analysis of the Poolin insolvency.
Second: Are there failovers and an endpoint near you? Not because of latency, which hardly matters in solo mining, but because of uptime. See the 65-cent calculation above.
Third: Does the operator disclose how they select transactions? A solo pool builds a block on your behalf. What's in it should be verifiable.
Fourth: Is registration required? If so, you're taking a step back towards the same centralization you intended to leave behind with solo mining.
How does all of this compare to lotto and an industrial miner?
To keep the scale in perspective, here are the three ways in direct comparison. The Bitaxe operates at 1.3 TH/s at about 17 watts, the industrial reference is based on 270 TH/s at 3,500 watts, all chances are calculated from the same difficulty.
| Bitaxe Gamma 601 | Eurojackpot | 3,500-Watt Industrial Antminer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winning chances per year | 1 in 13,224 for a full block, reward 3.125 BTC plus transaction fees, directly to your own address. The device participates in all 52,560 draws of the year. | 1 in 139,838,160 per tip field and draw, calculated independently using combinatorics. If you play once a week, you have 52 attempts a year. | 1 in 64, and thus numerically clearly better. The same reward, but requires an environment where 3.5 kilowatts of continuous load are affordable. |
| Running costs in home office | 149 kWh per year, so 46 to 52 Euros at 31.1 to 35 cents per kWh. Pool fee in case of success 0 to 26 cents per year. Runs on any standard power outlet. | No power consumption, but a new stake with each draw. The played ticket is worthless immediately after the draw, no matter how many times you look at it. | 30,660 kWh per year, so 9,535 to 10,731 Euros. Plus noise that is not feasible in an apartment, and waste heat that needs to be removed. |
| Drawer danger (boredom factor) | Low. The device is visible, shows live hashrate and best share, and changing the Stratum endpoint is an after-work activity with real learning effect. | High. Nothing happens between submission and draw, after that the ticket is paper. There's nothing to observe or adjust. | Very high in a living area. Such machines regularly end up in the basement or on eBay for private individuals, because noise and electricity bills outweigh curiosity. |
| Learning effect & tangible blockchain fascination | High. Whoever chooses the pool themselves will then understand coinbase transactions, shares, difficulty, and block templates. With your own node, this creates a complete picture of the network. | None. Crossing six numbers conveys nothing about the system behind it, because there is no system to understand. | Present, but not experienceable in the living room. If you put the machine in a data center, you only see a dashboard. |
Which solo mining pool do you use yourself?
I use the European endpoint of Solo CKPool, and yes, I pay the two percent in the theoretical event of success. The reason is not loyalty, but boredom in the best sense: the service has been running since 2014, the failover has never required manual intervention on my part, and I can always check which transactions are in my block proposal.
Those who hold the opposing view and insist on 0 percent are just as right. Public Pool is open source, well-built, and free. It's a matter of taste, not calculation. And that's precisely why the fee discussion annoys me so much: it pretends to be mathematically decided, yet it's about 26 cents.
"Two percent of almost nothing is almost nothing. If you save on fees in solo mining, you're saving in the wrong place. Better not to save on uptime." Dominik Lederer, Founder Polarblocks
Frequently Asked Questions about Solo Mining Pool Comparison
Which solo mining pool has the lowest fees?
Public Pool charges 0 percent, Solo CKPool charges 2 percent and only in case of success. At 1.3 TH/s, the difference is about 26 cents per year.
Does a solo mining pool pay out the block reward?
No. Your address is in the Coinbase transaction, the reward is created directly on the blockchain at that address. The pool does not hold anything.
Do I need my own Bitcoin node?
No, but only then is the third party completely eliminated. Public Pool is open source and can be self-hosted via Umbrel or Start9.
Why doesn't the pool display my hashrate?
According to its own FAQ, Solo CKPool works with a minimum difficulty of 10,000. Small devices therefore take longer to provide stable statistics. This has no effect on the block chance.
Can I change the pool later?
Yes, at any time. It's a field in your miner's web interface and a restart. How you realistically assess the chance of a block is described in the honest expected value calculation.
Where can you verify this information yourself?
Fees, endpoints, minimum difficulty and transaction selection of Solo CKPool verified directly with the operator: solo.ckpool.org. Market overview of solo services including AtlasPool and self-hosted variants: D-Central, Solo Bitcoin Mining Services Compared, last checked on June 21, 2026.
