FutureBit Apollo Solo Miner Mines Bitcoin Block 973,262, Earns 3.154 BTC

ChainCatcher report: On October 26, a miner operating via the FutureBit Apollo Solo solution mined Bitcoin block 973,262, earning the full block reward of 3.154 BTC and transaction fees from the 2,477 transactions included in the block. Multiple block explorers, including mempool.space, identified the block discoverer as "FutureBit Apollo Solo," with the coinbase transaction containing text referencing FutureBit and Apollo. FutureBit stated on X that its Apollo devices or Solo Node assemblies generate block templates, distribute work, and submit complete blocks using their built-in solo pool. This marks at least the fourth block attributed to FutureBit Apollo Solo, following previous blocks 867,760, 881,423, and 888,737. FutureBit designed the Apollo hardware for users seeking to run a full Bitcoin node and mine independently at home; the latest model, Apollo III, offers up to 18 TH/s in turbo mode and integrates a full node. Solo mining is often referred to as "lottery-style mining" due to its extremely low probability of success relative to the block reward. Given the current Bitcoin network hash rate of approximately 1,070–1,087 EH/s, the expected time for a home device with 10–18 TH/s to mine a block under current difficulty remains on the order of centuries. Nevertheless, verified cases of successful solo mining continue to appear on-chain. Additionally, the following day, another miner successfully mined a solo block using CKPool Solo.