Tools

Solo Mining vs Lottery

Is mining at home better than playing the lottery? Let's do the math.

📡 CURRENT NETWORK STATS

~700 EH/s
Network Hashrate
3.125 BTC
Block Reward
$100,000
BTC Price (est.)
$312,500
Block Value

⛏️ Solo Mining

Total Hashrate 335 TH/s
Total Power 5,360 W
Daily Cost -$15.44
Monthly Cost -$463.10
Yearly Cost -$5,635.58
1 in 2.09 billion
Chance of mining a block (per day)

🎰 Lottery Equivalent

If you spent your daily mining electricity cost on lottery tickets instead, here's what you'd get:

Daily Tickets 7 tickets
Monthly Tickets 231 tickets
Yearly Tickets 2,818 tickets
1 in 292 million
Chance of jackpot (per ticket)
Daily Win Chance 1 in 41.7M
Yearly Win Chance 1 in 103,726

📊 The Verdict

Mining wins on odds!

Your solo mining odds (1 in 2.09B daily) are better than buying 7 lottery tickets (1 in 41.7M daily). But remember: neither is a good "investment." Both are essentially gambling with terrible expected value.

The Key Insight

Solo mining at home is often compared to playing the lottery, and the comparison is apt—both involve paying money for a tiny chance at a huge payout. But there are important differences:

Factor Solo Mining Lottery
What you get Heat + chance at BTC Paper ticket
Prize volatility BTC price fluctuates Fixed jackpot
Can sell/quit Resell hardware anytime Ticket is worthless
Continuous cost Electricity runs 24/7 Per-drawing
Odds improve More hashrate = better odds More tickets = slightly better
Network benefit Secures Bitcoin network Funds state programs
Neither is a path to wealth. The expected value of both solo mining and lottery tickets is negative. If you solo mine, do it for the fun, the education, the heat, or to support network decentralization—not as an investment strategy.

Keep learning

See how mining really works, then compare your understanding with live network data.