Bitaxe: The Open-Source Solo Bitcoin Miner Explained
What a Bitaxe is, how much hashrate it has, what it costs to run and your real odds of finding a Bitcoin block solo with one. A plain-English guide.
A Bitaxe is a small, open-source Bitcoin miner built around the same kind of chips used in industrial ASIC machines. It sits on a desk, draws about as much power as a phone charger brick or a small lamp, and is mostly used for one thing: solo mining as a lottery.
What a Bitaxe actually does
Like any miner, a Bitaxe tries billions of hashes per second looking for one that meets the network’s target. Popular models such as the Bitaxe Gamma run at roughly 1 to 1.5 TH/s; multi-chip boards such as the Supra Hex or NerdQaxe reach several TH/s. An industrial machine does over 200 TH/s, and the whole network was around 1,000 EH/s at the time of writing (October 2026).
Why people mine solo with one
In a pool, a 1 TH/s device would earn a few cents a month. Solo, it earns nothing on almost every day — but if it ever finds a block, it keeps the entire block reward. Small solo miners have found real blocks several times in recent years, which is why the Bitaxe is often called a bitcoin lottery miner.
The honest odds
Your chance per block is your hashrate divided by the network’s. For about 1.2 TH/s that is roughly one in 800 million per block, or about one in six million per day: on average, once every several thousand years. Use the solo mining calculator to see the live figure for any device.
Running costs and setup
A Bitaxe connects to Wi-Fi and is configured from a web page served by the device itself (AxeOS). You point it at a solo pool, enter your Bitcoin address as the username and leave it running. Power use is low, but check your electricity price and keep it ventilated: the chip runs hot.
Frequently asked questions
Is a Bitaxe profitable?
Not as an income. It is a lottery ticket with a very long shot and a small, steady power cost.
Can a Bitaxe really find a block?
Yes, it has happened — rarely. Every hash has the same chance, no matter how small the machine.
Want the lottery without the hardware? FreeBTC runs a real solo miner and shares any block it finds with players by tickets. Read about The Real Block or play the next block to start earning tickets.