Solo Mining vs Pool Mining — Which Is More Profitable?

Over the long run, solo and pool mining pay almost exactly the same — the expected value is mathematically identical, minus the difference in fees. Picture two miners with identical Antminer S21+ rigs and identical power rates on Bitcoin Cash. Miner A joins a large pool and collects small daily payouts; Miner B mines solo and waits — sometimes weeks, sometimes months — for a whole block reward at once. After twelve months, who has more BCH? Statistically, about the same. The hashes don’t care which strategy you picked, and neither does the network.

But the experience of those two miners is so different that they’re effectively playing different games. One had a steady, boring trickle; the other had stretches of nothing punctuated by a single jackpot. The math is the same. The psychology, the cash flow, the tax filing, and the failure modes are not. This guide covers all of it and ends with a clear recommendation for every kind of miner.

Key takeaways

• Same expected value, opposite distribution: long-term payout converges to the same number; solo just concentrates it into a few large events instead of many small ones.
• Solo’s most underrated edge is zero custody risk: the block reward arrives straight from the network’s coinbase to your wallet — no pool ever holds your balance.
• ”0% fee” pools recoup their costs somehow, usually through mechanisms less transparent than a flat coinbase fee.
• Solo means fewer, larger taxable events (a handful per year) versus a pool’s hundreds of small ones — which can simplify accounting.
• Choose by variance tolerance, not by chasing a higher mean — the mean is the same; what differs is whether you can sit through dry stretches.

The math: same expected value, opposite distribution

Both solo and pool mining follow the same fundamental formula:

Expected revenue per day ≈ (your hashrate ÷ network hashrate) × blocks per day × block reward

For an Antminer S21+ on BCH at mid-2026 figures:

• Hashrate: 235 TH/s
• Network: ~3.5 EH/s = 3,500,000 TH/s (BCH hashrate is volatile — see MiningPoolStats or our live Network Radar)
• Share of network: ~0.0067%
• Daily expected blocks: 0.0067% × 144 ≈ 0.97% per day
• Daily expected revenue: 0.97% × 3.125 BCH ≈ 0.030 BCH/day ≈ $5.70/day (at ~$190/BCH)

That number is identical whether you’re solo or pool mining. The hashrate produces the same hashes, the network treats them identically, and the long-term expected payout converges to the same value. The only difference is how the payout is distributed across time.

Pool mining: smooth, predictable, slightly haircut

In a pool, your share contribution is rewarded daily (or per block, depending on the scheme). With ~0.0067% of network hashrate, you receive that fraction of every block the pool finds — essentially every day for a large pool — so you accumulate ~0.030 BCH per day, smoothly, with low variance. Minus pool fees: most BCH pools charge 1-3%, and some advertise “0% fee” but recoup it through FPPS+ adjustments or other mechanisms we’ll get to shortly.

Solo mining: lumpy, dramatic, identical-in-aggregate

Solo, you get nothing for roughly 110 days on average, then 3.125 BCH lands in your wallet at once. Annualized, that’s the same ~0.030 BCH/day expected value — but concentrated into three or four events per year with deep variance between them. Minus fees too: even solo pools charge, typically 1% like SoloFury’s, deducted from the coinbase output when a block is found.

The math fingerprint

Same mean, wildly different distribution. Solo mining can be both better and worse than pool mining in any given year — that’s variance. Run the simulation a thousand times and the averages converge; run it once and you might land anywhere along the distribution. Which sport you prefer depends on what you can emotionally and financially tolerate.

Pool fee structures — the actually-not-1% reality

Pool mining has a genuinely confusing fee landscape. The major models, clarified:

PPS (Pay Per Share)

The pool pays a fixed amount per share submitted, whether or not it actually finds a block — the pool absorbs all variance. Typical fee: 4-5%. Used by large industrial farms with predictable cashflow needs.

FPPS / FPPS+ (Full Pay Per Share / Plus)

Like PPS but including average transaction fees in the payout. Typical fee: 1.5-3%. The ”+” denotes small enhancements such as version-rolling bonuses passed through. (See Braiins’ explainer on FPPS for the mechanics.)

PPLNS (Pay Per Last N Shares)

You’re paid based on shares submitted in the last N “shifts” before a block is found, which shifts variance back to the miner. Typical fee: 0-2%. Better for miners who stay long-term; it structurally punishes pool-hoppers.

Solo / Hybrid

Some pools offer a “solo mode” within their infrastructure, where finding a block gives you the full reward minus a fee — this is what SoloFury does, at 1%. The math becomes identical to true solo mining, with the operational benefits of managed stratum, multi-region failover, and telemetry.

Then there’s a hidden cost almost no one talks about:

Custody risk

In most pools (PPS, FPPS, PPLNS), the pool holds your accumulated balance until it reaches a payout threshold — typically around 0.001-0.01 BTC, or daily auto-payout for larger balances. Until that threshold is hit, the pool has custody of your funds. If it gets hacked, exit-scams, or freezes during a regulatory or liquidity event, your accumulated rewards are at risk.

This isn’t hypothetical: over the years a number of mining pools have shut down or frozen withdrawals — some abruptly, some during bear-market stress — and miners carrying accumulated, not-yet-paid balances bore the loss. Even reputable pools occasionally run multi-day “scheduled maintenance” windows that effectively freeze withdrawals.

Solo mining has no custody risk by design. The block reward goes directly from the network’s coinbase transaction to your wallet; the pool never holds it. This is the single most underrated benefit of solo mining, and it costs you nothing in expected value.

Effective fee comparison

Once you account for the hidden costs, here’s what miners actually pay:

Solo mining has the simplest fee structure in the entire industry: 1%, deducted on-chain via the coinbase, fully verifiable, no surprises. Pool mining usually looks cheaper on paper and often turns out comparable or more expensive after the hidden costs.

Tax implications (yes, this matters)

This isn’t tax advice — talk to your accountant — but the tax treatment of solo vs pool mining differs in ways that affect after-tax returns:

Pool mining

• Income recognized at each payout, at fair market value when received
• Many small taxable events to track and report
• If the pool freezes or fails, you may have already owed tax on income you never actually received

Solo mining

• Income recognized at the block-found event — one taxable event per block
• Fewer reporting events, potentially simpler accounting
• A block found on Dec 31 vs Jan 2 falls in a different tax year — variance can shift tax timing
• The coinbase transaction is on-chain and timestamped — easy to document for audits

For miners in jurisdictions with progressive income tax, solo mining’s lumpy income can double as a planning tool: you have more freedom to time disposals, hold through dips, and concentrate income into specific tax years. Pool mining’s smooth income gives you less flexibility. In tax-efficient jurisdictions or corporate structures the difference is smaller but still real. (Again: not tax advice — rules vary widely by country.)

Variance — the real difference, emotionally

Mathematically, variance averages out over time. Emotionally, variance is the only thing that matters during the time you’re experiencing it.

Pool mining variance

Daily payout is essentially deterministic. With a thousand-plus miners in a large pool, you’re paid your share every day, give or take a few percent. The dashboard shows steady accumulation, you can budget against expected income, and you can sleep.

Solo mining variance

The distribution is exponential. For a single S21+ on BCH (mean ~110 days per block):

• ~63% chance of finding within one mean (~110 days)
• ~14% chance of waiting between 1× and 2× the mean (110-220 days)
• ~9% chance of waiting between 2× and 3× the mean (220-330 days)
• ~5% chance of waiting more than 3× the mean (>330 days)

Read that again: about 1 in 20 single-rig solo miners on BCH will go more than 11 months without finding a block. That’s not pool failure or hardware failure — it’s just where the dice landed. The math says they’re due, but “due” doesn’t mean “soon.” The dice have no memory. (For the full distribution math, see our mining variance and Poisson guide.)

The miners who can’t tolerate this tend to quit solo mining inside the first dry stretch, switch to a pool, accept the small daily payouts, and sleep better. That’s a perfectly rational choice. Variance tolerance is a real thing with real value. The ones who can tolerate it accept the swings, run the math, and wait — and sometimes they experience the opposite extreme, several blocks within a few weeks, which is equally normal variance.

Operational comparison

The “0% fee solo pool” myth

You’ll see some solo pools advertise “0% fee, find a block, keep 100%.” Long-term, that’s mathematically impossible. The pool has to pay for stratum servers, full nodes, monitoring, bandwidth, developer time, security, and regional infrastructure — and that money comes from somewhere. Common ways “0% fee” pools recoup costs:

• Operator donations or volunteer goodwill (sustainable until the operator gets bored or busy)
• Hidden coinbase outputs (small amounts redirected to operator addresses)
• Website ads (significant for high-traffic pools)
• Selling worker data to analytics firms (your hashrate patterns are monetizable)
• Skimming the highest-fee transactions into the operator’s own template
• Eventually shutting down without notice

SoloFury’s stance: 1% on the coinbase, fully transparent and on-chain verifiable, with no other revenue extraction. If a 0% pool is genuinely volunteer-run and you trust the operator, that’s your call — but the long-term math suggests sustainability comes from honest fees, not hidden ones.

Who should solo mine?

You should solo mine if:

• You have at least one modern ASIC (S21+, S21 XP, S23, M66S+, or equivalent) on a chain matched to your hashrate — BCH or BTC for industrial-scale rigs, the smaller SHA-256 chains for Bitaxe-class devices
• You can tolerate variance — long stretches without payout don’t rattle you
• You value non-custodial design and don’t want any third party holding your earned coins
• You prefer fewer, larger taxable events over many small ones
• You enjoy the jackpot psychology — the “any block could be the block” appeal
• You have diversified income — solo mining isn’t your sole cashflow

You should pool mine if:

• Your hashrate is too small to be your primary income on any chain (a single Bitaxe on BTC is fine for the lottery, not as a paycheck)
• You need steady cashflow — mining is your business and you have rent or payroll obligations
• You can’t emotionally tolerate multi-month dry stretches
• You’re comfortable accepting custody risk in exchange for daily payouts
• You don’t mind high-frequency tax events

Hybrid: split your hashrate

Many serious miners run hybrid setups — most rigs in a pool for steady income, one or two pointed at solo for the lottery upside. You get cashflow stability without forfeiting the shot at a clean block reward. For example: 8 rigs in a pool earning ~0.24 BCH/day steady, plus 2 rigs solo earning a ~3.09 BCH block roughly every 7-8 weeks on average. The pool covers operating costs; the solo rigs are the “alpha” portion.

The honest answer to “which is more profitable?”

Long-term, they’re the same expected value — minus the difference in effective fees. Once you account for custody risk, hidden costs, and pool reliability, solo mining at a flat 1% is competitive with, or better than, pool mining at a “1.5-3%” effective rate.

Short-term, solo mining is more volatile in both directions. You might earn 50% more or 50% less than the pool counterfactual in any given year, and the math needs roughly three years of data to converge to the mean. Plan accordingly.

Custody risk favors solo by a wide margin. Pool failures are rare but real and uninsured; solo mining structurally cannot lose custody. For most miners that’s worth a meaningful slice of effective fee on its own. Tax efficiency slightly favors solo for individuals in progressive jurisdictions, and is roughly neutral for corporations.

The parting take: if you have the hashrate and the mentality for solo, do solo. The math doesn’t lie, the custody is yours, the tax is cleaner, and the moment you finally find a block is hard to match. If you don’t have the mentality, run a pool — there’s no shame in steady income. The miners who insist on solo when they can’t psychologically tolerate it tend to switch strategies at the worst possible time, mid-dry-stretch, locking in their bad luck. Know yourself. (None of this is financial advice.)

Frequently asked questions

Is solo or pool mining more profitable?

Over the long run they have the same expected value — the network pays the same per hash regardless of strategy. The practical difference comes down to fees (a flat ~1% for solo vs 1-5% effective for pools) and custody risk, both of which tend to favor solo for miners who can handle the variance.

Do solo mining pools really charge a fee?

Yes. A non-custodial solo pool like SoloFury charges around 1%, taken directly from the coinbase output when you find a block. There’s no separate withdrawal — the remaining 99% goes straight to your wallet on-chain. “0% fee” pools recoup their costs in less visible ways.

What’s the catch with “0% fee” solo pools?

Running a pool costs real money, so a true 0% fee has to be subsidized somehow — operator donations, website ads, selling worker data, redirected coinbase outputs, or eventually shutting down. A transparent flat fee is usually the more sustainable and honest arrangement.

Does solo mining have custody risk?

No. The block reward is paid by the network’s coinbase transaction directly to the wallet address you configured, so the pool never holds your funds. This is solo mining’s biggest structural advantage over pool mining, where the pool custodies your balance until a payout threshold.

How long between blocks solo mining one S21+ on BCH?

At mid-2026 difficulty, the average is roughly 110 days, but the variance is large: about a third of the time you’ll wait longer than that, and roughly 1 in 20 miners waits more than 11 months. The average across many miners is reliable; any single miner’s experience is not.

What’s the difference between PPS, FPPS, and PPLNS?

PPS pays a fixed amount per share and the pool absorbs all variance (higher fee). FPPS adds transaction fees into that payout. PPLNS pays based on recent shares and pushes variance back to the miner (lower fee). Solo mode pays the full block reward minus a small fee when you personally find a block.

Is solo mining better for taxes?

Often, yes — solo mining generates a few large taxable events per year instead of hundreds of small ones, which can simplify accounting and give more flexibility in timing disposals. The exact impact depends entirely on your jurisdiction, so treat this as a consideration, not tax advice.

Can I do both solo and pool mining?

Yes, and many miners do. A common hybrid is to keep most rigs in a pool for steady cashflow while pointing one or two at a solo pool for the jackpot upside — covering operating costs with the steady income and treating the solo rigs as the speculative portion.